Moving right along, boys and girls. Let’s now turn our attention to Greenland.
Until recently, I knew little about Greenland except that it was somewhere in the North Atlantic on the right side (or is it the left?) of Iceland.
Greenland. It conveys serenity.
Green. The color of grass and trees and money.
What’s not to like?
I knew its name but didn’t know who its people were.
I knew Scots lived in Scotland. Irish in Ireland. Fins in Finland. Thais in Thailand. But who lived in Greenland—or Iceland for that matter? Certainly not “Greenies” or “Icies.”
The population of Greenland is 89 percent Inuit. Neither Greenland nor Iceland is named for its majority ethnic population. So you might assume that they were named for their topography. Greenland mostly green. Iceland mostly ice.
Wrong.
Iceland is mostly green. Greenland mostly ice. Huge glaciers and ice sheets occupy the center of the island. Only a slim strip of land along the coasts is arable. And that’s where its people live, all 55,685 of them—the least densely populated country in the world.
Since 1814 Greenland has been an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark, something like Puerto Rico under the United States.
Greenland is the largest island on the planet. (Australia is a continent.) Geographically it’s considered part of North America. (Hawaii, the 50th state, is not.) Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, is closer to Ottawa and Washington, DC, than Copenhagen.
How did it get its name? you ask.
When Eric the Red was banished from Iceland for three years in the 10th century, he sailed west and bumped into a large landmass. He scratched out a miserable living, and when he returned to Iceland he told everybody not about “Redland” but about “Greenland.”
And away they sailed.
The United States has offered to buy Greenland numerous times. First in 1867, by Secretary of State William H. Seward, who had famously purchased Alaska from the Russians. Then in 1910, 1946, 1955, 2019, and again this year. It’s been a bit of an obsession.
Greenland is socially progressive. Education and health care are free. Its LGBTQ rights are some of the most extensive in the world. Transgender people may change the gender designation on their official documents based on self-determination. Sixty-seven percent of its electricity comes from renewable energy.
Looks like our 51st state will be blue.
Blueland.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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