Buying Greenland: “Greenland cannot survive on its own”

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And just a bit to the northeast of America, there is a great injustice taking place that we can correct.

Greenland, the largest island in the world, is occupied by Denmark. The mere fact that Denmark is holding on to the vestiges of a colonial empire spits in the face of American values.

Our Founding Father James Monroe famously wrote in his Monroe Doctrine that “we should consider any attempt on [Europe’s] part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.”

The letter of this law means we shouldn’t bar a single hold in liberating Greenland from European influence. We’re suffering a hostile act against us in the name of pragmatism, antithetical to American values and to Kantian morality.

Of course, an argument can be made that Denmark should hold on to the territory. After all, it was settled around a thousand years ago. Expelling the colonial control would be comparable to expelling the Normans from England or the British from the Falkland Islands at this point—completely futile.

This argument does not hold up to scrutiny. Greenland was originally controlled by Norway, not Denmark. Denmark only controlled Greenland through the Denmark-Norway union and didn’t give it back after Norwegian independence.

Following this logic, Germany would have kept Greenland after WWII. Greenland was inhabited only by Inuit between 1400-1700; the Norwegian colony was gone by then. To this day, Greenland is 90% Inuit.

The only claim Norway even had to the landmass was on paper. In principle, Denmark should not have Greenland.

More egregiously, the people of Greenland yearn for independence. In every public opinion poll, Greenlanders overwhelmingly vote for freedom. The Greenlandic government is pro-independence; 26 out of 31 members of Greenland’s Parliament belong to pro-independence parties.

And yet, Denmark refuses to decolonize or unshackle them from their chains. Denmark enforces Greenland’s subordinate role by giving them a subsidy every year. Yet Denmark generally has been detached from Greenland and is uninterested in developing it. The 500-million-dollar yearly subsidy they provide is a pittance.

Most of the money is used to assist the poor, who constitute 1/6th of Greenland’s population (16%). For reference, Denmark’s rate is 0.3%. The money isn’t enough to build much of anything. Greenland’s first international domestic airport in the capital city of Nuuk, which has long been a priority, is set to open THIS YEAR.

The other airports are far away from civilization because they were constructed by the US during World War II. It’s appalling how slow the rate of development has been in Greenland, and it traces back directly to Denmark’s continual mismanagement of their ill-gotten colony.

The unfortunate reality is that Greenland can’t survive on its own. Danish subsidies, as low as they are, make up 25% of Greenland’s yearly budget.

This is only enough for Greenland to inch towards its boundless potential, utilizing its large untapped deposits of valuable resources such as oil, gold and uranium.

With just an improvement in infrastructure, Greenland could become much richer, but they need some kind of benefactor. And who is better to serve that role than the largest economy in the world, and a country in the same hemisphere, on the same side of the ocean?

There are upsides for the US beyond liberating the oppressed; we’ll get an economically powerful ally with a strategically important position directly between the US, Russia and China.

Once investment into Greenland creates the infrastructure they so desperately need, they will become self-sufficient and will be able to pursue the path of independence but will more likely become a US state to continue enjoying the benefits of being part of the United States of America.

Tourism will increase many times over with the renewed interest in Greenland; undoubtedly Greenland will be all over the news. People who appreciate the novelty of visiting every state in America are sure to visit.

When president-elect Trump floated the idea of buying Greenland in 2019, the Danish Prime Minister responded, “Greenland is not for sale.” In other words, “You couldn’t even pay us to give Greenlanders self-determination.”

This affront to freedom is not something that we as Americans and as global citizens should tolerate.

The United States holds all of the cards: We contribute the most to NATO, we have the world’s largest economy and we shouldn’t allow Denmark to oppress Greenland any longer.

There’s precedent for this kind of thing; it’s analogous to how we freed Kosovo in 1999. The time to act is now—for Greenland, for America, and for the pursuit of liberty itself.

President Trump has again floated the idea of buying Greenland, which is an encouraging and exciting step.

I’m worried that he’s going about it the wrong way, by tying it to strange foreign policies like hostility towards Canada and aiming to retake the Panama Canal.

These make the Greenland purchase also seem in the same vein as these frivolities, instead of necessary.

His aggressiveness is also misaimed as it doesn’t seem to be for Greenlandic liberation. But the issue is being discussed, and that’s progress.