“We are a culture, we are people, we are not a commodity,” a Greenlander told NDTV on Donald Trump’s threats to acquire the island.
Betrayal, anger, humiliation, then a fleeting sense of hope, clouded by overwhelming uncertainty.
For Greenlanders, used to being away from the spotlight, the past few weeks have been a rocky snowmobile ride. With Donald Trump threatening military action to acquire the island – which he called a “big, beautiful piece of ice” – countries like Denmark, France and Germany sending troops to protect it, and the US president eventually signalling a climbdown, stating he would not use force, the people of Greenland are very unsure of what the future has in store for them.
NDTV’s Senior Managing Editor Vishnu Som is in Greenland and spoke to a cross-section of ordinary people there to get a sense of what they are going through.
Two young people, Lucas and Anita, told NDTV that worry is the overriding emotion for them at the moment.
“I think I’ve felt worried, actually, because you don’t know what is going to happen with all these statements from the president of the United States. I think there are a lot of people that have been quite worried,” Lucas said.
Asked whether he felt some hope given that Trump declared in Davos that he wasn’t considering a military option, Lucas pointed out that there is no way to know what the US president’s actual plans are.
Anita, a boat operator, echoed his thoughts.
“Yeah, I’ve been very worried. I think the situation is very different from last year. So I think it’s been a rough couple of weeks for all of us. You can really feel it in the city of Nuuk, the capital. We have all been feeling the same, just worried about what’s going to happen. And, of course, it’s captured a lot of attention, which is weird because we’ve never really been so much on the world map. It’s new. Everywhere you turn, there are people recording,” she remarked.
Anita said the ideal solution would be an agreement that works for everybody, including Denmark, which Greenland is a part of. Trump’s demand to own Greenland, she stressed, was very disrespectful. “We are a culture, we are people, we are not a commodity. Not something to be sold, not something you can just claim… It doesn’t feel good,” she declared.
US Parallels
Entrepreneur and teacher Brad Canham is visiting Greenland from Minnesota, where the Trump administration is carrying out a sometimes violent campaign against immigrants, leading to the deaths of two people – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – at the hands of immigration agents just this month. He told NDTV he sees parallels between what is happening in his home state in the US and the world’s largest island.
“The state of Minnesota has received, frankly, unprecedented pressure from the federal government, pushed by Donald Trump. It’s been quite shocking to the people of Minnesota. We have also seen what’s happened in Greenland, and we are very shocked also that this is the President of the United States, exerting pressures of this kind, both inside the country and outside the country, on Greenland,” Canham said.
“I tend to look at the pattern and not so much at Donald Trump’s statements at any given time.
And the pattern has been this reduction, in my view, of democratic capacity for speech, judgement and actions. I’ve seen that applied to Greenland, and it’s being applied to Minnesota.
Climate Change
Another concern raised by many Greenlanders NDTV spoke to was climate change. The island is warming nearly four times faster than the world average, and this winter, many said, felt like spring.
“We are so used to it being completely white and going out on snowmobiles and the fjords being frozen. And now it feels like it’s about to be summer,” Anita said.
