The Japan Times PUBDATE: 6/17/2009 PAGE: 6 C M Y K OUTPUT TIME: 22:1:25

6/17/199 / / PT SUP/PG 6/ED 1

6 THE JAPAN TIMES WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2009 (4)

Iceland national day/world

IN BRIEF-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Britain names Sawers new MI6 headLondon AP

Britain’s top diplomat at the United Nations has been appointedas the new head of the country’s MI6 overseas spy agency,Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office said Tuesday.

John Sawers, who is currently the U.K.’s permanentrepresentative to the U.N. and previously represented Britain innegotiations over Iran’s disputed nuclear program, will take uphis new post in November.

He replaces John Scarlett, whose career has been dogged byconcerns over the intelligence used to build the case for the 2003U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Scarlett is retiring after five years.

Russia blocks U.N. Georgia missionUnited Nations AFP-JIJI

Russia on Monday vetoed an extension of the mandate of aUnited Nations mission in Georgia, effectively ending itsactivities, citing opposition to Georgian sovereignty over therebel enclave of Abkhazia.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin cast his vetoduring a Security Council vote on a draft sponsored by Westerncountries that called for a two-week extension of the mandateand indirectly reaffirmed the council’s commitment toGeorgia’s territorial integrity.

Ten of the council’s 15 members voted in favor while four —China, Libya, Uganda and Vietnam — abstained.

Ankara to probe ‘military plot’Ankara REUTERS

Turkey’s government said Monday it would take legal actionover a suspected military plan to discredit the Islamist-rootedruling AK Party as well as a powerful religious movement.

The controversy has further strained ties between theEuropean Union candidate’s government and the military,which is already under pressure over an investigation into asuspected rightwing network that is accused of plotting a coup.

‘‘We will file a criminal complaint with the publicprosecutors,’’ Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek told a newsconference following a Cabinet meeting.

Cicek said the government wanted the state to find out whowas behind a report published in the liberal Taraf daily Friday.

The newspaper published what it said was a plan aimed atstopping the AK Party and the influential religious movement ofMuslim preacher Fethullah Gulen from ‘‘destroying Turkey’ssecular order and replacing it by an Islamist state.’’

Taraf said the four-page document was signed by a seniornavy officer and was prepared in April.

Potter publisher denies plagiarismLondon REUTERS

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC on Monday denied allegations thatauthor J.K. Rowling copied ‘‘substantial parts’’ of a book byanother children’s author when she wrote ‘‘Harry Potter and theGoblet of Fire.’’

The book, published in 2000,was the fourth installment ofthe hugely successful boywizard Harry Potter series thathas sold more than 400 millioncopies worldwide and beenturned into a multibillion-dollarfilm franchise.

‘‘The allegations ofplagiarism made today,Monday, 15 June, 2009, by theestate of Adrian Jacobs areunfounded, unsubstantiatedand untrue,’’ said a statement from Bloomsbury, whichpublishes Harry Potter in Britain.

In an earlier statement, Jacobs’ estate said that it had issuedproceedings at London’s High Court against BloomsburyPublishing for copyright infringement.

It named the estate’s trustee as Paul Allen, and said thatRowling had copied ‘‘substantial parts’’ of ‘‘The Adventures ofWilly the Wizard — No. 1 Livid Land’’ written by Jacobs in 1987.

‘‘Both Willy and Harry are required to work out the exactnature of the main task of (a wizard) contest which they bothachieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order todiscover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by acommunity of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures,’’ theestate statement said.

Killer of Chavez foe ‘identified’Caracas AFP-JIJI

Venezuelan Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami said Mondaythat authorities have identified the person they say isresponsible for the murder of opposition politician JonathanRivas.

Rivas, 31, of the First Justice (PJ) party, was shot deadSaturday in the town of El Tigre, 320 km southeast of Caracas.

At the time of his death Rivas was protesting the arrest ofactivists who had painted slogans in support of the privatebroadcast network Globovision, a fierce critic of the leftistgovernment of President Hugo Chavez.

The alleged killer ‘‘has been fully identified,’’ said El Aissami,who suggested in remarks to reporters that the individual hasnot yet been detained, but that an arrest is pending.

Gustavo Marcano, a PJ coordinator in the region, has blamed‘‘armed bands’’ of Chavez supporters for the shootings.

Peru offers concession on AmazonLima AP

In a conciliatory move, Peru’s government promised AmazonIndians on Monday to ask Congress to revoke decrees thatnative groups say would make it easier to exploit their lands foroil, gas and other development.

Indigenous peoples’ anger over the decrees spurred twomonths of blockades of roads and rivers that turned violent onJune 5 when police opened fire on activists at a roadblock.

At least 24 police officers and nine civilians were killed,according to the government. Indigenous leaders said at least 30Indians were killed and accused police of hiding bodies.

Crime figures down in GermanyBerlin AP

Overall crime in Germany dropped in 2008 for the first time innine years, despite a jump in violent street crime, according toan annual report by German police released Monday.

Total criminal acts sank 2.7 percent from the previous year tojust over 6 million, according to the report presented by InteriorMinister Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin.

But the number of violent attacks in public rose 5 percent,bucking the overall downward trend. Nearly 73,000 cases ofbodily harm were recorded last year on streets and other publicplaces, the report showed, a 9.1 percent increase.

Still, the report showed a 4.7 percent drop in violent crimeoverall in 2008 — the first time since 1999. Theft decreased 4.6percent to just under 2.5 million cases — an all-time record low.

Iceland embarks on the long, hard road to recoveryStefan Larus StefanssonAMBASSADOR OF ICELAND TO JAPAN

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On the topic ofJapanese-Ic e -landic rela-tions I wouldlike to beginwith the follow-ing verse:

If you find afriend whomyou fully trust.

And wish for his good will.Exchange thoughts.Exchange gifts.And go to see him often.This verse, originally in Ice-

landic, comes from the compi-lation of poems called ‘‘Hava-mal,’’ literal translation, ‘‘TheWords of the High One,’’ or thewords of Odin, the chief god ofthe old Aesir religion of thepeople of Northern Europe.

This poem is probably notyounger than the start of theViking Age, circa 800, and wasthought to have been writtendown in Iceland in the Icelan-dic language around 1240. Theoriginal we have access to is in‘‘Codex Regius,’’ the ‘‘Book ofKings,’’ the only copy of thispoem in manuscript form. Ice-landers have tended throughthe ages to think of this as anIcelandic poem, but it is notpurely Icelandic, this poem isGermanic/Nordic; it is a partof the common cultural heri-tage of the people of NorthernEurope.

We Icelanders are, howev-er, privileged to be still able toread the poem in the originalsurviving version, others haveto do with a translation orlearn Icelandic. In this sense,the poem is Icelandic today.Great English translations ofthis compilation of poems canbe found by the likes ofW. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor.The compilation has beencompared in importance tothe writings of Lao Tse andother great thinkers. It is of-fered here in the hope that itwill maybe help someone tounderstand the Icelandic psy-che a little better.

When reading this poem infull, all 164 verses, one is re-minded of the fact that there isnothing new under the sun. IfHavamal was indeed com-posed more than 1,200 yearsago, the thoughts of these un-known poets resonate todayand you don’t have to be an

Icelander to appreciate that.Havamal makes good readingin good times as well as in hardtimes.

Iceland has been in the newshere in Japan ever since theevents started unfolding thatled to the dramatic decline ofthe Icelandic banking systemlast October. I say decline be-cause the road to recovery hasbeen paved and the govern-ment of Iceland has in collabo-ration with the InternationalMonetary Fund, and our Nor-dic neighbors and otherfriends laid out plans to resur-rect the banking system to getthe economy going.

It has to be kept in mind thatalthough the financial sectortook a hit, the main industriesin Iceland — fisheries, energyand tourism — have gonethrough it largely unscathed.The infrastructure is intact soall the ingredients are in placefor the inevitable recovery,but it will take hard work,which we Icelanders are usedto, and good friends, which weknow we have.

Iceland and Japan havebeen enjoying diplomatic rela-tions for 53 years, which havebeen excellent not only in ourbilateral trade but in our inter-national cooperation as well.Iceland is a country of only320,000 people, the whole ofwhich would fit very easily in-to a single ward in the city ofTokyo. There are a lot ofthings that our two countriesshare due in large part to thefact that our people are livingon highly volcanic islands, andhave to live constantly withthe danger of earthquakes andvolcanic activity.

When one lives on an islandI think the psyche is a bit dif-ferent than if one is living onthe mainland. On the main-land, for example in Europe,one can easily get in a car anddrive to the next country, anddo one’s shopping there, butthe Japanese and Icelanderscan only drive into the ocean!Fisheries sector

It is indeed the ocean thatsets our countries apart be-cause both are dedicated toutilizing the renewable re-sources of the oceans in a sus-tainable manner. The twocountries go about it different-ly and we are constantly think-ing of ways to do it better. InIceland, we have around 4,000

fishermen who harvest annu-ally about 2 million tons offish, here in Japan you have200,000 fishermen catchingabout 5 million tons a year. Ifmy memory does not serve meright, please correct me.

Japan has for many de-cades been an extremely im-portant market for Icelandicseafood products, and the ex-acting demands of the Japa-nese market based on environ-mentally clean products andfood safety have been met allthese years by the Icelandicproducers. Again, if my mem-ory serves me right, Iceland isNo. 18 in the line of countriesexporting fish to Japan. Itshould be kept in mind that themajority of this fish is caughtwild from sustainable stocksof the pristine North Atlantic.

It is on the fishery sectorthat Iceland originally built itsreputation here in Japan andfor that fact we are indeedproud.

On the topic of reputation itsays in Havamal:

Cattle die, and kinsmen die,And so one also dies;But a good reputation will

never die,By one who earned it.Cattle die, and kinsmen die,And so one also dies;One thing now that never

dies.The fame of the dead man’s

deeds.Energy sector

Iceland is blessed withabundant clean and renew-able energy resources, hydro-power and geothermal. In theenergy sector, Japan and Ice-land have been cooperatingfor more than 40 years. Wehave had excellent relationswith leading Japanese compa-nies such as, for example, Mi-tsubishi Heavy Industries andFuji Electric, when it hascome to the harnessing of Ice-land’s energy potential be-cause in this field we think thatJapanese technology is thebest in the world.

This Japanese technologyand Icelandic know-how haveled to the fact that today Ice-land is probably the only coun-try in the world where nearlyall the houses in the country,around 95 percent, are heatedwith renewable and clean geo-thermal energy, contributingour share toward lessening thecarbon footprint. Iceland hasexpert knowledge to share inthis field and that lies in most-ly two aspects.

In Iceland our approach toutilizing geothermal waters isthe multipurpose approach,that is for generating electrici-ty, heating houses, householduse (tap water and bathing),recreational use in swimmingpools and finally for the Ice-

landic ‘‘onsen’’ (geothermalhot-water bath) business.With regard to the last one,many Japanese have visitedthe world-famous Blue La-goon facility, an onsen facilitybuilt right next to a geother-mal power station calledSvartsengi, which supplies theonsen with overflow hot water.That onsen is visited annuallyby about 400,000 visitors,which is quite significant.

Japan has great potential inharnessing its abundant geo-thermal resources, not onlyfor generating electricity butalso for important industrieslike the Japanese onsen busi-ness. In Iceland we havelearned that geothermal pow-er plants and onsen facilitiescan thrive side by side in a mu-tually beneficial way.

In Iceland we treat the geo-thermal resource with respectand we want to keep it like it is,i.e., renewable. The key tothat approach is what is called‘‘resource management,’’which in layman’s termsmeans that you take care notto use up the resource, likedrying up a well. You takecare that you do not pump upmore than you can use and tryto replace the water you takeout.

The Japanese governmenthas repeatedly stressed theneed to look at clean alterna-tive energy resources and inthe opinion of Icelanders thegeothermal resource has allthe advantages over the otheravailable renewable resourc-es. With full respect to the oth-er two alternatives, solar pow-er and wind power, it is a factthat solar-power panels do notgenerate much power duringthe dark of night and solarpanels take up a lot of space onland. Wind-power turbines op-erate only under optimal con-ditions, they have to be placed

in elevated positions and arean aggressive addition to anylandscape, plus they don’t op-erate under stormy conditionsnor when nothing is blowing inthe wind.

Geothermal power stationsoperate on the other hand 24hours a day, year in and yearout, come rain or shine, nightand day, during stormyweather, and during dayswhen not one flower is movingand the hairs sits unruffled onone’s head. As an added bonusone can take a bath in geother-mal water from these geother-mal power stations, or swimor just relax in an onsen facili-ty, and then go home to yourwarm and comfortable homeheated with water from thesame resource.

One cannot take a bath in so-lar power or swim in a wind-mill.

Geothermal power stationscan be hidden from view sothey tend not to be aggressiveadditions to the landscape andif their use is terminated forany reason they can be re-moved leaving not a trace theywere ever there, plus there isno pollution left behind.

As an incredibly importantnext step, last autumn, amemorandum of understand-ing was signed between theMinistry of Industry of Ice-land and three Japanese com-panies, Mitsubishi Heavy In-dustry, Mitsubishi Corp. andMitsubishi Motors, on the de-velopment of the MitsubishiInnovative Electric Vehicle,the MiEV, in Iceland. Giventhe country’s abundant elec-trical resources, Icelandshould prove an interestinglaboratory for this develop-ment.

These types of cars are thefuture and the goal of the Ice-landic government in the com-ing years is for Iceland to be-

come totally nondependent onfossil fuel resources, havingphased out fossil fuels in homeheating. There again excellentJapanese technology plays themost important role.

In Havamal it says:These things are thought

the best:Fire, the sight of the sun,Good health with the gift to

keep it,And a life that avoids vice.

Tourism sectorTourism between Iceland

and Japan is indeed a growingindustry, which is the result ofthe close cooperation betweentourism companies from bothcountries and the Embassy ofIceland in Tokyo. This ap-proach has been a big successsince figures show that thenumber of tourists from Japanto Iceland has more than tri-pled since the embassy wasopened in 2001.

What has Iceland to offerJapanese tourists? The an-swer is clean and unspoilednature, with the aurora bore-alis lighting up the night skiesover Iceland during the darkwinter months, and the geo-thermal onsen baths soothingthe soul and cleansing theb o dy. People can enjoy the geo-thermal onsen baths at variousplaces in Iceland, the most fa-mous being the Blue Lagoon onthe Reykjanes Peninsula andJardbodin near Lake Myvatn inthe north of the country.

In summer and winter tour-ists from Japan can find a mul-titude of activities that arelinked with enjoying nature.

For bird-lovers Iceland i s abird-watcher’s paradise. In thiscontext it should be kept inmind that the most exquisite ei-derdown in the world comesfrom the country’s totally sus-tainable eiderdown harvest.Japan is our most importantmarket for eiderdown and it is acomforting thought that somany Japanese go to sleep ev-ery night wrapped in Iceland,i.e., an Icelandic eiderdowncomforter!

For nature-lovers it is worthnoting that Japan and Icelandshare one unique natural phe-nomenon that no other countryin the world can boast of andthat is the ‘‘marimo’’ in Japa-nese, ‘‘kuluskitur’’ in Icelandic,or lake balls, which can only befound growing on the bottom ofLake Akanko in Hokkaido andLake Myvatn in north Iceland(for further information seewww.visitmyvatn.is/en/ p a g e /brochure)

In Havamal it says:Better gear than good

sense?A traveler cannot carry,Better than riches for a

wretched man,Far from his own home.

Nature’s bounty: Iceland is blessed with abundant marine resources and fisheries continues tobe one of the country’s key economic sectors. ICELAND EMBASSY

J.K. Rowling