Trump wants to buy Greenland but whose Greenland is it anyway?
If you have been watching the news lately, you´ve probably heard that US president Donald Trump has expressed an interest and desire to buy Greenland from Denmark. According to Trump, this would be just like any other real estate deal, albeit a very large real estate deal, as Greenland is about the same size of Western Europe, from Poland to Portugal.
This news was at first met with smiles and incredulity, as the idea seemed rather far fetched and maybe just a little crazy. But after Trump cancelled his official visit to Denmark, of which Greenland is still part of, in part because the Danish government refused to discuss this large real estate deal, people started to realize that president Trump was actually quite serious about the whole thing.
This then lead to anger, both in Denmark and Greenland, since it is quite clear that Greenland is not for sale and that selling a whole country, along with its inhabitants, is simply not something that is done in our times.
However, unknown to most, when the news broke about Trump´s interest in buying Greenland, the prime minister of Greenland said jokingly that it would be more natural for Greenland to get USA back to the Greenlandic nation. Say what?
Let´s go way back in history.
About 1.100 years ago, Vikings from Norway settled in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, making new homes where they could enjoy religious freedoms and have new land for themselves. While some where content to start new lives in Iceland, some of the more adventurous vikings wanted to sail even further west and see if they could find even better land. One of them, Eric the Red, found a new place and named it Greenland and made it his home.
Later on, his son, Leif the Lucky Ericsson, continued in father´s footsteps (or sailing path?) and traveled even further west, making landfall in Newfoundland in Canada. To the peoples of Iceland and Greenland, there´s no question that we were the first to find and claim the Americas, not Columbus and those other guys who came super late to the party.
But the prime minister of Greenland, Kim Kielsen, said that he didn’t expect to have to pay too much for the USA because of the monstrous foreign debt. He also added that if Trump was to be part of the deal, the price would have to be even lower.
I think we can all agree that it is very unlikely that the USA gets to buy Greenland and that it´s probably even less likely that the USA will be returned to Greenland (or Iceland!) anytime soon.
Instead of trying to buy countries, we at Nonni Travel highly recommend investing in experiences, like traveling to Greenland!
