According to RÚV the Presidential couple sailed out of the Argentinian port of Ushuaia yesterday and their trip will take them along the Drake Passage all the way to Antarctica. The party plans to go ashore three times, if weather allows. The trip ends on the 6th February.

The trip includes European and American scientists, the Canadian film director James Cameron, the American journalist Ted Turner and Christiana Figures, the president of the United Nations climate agency.

Al Gore’s climate change organisation, the Climate Reality Project, and National Geographic together organised the expedition.

A press release from Bessastaðir, the Icelandic head of state’s official residence, states that the goal of the expedition is to investigate the fast melting ice and to discuss how the nations of the world can best be encouraged to unite behind realistic and tangible action to fight global warming.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson has become known as a strong climate change campaigner among world leaders and regularly gives speeches at environmental conferences.

Jóhann Straumfjord Sigurdson and David Collette, whose ancestral grandmother was Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir, the mother of Snorri, the first European child born in North America, will sail from Canada to Iceland along a route that was old before Christopher Columbus was born.

“We’ve named the expedition Fara Heim”, said Jóhann Sigurdson. “In Old Norse, “að fara heim” means “to go home”. We are searching for Norse presence in the Arctic between Hudson Bay and west of Greenland to investigate how far West the Vikings explored”. The team will use non-damaging modern techniques to collect data and do no harm to artefacts or locations found. All information and any discoveries will be digitally recorded and shared with government agencies for formal archaeological investigation.

The expedition will work closely with the Inuit people and Nordic countries as Fara Heim is a story of many Arctic cultures. “We have begun reaching out to everyone we can in the North to ask for local knowledge and stories. Incredible things have been found, like the Viking settlement in Newfoundland, by just asking. We plan to make the Fara Heim website the nexus for information on Viking exploration in North America”, said Collette.

The modern Vikings will voyage via the far travelled “Glory of the Sea”, a purpose-built aluminium polar expedition sailing boat. “Glory” has been to both Poles, circumnavigated the globe twice and travelled the Northwest Passage in 2011. “The deck of a small sailing vessel is the perfect platform to see the Arctic as the Vikings saw it. “Glory” will get us to locations that aren’t normally visited”, said Sigurdson.

Fara Heim’s advisory board includes Captain Norm Baker, the First Mate and Navigator for several of Thor Heyerdahl’s expeditions and a current Director of the Explorers Club, Guy Maddin, film Director and Producer, and Charles Hedrich, global explorer and founder of “Respectons La Terre” a European organisation dedicated to exploration with an environmental focus. Key archaeologists and historians are joining the board to develop the field data collection protocols, aid in historical research and ensure all field investigations maintain the integrity of the site for further field work.

The team and sailing boat will be based on Lake Winnipeg for the summer of 2012 for crew training and boat preparation and depart from Churchill in May 2013. To support the non-profit Fara Heim organisation corporate sponsorships are being developed. “Travel with a purpose” opportunities for individuals to participate on the journey are available in both 2012 and 2013.

Join in the adventure by visiting http://www.faraheim.com.
“Like” the project on Facebook at http://www.facebook/faraheim

The organisation hopes that the commercial hunting of the animals, a practice common in Greenland and Canada, will effectively be halted by the agreement.

The decision was made to protect sea mammals, with seal hunting categorised as a particularly harsh form of hunting. Russia is the biggest buyer of seal skins and whale calves skins, which are mainly supplied by Canada.

Maria Vorontsova, the director of the Moscow IFAW (International Fund for Animal Protection), said the ban was urgent due to the inhumane treatment of animals, particularly in Canada.

“Canadian seal hunters catch and kill [pups] under one year old, to be more exact, from 2 weeks to 3 months old,” Vorontsova told the Voice of Russia. “Thus, there’s reason to believe that seal hunting is cruel and inexpedient. Canada keeps saying that 90 percent of the seal skin market is in Russia.”

“And I’m very happy to say that Russia, which banned seal hunting in 2009, made another step and imposed a ban on the import of seal skins. Thus, the Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, which have joined the countries, where a ban on the import of seal skins is in force, has made a very important step,” Vorontsova added.

A ban on the sale of seal products has also been approved by the European Parliament, although there will be exceptions for certain small indigenous communities in Russia, Greenland, Canada and Alaska. European visitors will still be able to purchase souvenirs made from the animal products as long as they are not for resale.

Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson says it is crazy to suggest that Huang’s plan to build a hotel and golf resort in northeast Iceland is somehow connected to a colonial plot — adding that it is nothing short of funny that the Canadian military intends to play on these fears to secure extra funding from its government to buy icebreakers, ships and submarines.

The Canadian paper Globe and Mail reports that the country’s defence ministry has been looking seriously into the issue.

Huang Nubo’s intention to buy Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum has attracted attention further afield than just Iceland and the Globe and Mail reports that Canadian military generals fear that the investor has more on his mind when trying to buy 0.3 percent of Iceland than a mere hotel and golf course.

The paper speculates that Chinese interest is more connected to important Arctic shipping lanes which are slowly opening with the melting sea ice to the far north of Iceland, which could make the country a trans-shipping hub for freight between Asia and Europe and North America.

Canadian military officials are apparently taking that threat seriously, saying it means Canada should buy more icebreakers, other ships and submarines.

Össur Skarphéðinsson makes little of it, saying to RÚV: “I find it sort of quaint that the Canadian Army is worried because a Chinese person wants to build up a tourist resort in Iceland [...] and make a direct link between that and trying to get more funding from the government to build a counterweight against the Chinese.”

Icelandic interior minister Ögmundur Jónasson’s decision to block Huang Nubo’s land purchase caused ruptures within the Icelandic coalition government last week and they only got deeper this weekend when he and Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism Katrín Júlíusdóttir became embroiled in a discussion over what defines helping the Chinese investor to circumvent Icelandic law. Katrín is reportedly working to help Huang Nubo lease the land instead of buying it outright.

New Harbors New Hopes carries on where its predecessor book ends; following Leif Ericsson from his Greenland home on his most famous voyage, west to Vínland; or mainland North America as we might now call it.

The book brings the famous story of Leif’s discovery of the American continent to life in a way history books, and even the Sagas themselves, cannot. Its blending of fiction and non-fiction allows the author to embellish details and give the characters a believable level of depth which helps the reader to appreciate their motives and develop feelings for them that go deeper than simple name recognition.

The book follows three different trips to Vínland, each with very different outcomes and only the first featuring Leif himself.

New Harbors New Hopes is also very much about life back home in Greenland and events happening there. This gives the story a welcome duality, but also means it contains more characters than the reader can reasonably be expected to remember. The book contained so many births, deaths and marriages that I was often left struggling to remember who the people were.

Just how much of the story is fiction and how much fact, I do not know; but if the seemingly-excessive number of funerals and births in the book relate to real historical figures from the time, then it is clearly quite acceptable. If most of them are fictional characters then I would argue it is a bit of overkill (pun clearly intended).

I got the slight impression that keeping hold of all the characters began to strain the author by the end as well and that bringing all their stories to a satisfactory conclusion was difficult. The resultant feeling was unfortunately that the end of the story was rushed and that too many separate events were described in too-little detail. That was sad, because over the course of the two books I had come to care about several of the characters and wanted to know more about their fates.

At this point I would like to point out that I am deliberately being hyper-critical. Despite the book’s perceived weaknesses I still enjoyed it and would recommend both novels to Viking fans and general readers alike. I would also recommend that Celia Lund might like to consider writing a third book…maybe one about the end of the Norse settlement in Greenland? That is a story shrouded in mystery and nobody really knows what happened to the Vikings who had lived in Greenland for some 500 years. A touch of fictional flair could make for a very interesting, if sad, novel.

New Harbors New Hopes, like its predecessor novel, is about people; their emotions, their lives and their relationships. The story takes place in some impressive places and on some incredible journeys; but they play a supporting rôle to the characters themselves. That, more than anything else, is what makes the book so different from the Sagas and what gives it its real value and inspires empathy.

Celia Lund’s New Harbors New Hopes (Trafford Publishing, first released 2011, ISBN 978-1426948008)

Reviewed by Alëx Elliott, IceNews editor

This page picture: front cover of New Harbors New Hopes
Main page photo: Alëx Elliott // IceNews

This is the first year that the tournament includes a full women’s division. This represents a five-fold increase in the number of Canadian women taking part and the driving force behind the influx of women is Deirdre Norman and her organisation, The Women of Winter (TWOW).

Norman came to playing hockey later in life. “I started playing at 45 at outdoor rinks so I could play with my husband and son,” said Norman. “I was always riled by the lack of support for the women’s game. I am passionate about making the ‘best game’ accessible to everyone who wants to play. So I had a vision, took it to the organiser of the tourney, Barry Walmsley of ‘Travel and Play’, and he gave me full support.”

Part of the 2011 event will be Canadian Hockey Day in Iceland on 9th October. This collaborative effort brings together ‘Travel and Play’, TWOW, Bjorninn League and Canadian Sarah Smiley who is currently playing on the Icelandic women’s national team. The day-long event will include free skills classes and ‘chalk talk’ and is open to all women and girls who already play hockey as well as those who want to learn the game. Fellow Canadian, Sami Jo Small, a two-time Olympic gold medal winner and five-time world champion goaltender, will present this promotional hockey event with her husband and gold medal Paralympian sledge hockey player, Billy Bridges.

The Iceland International Ice Hockey Cup Tournament has been providing a unique hockey experience for nine years. “The charitable component of the tournament began in 2008 after Iceland’s banking collapse with a bunch of guys from New Jersey who love Iceland (‘The Great Iceland Hockey Bailout’),” Norman says. “So far, 25,000 dollars in cash and hockey equipment has been donated to youth hockey organisations in Iceland and the Icelandic Red Cross. TWOW is responsible for co-ordinating the women’s division, for creating ‘Canadian Hockey Day in Iceland’, for bringing donations of gear, and for bridging Canadian and Icelandic hockey programmes.”

Canadian participation started modestly in 2010. “Last year, 16 women went — 14 players and two friends,” Norman said. “We each paid our own way and were the only non-Icelandic women’s team of the four women’s teams. Everyone was blown away by the country and the experience and all the sharing when we got back got others to come this year, too. There wasn’t a women’s division until I emailed and asked for one a month before the tournament last year.

Both divisions have grown this year, in part because we are taking our partners and friends which added three extra teams to the event.” In total, this year’s tournament has eight women’s teams and ten men’s teams from four countries: Germany, the USA, Iceland and Canada.

Word is getting around about the Canadian women’s hockey second visit to Iceland in October. “Sarah Smiley, a local girl from Toronto, former coach and current member of the Icelandic National team, is working with TWOW to promote the game in her new country. And at this year’s tournament, His Excellency Alan Bones, Canada’s Ambassador to Iceland, will drop the ceremonial puck.” Norman says the event has also “grabbed the attention” of the IIHF World Girls’ Hockey Day committee.

In the end, Norman says it’s all for the love of hockey and expanding the game, particularly for young women. It is no surprise that the Canadian contingent has grown in just one year. “Everyone that goes gets to see the country and fall in love with Iceland — and they do!”

(From a press release)

Five to six hundred young people met at the Hlemmur bus station and all of them had one thing on their mind: to grab some media attention, and hopefully by extension, the attention of one Justin Bieber — the biggest thing to come out of Canada since sliced maple syrup. IceNews is only too happy to help.

The ‘protesters” message was clear: come and visit Iceland please, Justin.

After meeting, the placard-bearing, chanting mob made their way from the bus station, down Laugavegur shopping street and onward to Laekjatorg square.

The rally was organised by a group of 13-15 year old girls; including Thora Silja Hallsdottir. Visir.is tried to interview her during the march, but the journalist had a hard time hearing her over the pandemonium all around.

“This is completely insane!” was the main point Hallsdottir was able to convey. She organised the Justin Bieber March with her friends, Lovisa Thora, Gudrun Brynja, Anita Ros Thorsteinsdottir and Audur Ivarsdottir.

The rally seems to have achieved its goal of proving to the pop god Bieber that there are plenty enough fans in Iceland to warrant a concert in the country — if some 600 people are willing to turn out and march for it, he should have no problem filling a concert hall.

Thora says that pictures and videos of the event will be sent to their hero’s Twitter and Facebook pages in the hope that he sees them personally and answers their call.

“We hope he comes!” Thora shouted to the interviewer during the walk, before carrying on chanting slogans such as “We want Bieber!”

(Photo: frim Visir.is)

Police say around 3,500 protesters, some donning platform shoes, bikini tops and fishnets, began the procession from the city’s Kiasma Museum. Similar events in Turku and Tampere also attracted around 1,500 participants.

The idea behind the SlutWalks first originated in Canada in April after a police chief from Toronto told female students to stop dressing “like sluts” if they didn’t want to be victimised by men. The campaign has now spread across the world in the hope of promoting self-determination in women and ensuring that their choice of clothing cannot be made a justification for attacks.

Speaking to YLE, organiser of the Helsinki event, Laura Hallikas, explained that, “Probably nobody would dare to say that it [sexual assault] was your own fault if you wore a miniskirt, but there is an atmosphere in which women are divided into decent women and sluts.” She added that the general power structure of society should be questioned over the victims’, and even the perpetrators’, motivations.

Their email message was as follows:

Dear IceNews,

We are two guys who photograph weddings and live in Vancouver, Canada. Our names are Cole and Jakob, our business is called Nordica Photography, and we photographed the wedding of an American couple recently at Hotel Budir.

We think that the results are quite nice, and we just wanted to thank you (as in Iceland) for being so rad and offering such a fantastic scenery for their wedding!

But more importantly, and perhaps the main reason we’re contacting you, is to gush over our experience at Hotel Budir. The staff were absolutely incredible and as a venue for a destination wedding, more people in the world should know about how awesome that place is.

We’re not sure if this is news-worthy for you or your viewing audience, but we felt like sharing this with you anyways because we left with such an incredibly positive impression. Perhaps readers of IceNews would be interested in this, and more importantly, visit it.

So, here is the wedding: nordicaphotography.com

We just wanted to share it with you and once again extend a massive virtual high-five Iceland’s way for being an absolutely wicked country!

(Please note: the above is a genuine readers’ letter and not a paid advertisement. Thanks to Cole and Jakob for the photos!)

SlutWalks took place in Reykjavik, Akureyri, Isafjordur and Reykjanesbaer on Saturday.

The international SlutWalk movement began earlier this year in Toronto following Michael Sanguinetti, the city police chief’s comment that women should avoid dressing “like sluts” to avoid becoming the victims of rape.

Women in Toronto were angered by the comment and decided in April to dress up as ‘sluttily’ as possible and march through the streets. The Icelandic marches had the same goal: to highlight the prejudice that exists and is reflected in some people’s emphasis on rape victims’ attire, rather than the perpetrators’ motives.

Participants in the walk carried placards with phrases, including: “The state is the rapists’ best friend” and “This is a dress, not ‘yes’”.