A forgotten island in the middle of the Atlantic, sometimes even deleted in simplified maps, rarely mentioned in the media - unless some natural catastrophe or summit conference breaks through the barrier of silence which surrounds it - Iceland could disappear from the face of the earth without leaving any noticeable trace. One might even say that if it had never existed, the course of human history would not have been seriously af -fected. Nonetheless, this island is a world of its own, self-sufficient in many ways.