Much as I love it, I seem to have plenty of criticism of Greenland. But the Bank of Greenland? No complaints. For one, check out my bank card. It has swimming polar bears on it. Nice. But there are plenty of other plusses. When I first arrived in Greenland, I needed a bank account to …
‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions,’ they say. Greenland abounds in good intentions. Mine included. Last year, the Government of Greenland decided that English should be taught from year one in all schools, instead of from year four, as it was at that time. Great idea. English is the international language. English …
Greenland was colonised by the Danish. This statement might seem neither here nor there to most, but the concept of colonialism is outright offensive to some Danes, particularly if referring to Greenland’s current status. It’s taken me a while to really accept this information, as it is so strange to me that people can reject …
*File photo of a crevasse It happened again. But this time it was worse. On April 6, a group of alpine touring skiers were descending a glacier not far from Maniitsoq on the west coast. It was a beautiful afternoon. And then the ground gave way. One of the party fell suddenly with the …
Election Day, April 24. The morning commute was slow, like every morning this last week since the tunnel – the only other route – was closed because of falling rocks. Low, grey clouds hung gloomily overhead, threatening more than just the few fluttering wispy, white flakes in the air. Spring seemed darker than usual. As …
*Cartoon by Buuarsikkut Soon there will be an election in Greenland. Elections are a time when Greenland, sometimes, makes it into the international media. Well, at least in the Kingdom of Denmark, which is Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. But what is surprising is that even in Denmark, which some (not me) might call Greenland’s …
Greenlanders would like to have a successful resource industry to help them on their path to independence from Denmark. So how could large scale foreign investment be a bad thing? The early 2000’s were a boom time for resources, in Greenland as everywhere. Investors were throwing money into resources to the extent that exploration companies …
Three years of working in Greenland has brought me into project partnerships with Danish and American agencies. From both, there is a clear strategic interest in Greenland. But the outlook from each is different. I’ve seen the Americans offer to run workshops to build local knowledge and competence, offer logistical support, send across advisors and …
*Still image from ‘Camp Century’ film (1963) Greenland is a big place. Things get lost, forgotten, hidden, and some things noone ever notices. Last week was the fiftieth anniversay of a catastrophic event, the details of which were not public until an investigation by the Danish parliament almost thirty years later. On the afternoon …