Greenland certainly has been making news recently.
President/President-elect Donald Trump’s tasked his pick for Ambassador to Denmark with persuading the Danes to sell us the resource-rich Arctic land.
The outage left the region dark during a period of with temperatures dropping below -27 degrees Fahrenheit (-33°C).
Now, Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has called for independence from Denmark in his New Year’s speech, marking a significant shift in the rhetoric surrounding the Arctic island’s future.
Egede, a member of the pro-independence Community of the People (IA) party, emphasized that it is time for Greenland to take the next step and shape its own future.
“The Greenlandic people’s opportunity for independence has been adopted through the provisions of the Self-Government Act, thereby creating a legal basis for how independence can be achieved,” Egede said in a Wednesday speech in honor of the new year.“A draft constitution for our country has also been prepared,” he said. “Work has already begun with regard to creating the framework for Greenland as an independent state within the possibilities and provisions of the Self-Government Act.”The leader said a new development for Greenland is “imminent” days after Trump took a second pass at purchasing the land, which sits in the prominent Arctic region.
Well, independence may make soon-to-be Ambassador Ken Howery’s negotiations a bit challenging. But I am willing to step into the role as Ambassador to the newly liberated Greenland, even though it is frostier than I am used to in California.
Interestingly, Egede essentially accused Denmark of colonialism in his remarks.
“The history and current conditions have shown that our cooperation with the Kingdom of Denmark has not succeeded in creating full equality,” said Egede, who is a member of the pro-independence Community of the People (IA) party.”It is now time for our country to take the next step,” he added. “Like other countries in the world, we must work to remove the obstacles to cooperation – which we can describe as the shackles of colonialism — and move forward.”
Of course, Egede has no interest in having Trump purchase the land.
Greenland’s government has twice rejected offers by Mr Trump to purchase the island, in 2019 and again last month when Mr Trump said the US needed to buy Greenland “for the purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world”.Mr Egede insisted at the time Greenland was not for sale. “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,” he said.
The Kingdom of Denmark may come to regret the anti-Trump stance it took the first time Trump proposed the sale. It appears the country is going to lose both the Arctic island and the billions it could have made in the deal.
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