Lennon-Ono grants awarded in Iceland

Artist and pacifist Yoko Ono, widow of John Lennon, is organising two events taking place in Iceland on October 9, on what would have been Lennon's 66th birthday. The events are intended to aid world peace. Ono will take a spade in hand to break ground for the Pillar of Peace that she is raising on Viðey island. The peace pillar is an idea that she came up with forty years ago and in it's foundations there are prayers and wishes for peace from people all over the world. The pillar, placed in Iceland is supposed to act like a beacon of peace around the world, and give strength to all those suffering. The pillar raised in Viðey is in cooperation with the Reykjavik Art Museum and the City of Reykjavik.

Yoko Ono will also be awarding two peace grants from the Lennon- Ono fund of fifty thousand US dollars each. They will be going to international association Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, who have helped people in need in over seventy countries, and The Center for Constitutional Rights, who fight for the constitutional rights of people throughout the world. The grants will be presented at a formal awards ceremony in Höfði House, in Reykjavik. Until now, the Lennon-Ono grants have always been awarded at the UN headquarters, but Ono has now selected Iceland for its "beauty and purity". Four people have received the grant so far, two artists - an Israeli and a Palestinian, an Israeli nuclear accident and incident officer, and American research journalist Seymour Hersh.