Denmark colonized Greenland and subjugated the native people in 1721.

[randahl@mastodon.social]

Denmark colonized Greenland and subjugated the native people in 1721.

In our modern time most Danes feel this was wrong, and for decades there has been a strong political backing for initiatives helping the 57,000 Greenlanders, who receive $673 million per year from Denmark.

Should the people of Greenland choose full independence, the Danish parliament would support their decision.

What we will not support is Trump exploiting a proud native people whom we consider our friends.

🇬🇱♥️🇩🇰

[jwcph@helvede.net]

@randahl - or indeed attacking said native people with military force. Feels like that's worth mentioning, too, at this point.

[michelpatrice@jasette.facil.services]

@randahl

And the government of Danemark should remind the world about this and shame the United States of America for the way it treated and treats its native population.

[roybrander@urbanists.social]

@randahl

"Should the proud Greenlanders choose to toss out $11,800 per person per year to have their pride, we'll let them have their pride!

We need a new subway, anyway."

I suspect that Denmark's possession is safe.

[systemalias@mastodon.cloud]

@randahl some of us (U.S.) wholeheartedly agree with our friends in Denmark.

[missgayle@urbanists.social]

@randahl

They should immediately embark on a public education program with multiple media types to teach how the US has treated its own indigenous population.

That alone would dissuade anyone from ever wanting to be colonized by the US, much less by white nationalist christo-fascist magats.

#Greenland #Denmark

[ghostonthehalfshell@masto.ai]

@randahl

Ironically, the advances of Trump and his billionaire patrons is that Greenland is in a much more precarious position as an independent nation, unless they were embedded in other alliances, such as NATO or the EU.

The project of Trump’s patrons, though is the destruction of all international alliances, as well as functioning states to be replaced by their personal totalitarian fiefdoms, the “network state”.

[rjohnston@techhub.social]

@randahl Canada's head of state, who was born in the Arctic and speaks Inuktitut, will be visiting #Greenland next month along with the foreign minister to open the new consulate.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/canadas-indigenous-governor-general-to-visit-greenland-as-trump-renews-talk-of-annexing-it/ar-AA1TGu6x

[bellule@mastodon.social]

@randahl As you are committed to impartial reporting, when calculating the cost of Greenland to the Danish budget, have you included cryolite mining, which over the lifetime of this mine is estimated to have generated the equivalent of 400 billion Danish kroner (nearly 54 billion euros) for the company responsible for its extraction and the Danish state?
This is not whataboutism on my part, it is a sincere question.

[emmecola@mastodon.uno]

@randahl I dream of Greenland getting independence and then becoming part of EU 😄

[tokeriis@helvede.net]

@bellule @randahl Of course, DK should have invested much more in Greenland, but the 400 billion are based on a documentary which has been heavily criticized for skewing those numbers. They are turnover, not surplus numbers. The costs of maintaining mining operations were very high, and 20% of the surplus did go directly to the Greenland budget. Mining ended in 1962, coinciding with 2-3 following decades of massive investments in Greenland infrastructure, schools, factories, airports, etc.

[tokeriis@helvede.net]

@bellule @randahl This is not to diminish the colonial exploitation of the cryolite mining, in terms of enviromental, social and economical consequences. Also, I believe most Greenlanders would prefer not to have "help" from Danes, as Randahl terms it, they want to be recognised as equals and stand on their own.

[randahl@mastodon.social]

@rjohnston thank you for this info.

[randahl@mastodon.social]

@emmecola I do not think Greenland has any incentive to become a member of the EU. They left the EU in 1985, and to the best of my knowledge there is no active initiative to rejoin.

[emmecola@mastodon.uno]

@randahl Fine with me! Greenlanders' will is the priority 👍🏻