Last Thursday, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. Then I made the fatal error of switching on my phone. This is what I saw. “President Trump Eyes a New Real Estate Purchase: Greenland.” An article in the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had, for some …
It wasn’t a promising start. I opened the official-looking letter to find only a few lines of text. I had been judged “unqualified” for the position for which I had applied – making geological maps of Greenland. Rather harsh, I thought. But it was true. The PhD that was required for this position was still …
We were getting sick of having our boat in the main marina in Nuuk. The draconian rules were designed to take advantage of every opportunity to squeeze more extortionate fees out of boat owners. Any change of ownership, common here where friends often co-own boats, required payment of a new full registration fee of about …
There’s a lot of weirdness in Greenland. Some of it is funny. Some of it is sad. Some of it is just weird. Here are some air transport-related snippets. The Camp Raven airstrip on the Greenland icecap, close to the site of the Dye-2 base, is a training airstrip for C-130 aircraft landings and acts …
*Photograph by Hans Peter Kleemann . Child abuse. It’s not a subject most people want to talk about. And certainly not at the up-beat, pro-business Future Greenland conference, which brought about four hundred and fifty participants to Nuuk last week. There’s enormous interest in the future of Greenland. From long-time allies like the Americans, to …
Recently, I wrote about how easy it is to bank with the Bank of Greenland. A recent experience leads me to believe that it might be a bit too easy. The other day I went to the bank to transfer some money from my Bank of Greenland account to my foreign bank account. It was …
Former Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, was known for his quick wit. I once read a, possibly anecdotal, account of Whitlam being heckled by a member of the public, who shouted in an Australian drawl, “Whadda ya gonna do about ‘ousing?” Sharp as a tack, Whitlam replied, “Well, I’d add an ‘h’ for a start.” …
As a non-Dane, I need a work permit for me and my family to live in Greenland. When I applied, I was told the process would take about two months. Two and a half months later we had packed down our house, reorganised our lives, and were on a plane to Denmark, but our permits …
Last week the Greenlandic coalition government collapsed – again. This time, the problem was airports. For many years, Greenland has been keen on building infrastructure to boost their vulnerable, fishing-based economy. One strand of their infrastructure strategy is to build and expand airports to bring in new airlines and larger aircraft. Finally, a major investor has …