Thursday 30 April 2009

Order of the Puffin - lundisorða


The Order of the Falcon (fálkaorða) is Iceland's highest honour. The Order of the Puffin (lundisorða) is this blog's highest honour. Both are quite difficult to get – especially the former, as U.S. Ambassador Carol Von Voorst found out this month.

Now in the world of world diplomacy, handing round a few gongs here and there is nothing particularly unusual. The British, always the experts in the finer distinctions of relative snobbery, have even created an entire order of knighthood, the Order of St Michael and St George, which is only given to diplomats. So it can't have been too much of a surprise to Ms Von Voorst when the President's office rang earlier this month to say that she would be awarded the Order of the Falcon on the occasion of her moving on from Reykjavík to a new posting: three previous U.S. ambassadors to Iceland had been similarly honoured.

The surprise came last Friday, as she was on her way to the Presidential residence at Bessastaðir to pick up her medal. It was all a terrible mistake, apparently, and she wouldn't be getting it after all! But she was welcome to come in anyway for a cup of tea and a chat with Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson if she wanted too. "Grímsson allegedly explained to her that only those who were deemed worthy were honored this way." according to Iceland Review. The Order of the Falcon, or tea and a chat with Óli and Dorrit?

Now Ólafur Ragnar is no stranger to controversy. Last November, he allegedly tried singlehandedly to sell the Keflavík naval air base (and international airport) to the Russians – the Russians politely declined the offer – before lashing out at virtually every other country with an embassy in Reykjavík, especially the British (no surprise there). It's really quite hard to take him seriously when there are so many accumulated speeches from before last October in which he claimed that Iceland's bankers were financial wizards rather than the deluded psychotics they turned out to be. But with this latest incident, he seems to have stooped to new lows of ridicule.

Ambassador Von Voorst might not be the best U.S. ambassador to Iceland in the short history of diplomatic relations between the two countries. She was only in the job for three years, and presided over the somewhat muddled announcement of the withdrawal of U.S. Navy aviators from Keflavík. The commentators at the Iceland Weather Report don't seem to think much of her. But that's no reason to snub the woman, it's only a medal after all all: if she'd been told she was going to get it, she should have got it, and tough if a few people felt she wasn't "worthy" enough. After all, there are plenty of people who think that Ólafur Ragnar is hardly worthy of being President of the Republic and hence ex officio Grand Master of the Order of the Falcon! So, in a belated attempt to set things right, I've whipped off an email to the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavík bestowing the Order of the Puffin on Ambassador Von Voorst for her services to the Icelandic people in proving that their Presidency really couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.

If you have any other suggestions for worthy – or unworthy, I don't care – recipients of the Order of the Puffin, the comments box is below!

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