The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2002, Page 7

Vol. 57 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
5
Editorial
by Hjalmar W. Hannesson
When Lorna Tergesen asked if I would
write some words of greeting from the
newly established Embassy of Iceland in
Canada for the upcoming issue of The
Icelandic Canadian, I of course accepted
her kind challenge with pleasure.
Next year the magazine will be sixty
years old. It is still going strong and adapt-
ing itself well to new challenges and times.
It remains an important link in the preser-
vation of the Icelandic heritage in North
America. It will be able to continue that
role as long as there are willing subscribers,
contributors and volunteers. That includes
people willing to write when called upon.
My hunch is that people of Icelandic
descent will never stop writing. It is in our
genes! So the future should look rosy for
printed matter having to do with things
Icelandic! The way a strong Icelandic her-
itage link has been maintained in Canada is
unique and a great foundation to build part
of the Icelandic Embassy’s work on.
Some would say that books, magazines
and papers are on the way out. That they
are being replaced by the internet, TV and
radio. This is a fallacy, for never have
books, for example, been published in
greater numbers in Iceland than in recent
years. I, for one am a staunch believer in
the survival of the printed media, although
it will have to continue to adapt to the
changes occurring in our societies.
There are also those who suggest that
embassies are a thing of the past in the age
of instant communications. This is also a
mistaken view. Personal contact will hope-
fully never be replaced by the mechanical
and the technical. The Governments of the
two close NATO—allies, Iceland and
Canada, were certainly not thinking of use-
lessness when they took their decisions to
establish embassies in each other’s capitals.
Diplomatic posts cost taxpayers' money
and are not established just for the fun of it.
Both Governments deemed it of value to
establish embassies in Ottawa and
Reykjavik in order to even further develop
relations which have been very strong for a
long time. The classical embassy work has
to do with deepening relations in the polit-
ical and security fields, to promote mutual-
ly advantageous trade and to further devel-
op cultural and scientific exchanges, to
only name the main headings. And these
are the tasks of the new Icelandic Embassy.
I presented my credentials to the
Governor General in Ottawa on April 9 of
2001 as Iceland’s first residing Ambassador
to Canada. Consequently, the first
Icelandic Embassy in Canada opened its
doors May 1 and on May 22 it was formal-
ly opened by the Icelandic Minister for
Foreign Affairs, Elalldor Asgrfmsson, in
the presence of his Canadian colleague,
John Manley.
As these lines are being written on a
beautiful November 11th, which is
Remembrance Day in Canada, I have been
Ambassador in this vast and varied country
for seven months only. But what a marvel-
lous and a challenging time we have had.
The seven months seem like seven days!
I was reminded on this Remembrance
Day, as Ambassadors took part in the cer-
emonies in downtown Ottawa, of the hero-
ic Canadian men and women of Icelandic
descent who served with such distinction in
both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.
Many of them lost their lives in the fight
for the preservation of freedom. The Jon
Sigurdsson Chapter of the IODE in
Canada published remarkable books on
these Canadian heroes, men and women, of
Icelandic descent. And we remembered
them on June 17 in Winnipeg as we cele-
brated there the Icelandic Independence
day. Recently when my wife and I visited
Halifax we witnessed Canadian warships
sailing off to yet another war—this time a