Sunday, December 11, 2005

Miss World 2005 from cold Iceland

Hello:) As we can read Miss World 2005 is from cold Iceland. Good news! Congratulations Iceland!

BEIJING (Reuters) - Miss Iceland, a 21-year-old anthropology and law student and part-time policewoman, was crowned Miss World on Saturday on the southern Chinese resort island of Hainan.
Appearing shocked, Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir fought back tears as the Miss World banner was draped over her shoulders. The winner was chosen by nine former Miss Worlds from finalists selected by television viewers who called in from around the world. More than 100 contestants took part. China has hosted the Miss World pageant for the past three years following the controversial 2002 contest, which was moved to Britain from Nigeria after sparking Muslim-Christian riots in the African nation.









Choosing Miss World 2005 a woman from Iceland is also a good occasion to me to tell a bit about history of this beatiful, cold country - the same time look at my earlier entry about changes of climate in the world during some centuries. It really makes sense!:)

History

Iceland remained one of the world's last larger islands uninhabited by humans until it was discovered and settled by immigrants from what is now Scandinavia and from the British isles during the 8th and 9th centuries. The sagas claim that Ingólfur Arnarson was the first man to settle in Iceland (Reykiavik) in 874 although archeological evidence does not seem to bear this out. The families were accompanied by servants and slaves, some of whom were Celts from Scotland and Ireland (known as Westmen to the Norse). Some literary evidence suggests that Irish monks may have been living in Iceland before the arrival of Norse settlers, but no archaeological evidence has been found.

The Althing (general assembly) was founded in 930, marking the beginning of the Icelandic Commonwealth. It was the predecessor to the modern Icelandic legislature. The Althing is the oldest parliament in the world.

Iceland was fairly independent from Norway until 1262, when it became a Norwegian crown colony, and from 1387 Iceland was in practice ruled by Denmark, following the union of the two kingdoms. When that union was dissolved in 1814, through the Treaty of Kiel, which saw Norway being handed over to Sweden, Iceland became a Danish dependency. Home rule was granted by the Danish government in 1904, and independence followed in 1918. Foreign relations were carried out by the Danes, as instructed by the Icelandic government until the World War II military occupation of Denmark by Germany in 1940. Subsequently, Iceland was occupied by the Allies. The Danish king remained the de jure sovereign of the nation until 1944, when the current republic was founded after the 1918 treaty had elapsed.

The new republic became a charter member of NATO in 1949 and signed a treaty with the United States in 1951 to take responsibility for the defense of Iceland. Today the US continues to operate a military base in Keflavik based on this agreement, but Iceland has no armed forces of its own. The economy of Iceland remained dependant on fisheries in the post-war decades and the country has had several clashes with its neighbours over this vital resource, most notably the Cod Wars with the British. The economy has become more diverse recently owing to large investments in heavy industry such as aluminium smelting and deregulation and privatization in the financial sector. Iceland is a member of the Common market of the
European Union through the EEA agreement but has never applied for membership of the EU itself.
Polish contestant this year was 19 years old Malwina Ratajczak. I think she wasn't ugly candidate but she had short hair and was probably too pale as deals other skills. But I am not a jury member of course. All in all - below a photo of Polish Malwina:

posted by BH | 2:11 AM

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