cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28815530
Summary
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, during his first visit to Denmark since taking office in March, rejected Donald Trump’s push to annex Greenland, stating the island “will never be a piece of property that can be bought.”
Standing alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, he added, “We are in a foreign policy situation which means we have to move closer together.”
Frederiksen said Denmark was ready to invest more in Greenland as part of a “modernisation” of the two countries relationship.
Denmark has claimed Greenland for longer than the current batch of Inuit live there. Norse settled there some 500 years before Columbus, in completely uninhabited lands. Those settlements failed, current batch of Inuit moved in, history happened. At some point Danes ceased to be assholes thus Denmark fully recognises the Inuit’s rights to self-determination, to declare independence if and when they so desire. No “unfortunate necessity” excuse why they can’t do it which you seem to believe is justifiable. There’s also no deciding for the Inuit “you must become independent, now”, like you’re doing.
Go, look in the mirror, have a long, deep, thought about who has a colonial mindset, here, and who doesn’t. Who is keen on deciding things for another people, and who isn’t.
Yeah i oppose empire but support self determination. If the Greenland inuit want to be Danish that’s between them and Denmark
They definitely don’t want to be Danish, as in ethnically, but they want their Scandinavian welfare state and not be worse off independent than as they are as part of the Kingdom. It’s doubly complicated as they can’t readily join the EU without being part of Denmark, too small population-wise, the Faroese are in pretty much the same situation.
Citizenship is not the same as ethnicity. I don’t turn into a black African if I magically got Zimbabwean citizenship. Inuits can be Danish citizen and still be ethnically Inuit.
Yes they aren’t the same, that’s precisely why I made the distinction. Also Greenlanders are all three of Greenlandic, Danish, and EU citizens.
Doesn’t mean that they’re comfortable with Greenland University teaching e.g. pedagogics in Danish. Electrical Engineering who cares (can’t even study it in Nuuk) but pedagogics? Psychology? Law? It’s a challenge is to switch those over without hurting the quality of the programmes, the university is tiny (~600 students) and relies a lot on guest lecturers. Greenlandic independence sentiment revolves around cultural sovereignty, not around hating the Danes, everything Danish, wanting to get rid of them ASAP, or suchlike. Still, achieving independence as a state serves as a point of reference for “we actually did it, culturally, organisationally, we are strong enough”. Which isn’t easy when you’re 56k people.
I’m not sure what you think I’ll see in the mirror: I have a consistent philosophy that does not align with my government.
Just because Denmark has claimed Greenland for a long time does not make it right.
Convenient of you to not address self-determination in your answer. And, no, your position is not consistent or there wouldn’t be “unfortunate necessities”. A weasel clause if there ever was one.