On being for sale – Katrin Kuntz in Der Spiegel:

‘From his office in the parliamentary building in the capital city of Greenland, Kuno Fencker can look out on the statue gazing out at the sea, a man of stone holding a shepherd’s staff in his right hand and a Bible under his arm. It is a depiction of the Danish-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede, measuring around two meters in height on a hilltop over the Bay of Nuuk.
Egede came to Greenland in 1721, having been tasked by the Danish king with colonizing the Inuit there. For many in Greenland, Egede represents the beginning of all evil, followed by centuries during which the country has remained a Danish crown colony.’

(…)

‘The people of Greenland tend to be on Fencker’s side. They too wouldn’t mind a helpful ally beyond the Danes – but many of them are more afraid of the U.S. than he is. In an interview, the Greenland foreign minister described losing authority in the country to foreign control as the worst-case scenario. In a pub, a guest even sought to take this reporter’s notebook, thinking she was from the U.S. "We aren’t for sale,” is a sentence that can be heard frequently in the city at the moment.’

(…)

‘How seriously should Greenland and Denmark take the threats from the United States? And what about the people in Greenland? What are their views of the new policy coming from Washington? Thus far, there has been little sign of the isolationist foreign policy course from Trump that some experts had predicted. On the contrary, Trump appears to be enjoying his current dominance on the foreign policy stage. His brash style has even produced an initial success in the form of a ceasefire in Gaza. And his provocation has had an effect in Greenland as well: Greenlanders have begun feeling a new sense of confidence. They can now pressure the Danes because they know that a superpower had taken an interest in them.’

(…)

‘Thus far, there has been little sign of the isolationist foreign policy course from Trump that some experts had predicted. On the contrary, Trump appears to be enjoying his current dominance on the foreign policy stage. His brash style has even produced an initial success in the form of a ceasefire in Gaza. And his provocation has had an effect in Greenland as well: Greenlanders have begun feeling a new sense of confidence. They can now pressure the Danes because they know that a superpower had taken an interest in them.’

(…)

‘Starting in summer 2025, there will be a direct connection between Nuuk and New York. Møller is hoping that more customers from the U.S. will begin showing up, in part, he says, because they are prepared to spend more money than the Scandinavians. A week of back country fly fishing with Raw Arctic costs around $6,000 per person.
Climate change is moving around four times faster in Greenland than elsewhere in the world. Small icebergs have already made some fjord unnavigable and seal hunters have begun abandoning the trade because of fragile ice. Møller has to keep close track of which fjords can be visited and which must be avoided.’

(…)

‘A new, more unstable future is dawning in the Arctic. Even if it remains unclear what Trump might have in mind for Greenland, there is virtually no scenario in which things will remain as they are. Inhabitants agree that they don’t want to become Americans, but what will be the price for separation from Denmark? Shortly before Donald Trump was sworn in, opposition politician Kuno Fencker wrote in a Facebook post that he had heard that Danish politicians were on their way to Washington to speak with Republicans about the future of Greenland. He wrote that he immediately bought a plane ticket to travel there himself. He doesn’t want Greenland to be ignored.
Everyone is so friendly here, he says in a video call from his hotel in the U.S. capital. "In Denmark, we are looked down upon. And here, I experienced so much more respect.” He holds up a polar bear claw that he wore on a chain during many of his meetings with Republicans. Nobody, he says, made any racist comments, expressing curiosity instead. He says he tried to make it as clear as possible that Greenland wasn’t for sale but that it was open to economic cooperation.’

Read the article here.

Not for sale, but economic cooperation, yes.

From one colonizer to the next. And from Gaza tot Greenland.

And Denmark is not on the winning side if this game, that’s for sure. But Denmark is resilient. After all, Lars von Trier is Danish.