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Greenland is a beautiful nightmare

matduggan.com

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Re: Greenland is a beautiful nightmare

#201

Post by JohnLocke4 »

vintagedave wrote: post #156
JohnLocke4 wrote: post #106

I happen to be one of the Danes who partially grew up in Greenland that he talks about in the article. I even recognize the places from the article. Some of my cordial childhood memories are from there and it is a place I will forever love. One of the most visceral memories I have is looking across the ice fjord listening to the thunderous breaking of the ice bergs - you can hear the sounds on videos, but combined wi…

Thanks for sharing. Can you tell us where the “if you know where this is” photo is, please? And how would you make local connections before visiting?

I feel like telling you where the picture is taken would spoil a potentially fun experience, so I will not disclose that :)

Anyway, making connections is hard, though not impossible. I would recommend the local pubs (which are surprisingly busy given how small settlements are) and finding friends through e.g. work settings.

Re: Greenland is a beautiful nightmare

#202

Post by didibus »

dismalaf wrote: post #13
morkalork wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>find groups who want to be independent, probably with the goal of artificially propping them up The same thing is happening in Alberta. It is unsettling and disturbing

The Trudeau/Carney government is doing that all on their own. Just gonna drop this here: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?location... Edit - for those who don't get it, Alberta derives most of its wealth from oil. Successive Liberal governments have both restricted our ability to sell oil while taking significant amounts of money from Alberta in transfer payments. Since Alberta has a border with th…

If you do the math, Alberta would donate even more money if it was a US state. It would owe more federal taxes, and since its population tends younger and well employed, it would get less of it back.

You could say the "benefit" could be that getting approvals for pipelines and higher production of oil might be easier to get in the US. That's really just an "if" though. The Keystone XL pipeline was blocked twice by US government.

What it should have done is adopt Norway's model. It would have half a trillion in savings already if it had, and wouldn't even need oil, as raw investment could finance its budget alone.

But putting all that aside as well. Your average Albertan wouldn't be better off. They'd lose healthcare, education would be more expensive, they'd have a worse retirement fund, and so on. They'd have to pay more tax and get less benefit in return. Plus, there'd be a higher influx of immigrants low balling the jobs and lowering wages.

But it’s not too late to change course. If Alberta seriously committed to a Norway style model now, it could still build a fund big enough to make oil dependence temporary. That alone could justify building pipelines to the coast, use it as a bridge until the Heritage Fund becomes a self-sustaining engine of prosperity. It's a convincing argument for the other provinces, and would be great for Canada overall.

Re: Greenland is a beautiful nightmare

#203

Post by epolanski »

threemux wrote: post #116
epolanski wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Their citizens could also live and work in the US indefinitely. Not sure why Greenlanders would care at all. They can already do the same in Denmark, which is a country with far better standards of living.

Oh gimme a break. That's one of the largest benefits to COFA and is heavily used by the Marshallese. Greenland on its own is not a first world country - there simply isn't enough population/work and it's a hard existence as detailed in TFA. You may not want to come here and that's fine, but it's a huge draw and will continue to be. Administrations are fleeting, but the allure of opportunity remains. You're posting on…

Denmark is one of the countries with the highest standards of living by any metric possible, consistently ranking among the best countries to live in the world.

The US is not.

Sure, there's allure in going to US if you're from a poor country, or if you have an ambition your country cannot satisfy (some scientists and entrepreneurs will find America only in America, that's true).

Greenlanders are neither of those two categories.

If they don't care moving to Denmark or rest of Europe you can be sure they don't care coming to US either.

Re: Greenland is a beautiful nightmare

#204

Post by mkl »

worik wrote: post #184

What a wasted trip! How rude, especially about Indiana. They never found out where the people were going in their BMWs The only descriptions of the locals were entirely without sympathy. If this is how Icelanders [edit: Greenlanders, duh!]are treated by Danes, I suggest selling out to Trump!

The author is American, and no Icelanders were mentioned.

Re: Greenland is a beautiful nightmare

#205

Post by pixelpoet »

mkl wrote: post #200
pixelpoet wrote: post #10

Poor doggywogs :( Edit: Wow, HN didn't like that. Nevermind, screw the dogs I guess, just toss the frozen ones over the cliff.

You may want to reconsider your choice of word: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wog

It's a common word in (UK, apparently) English, cf. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doggy_woggy

I've literally never once heard someone use the ethnic slur "wog", and I grew up in 90s South Africa :)

Re: Greenland is a beautiful nightmare

#206

Post by LAC-Tech »

pcrh wrote: post #97
internet_points wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That first google map has "Myggedalen" (Mosquito Valley) listed as a Panoramic View. At least they're honest :-)

Myggedalen looks like "midge dale".

I'm a native English speaker and I feel like dale and valley are two different words for the same thing.

Re: Greenland is a beautiful nightmare

#207

Post by watwut »

threemux wrote: post #47
danielscrubs wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly my thoughts. I think US ownership (not necessarily of land) is inevitable, but it is going to take a couple of decades of these kind of polarising pieces.

I think it even makes sense if it were pursued in a different way. Greenland is looking for full independence but can't really hack it financially without aid. I think the COFA (Compact of Free Association) model that we have with Palau and Marshall Islands would work well. We get expanded military rights and potentially some mineral/drilling rights, while Greenland gets protection, lots of money, access to USPS dome…

The primary threat to Greenland is USA and USA is extremely unreliable country. USA can't sell protection. It may extort or invade or commit some kind of atrocity ... but is not capable of selling protection.

You are talking about getting a colony and stealing their resources.

Re: Greenland is a beautiful nightmare

#209

Post by majormajor »

WalterBright wrote: post #172
majormajor wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people don't have nearly that good luck. I'm fortunate that they just don't like me as much as some of the people I've done week+ hiking/camping trips with. I was ok with deet. Some folks still got dozens of bites even after it.

I think you overlooked the mention of sunscreen.

No? We all wore that too... but unless we're all just weirdos and sunscreen == bug repellant for the whole rest of the world in a way it never has for us (and is not advertised as), it just seemed irrelevant.

The sunscreen kept us from being bright red and in pain for the last 6 days of the trip. The mosquitos gave zero fucks about it.

I would bet that the lucky person whose "body oil and sweat seems to do the job" isn't the representative person here...

Re: Greenland is a beautiful nightmare

#210

Post by dismalaf »

didibus wrote: post #202
dismalaf wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Trudeau/Carney government is doing that all on their own. Just gonna drop this here: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?location... Edit - for those who don't get it, Alberta derives most of its wealth from oil. Successive Liberal governments have both restricted our ability to sell oil while taking significant amounts of money from Alberta in transfer payments. Since Alberta has a border with th…

If you do the math, Alberta would donate even more money if it was a US state. It would owe more federal taxes, and since its population tends younger and well employed, it would get less of it back. You could say the "benefit" could be that getting approvals for pipelines and higher production of oil might be easier to get in the US. That's really just an "if" though. The Keystone XL pipeline was blocked twice by US…

> They'd lose healthcare

You ever needed surgery? Ever tried to use healthcare for anything non trivial or not immediately urgent?

I've lived in BC and Alberta. Things take years in BC, maybe a single year in Alberta, and days to weeks in Europe...

We pay into Canadian healthcare but use EU healthcare (while paying more out of pocket)...

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