Mission to Greenland, Zisis Mousios
Welcome or Tikiluarit in the Inuit dialect in . This was the first thing we heard when we set foot on the largest island in the world. The second was if we are Americans…
In just 15 days, the people of Greenland heard from the American president that he wants to buy them, make them American citizens by force, take their energy reserves and rare minerals hidden in their land.
Now they are told not to worry. Nothing will change in your life, just some military bases will be built and weapons systems will be installed for President Trump’s “Golden Dome”.
The life of the peaceful inhabitants of the island has already changed. Special forces from Denmark are rapidly arriving to bolster the ‘Arctic Force’ while warships are now tied up alongside the shrimp fleet in the picturesque port of Nuuk.
Greenlanders also demonstrated for the first time in decades. The slogan one. What the 35-year-old prime minister of the country, Jens Frederik Nielsen, repeats monotonously. There is no agreement with anyone if Greenland is not invited to any negotiation.
The hurried visit of the Danish Prime Minister to the island showed that the message was received. Behind the closed frosty doors of the small and unique government building, which is located above a supermarket, Danes and Greenlanders decided that their movements will be parallel and there will be no secret agreements that will be taken for granted shortly afterwards. This large piece of ice, as the American president described it for the 56,000 Greenlanders, is their homeland. Here it is always winter here, it is always cold here it is almost always night. In this inhospitable place for centuries these few but particularly hard people have lived and developed. They are the ones who today train together with the Danish soldiers.
Something has changed in Greenland. You see and feel it everywhere. They know they are far from ‘friends’, that any help if and when it arrives will be small. But what you definitely see is that there is no fear… And you see a small smile when they see that all the major TV and news networks are in their home country.
They now know they are not alone….
