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A bit late but better late than never:
Iceland
Achoo Iceland
“Ačiū”, pronounced achoo, is the Lithuanian word for thank you. It’s a word that Icelanders might hear a lot over the coming days, thanks (pardon the pun!) to a group of Lithuanian athletes who are travelling to this small island to say just that.
After all, it was tiny Iceland which, 15 years ago, became the first nation to recognize the independence of Lithuania. The Lithuanians have not forgotten.
Back in 1991, in the wake of the failed coup in Moscow in August, Iceland was the first nation to re-establish diplomatic relations with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In January of that year, after Soviet troops killed 14 unarmed Lithuanians who were protecting the TV tower in Vilnius, Icelandic Foreign Minister Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson travelled to the Baltic countries to offer moral support. Before and later at NATO meetings and other international venues, Iceland called on other Western states to offer support in the Baltic struggle for independence.
The United States, and most other nations, recognized Lithuanian independence shortly after Iceland and the world’s media did not dwell on the contribution of this North Atlantic island to the process. President George Bush Sr even said something also the lines of, “when history is written, nobody is going to remember it took us 48 hours more than Iceland”.
But they did remember.
My husband and I were in Vilnius last week. At a local bookstore, we saw a petition with an Icelandic flag at the top and asked the woman in the shop what it was for. “We want to say thank you to Iceland for being so brave to stand with us,” she said proudly. “We are collecting 300,000 signatures, one for every person in Iceland, to take to the country to say thank you.” And she asked to shake my husband’s hand. “So thank you,” she said.
That petition, with an impressive 200,000 signatures, is now being transported to Iceland by the group of Lithuanian athletes. They are cycling to France, swimming across the Channel (well, one of them is) and then flying to Iceland where they plan on presenting the thank you to Reykjavík mayor Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson on Culture Night this Saturday. Best of all, the Lithuanian group who sang the brilliant song “We Are the Winners” at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest will be providing some musical entertainment.
And for that, I say achoo.
ER eliza@icelandreview.com
PS – For a hilarious summary of Iceland’s role in the Baltic struggle for independence, see this popular ad for Thule beer: www.kvikmynd.is. Click on íslenska auglysingar on the left hand column, then go to the bottom section and click on the small tab “Léttbjór”, then click on the ad for “Thule – Litháen”. Actually, you should watch all the Thule ads while you’re at it.
“Ačiū”, pronounced achoo, is the Lithuanian word for thank you. It’s a word that Icelanders might hear a lot over the coming days, thanks (pardon the pun!) to a group of Lithuanian athletes who are travelling to this small island to say just that.
After all, it was tiny Iceland which, 15 years ago, became the first nation to recognize the independence of Lithuania. The Lithuanians have not forgotten.
Back in 1991, in the wake of the failed coup in Moscow in August, Iceland was the first nation to re-establish diplomatic relations with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In January of that year, after Soviet troops killed 14 unarmed Lithuanians who were protecting the TV tower in Vilnius, Icelandic Foreign Minister Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson travelled to the Baltic countries to offer moral support. Before and later at NATO meetings and other international venues, Iceland called on other Western states to offer support in the Baltic struggle for independence.
The United States, and most other nations, recognized Lithuanian independence shortly after Iceland and the world’s media did not dwell on the contribution of this North Atlantic island to the process. President George Bush Sr even said something also the lines of, “when history is written, nobody is going to remember it took us 48 hours more than Iceland”.
But they did remember.
My husband and I were in Vilnius last week. At a local bookstore, we saw a petition with an Icelandic flag at the top and asked the woman in the shop what it was for. “We want to say thank you to Iceland for being so brave to stand with us,” she said proudly. “We are collecting 300,000 signatures, one for every person in Iceland, to take to the country to say thank you.” And she asked to shake my husband’s hand. “So thank you,” she said.
That petition, with an impressive 200,000 signatures, is now being transported to Iceland by the group of Lithuanian athletes. They are cycling to France, swimming across the Channel (well, one of them is) and then flying to Iceland where they plan on presenting the thank you to Reykjavík mayor Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson on Culture Night this Saturday. Best of all, the Lithuanian group who sang the brilliant song “We Are the Winners” at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest will be providing some musical entertainment.
And for that, I say achoo.
ER eliza@icelandreview.com
PS – For a hilarious summary of Iceland’s role in the Baltic struggle for independence, see this popular ad for Thule beer: www.kvikmynd.is. Click on íslenska auglysingar on the left hand column, then go to the bottom section and click on the small tab “Léttbjór”, then click on the ad for “Thule – Litháen”. Actually, you should watch all the Thule ads while you’re at it.
Iceland
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