Posted on 11/25/2008 10:56:46 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Braving temperatures far below freezing, Greenland’s 39,000 eligible voters took part in a referendum yesterday offering a clear route to independence from distant Denmark.
Eve-of-ballot polls suggested that Greenlanders would vote overwhelmingly “aap” (“yes”) for a package of measures to expand self-government, recognise their aspirations to eventual nationhood and make them the beneficiaries of their natural resources.
The package, drawn up by Danish and Greenlandic parliamentarians, would allow Greenlanders to be treated as a separate people under international law, with the right to self-determination. It would make Greenlandic – not Danish – the official language, and give Greenland’s home-rule Government greater responsibilities from next June in a range of areas including foreign affairs, justice and immigration. Most importantly, it would offer Greenland a way to surmount the single biggest obstacle to independence – its reliance on 3.2 billion kroner (£365 million) a year in Danish subsidies – by giving it control of future revenues from oil, gas and other assets.
Experts believe that Greenland is sitting on huge deposits of hydrocarbons and valuable minerals. Exploration is becoming more feasible as offshore waters freeze less and the ice-cap, which covers four fifths of the island, melts. As those revenues begin to rise, Denmark’s subsidies will fall.
Predicting victory, Hans Enoksen, 52, the Danish Prime Minister, said that he hoped that Greenland could achieve full independence within his lifetime. “With self-governance we will establish the framework for future generations. It will be their task to handle the task of independence,” he said.
Lars-Emil Johansen, one of the two Greenlandic members of the Danish parliament, wants independence by 2021 – the 300th anniversary of Denmark’s colonisation of Greenland. “Of course we can be masters of our own destiny and fly with our own wings,” he said.
Greenland has been edging towards independence since
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I give them 25 years before they come crawling back to Denmark. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Looks like North America will get a new country. I’ll take them over Mexico for NAFTA.
I for one welcome our new Greenlander overlords.
Will that free them from the EU or the UN? Does this have any meaning when national sovereignty is a concept that is going by the wayside?
“Greenlandic”?
That is a lame name for a language. I think that disqualifies them for nation status.
The 1721 date of colonization from Denmark is about 750 years after the original colonization from Iceland, by Eric the Red. That colony was driven to extinction by the cold weather of the Maunder minimum 200 or 300 years before the recolonization.
Off topic....but I read recently that more people die annually in Greenland from Polar Bear attacks than from heart attacks.
If they made a government that actually protects the assets of its productive members and that of foreign accounts they could become very rich very fast about now.
I think Greenlandic has 437 different ways to describe cold... really cold... colder... *really really* cold... coldest... amazingly cold... cold-but-not-amazingly cold... etc
How about “Greenish”? We could also start referring to those who move from Greenland to the United States as “Greenish-Americans” (at least, we could if we were the hyphenating sort, which we are not).
How will Greenland provide for national security? Will they rely on the United States, Canada or NATO in general?
I hope it works for them...
Denmark will no longer be the third largest country in North America.
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