Maina wa Njuguna
President Donald Trump has often boasted of his the deal making expertise. Well, the GREENLAND SAGA will be the ultimate proof in the pudding of his PROWESS, and the whole world is watching closely.
This is Trump’s, and by extension the U.S. last shot at acquiring last northern frontier island. Will president Donald J Trump do what former US presidents Andrew Johnson, and Harry Truman failed to accomplish?
THE HIGH STAKES
The stakes have escalated as Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has said that Greenland is not for sale.
Greenland’s party leaders rejected President Trump’s repeated calls for the U.S. to take control of the island, saying that Greenland’s future must be decided by its people.
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night.
As Trump’s administration ratches up its rhetoric of owning the world’s largest island, Greenlanders have been on a path for total independence, a journey that culminated with gaining Home Rule in 1979 from Denmark, and greater autonomy via the Self-Government Act in 2009.
Former German vice-chancellor Robert Habeck has proposed the European Union (EU) should offer Greenland membership to buttress Europe’s interests in the territory.
He was puzzled by what seems to be the European Commission’s lack of vigor, saying, “As debates increasingly revolve around acquiring – or even occupying – the island, Europe’s lack of a counterproposal is striking. This should be the moment to explicitly offer EU membership to Greenland, and by extension to the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Norway – an idea recently raised in the European parliament.”
DANES RACIAL DISCRIMINATION OF GREENLANDERS
Denmark’s notorious past, and present ethnic, and racial discrimination of Greenlanders is coming back to bite them as external interests on the island escalate.
The IUD scandal is a case in point where a Danish government program forced thousands of young women in Greenland, many of them minors, to have intrauterine devices (IUD coils) inserted into their wombs as a form of compulsory birth control in the 1960s and 1970s.
Denmark’s forced contraception policy aimed to put an end to what Copenhagen viewed as excessive numbers of children born out of wedlock, and controlling birthrates on the island.
The victimized women not only sued the Danish government last year, but have demanded compensation and an official apology. The forced contraception program not only traumatized the population, but also led to health complications.
Denmark recently presented a number of initiatives aimed at combatting racism and discrimination towards the Greenlandic people to make some sorts of ammends following pressure of Trump’s determination to own the island.
Among the sweeteners to ‘buy’ Greenlanders, a right to finally have Greenlandic passports, a policy to protect Greenlanders who live in Denmark from prejudice.
“It is important to the government that Greenlanders can live in Denmark without being met with, which unfortunately is not the reality today,” Integration Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek said in a statement.
THE CHINA AND RUSSIA ANGLE
As we sit back to watch this movie, China, and Russia are definetly at the front lines. China’s claims accompanied by threats to the democratic republic of Taiwan, and Russia’s continued assaults on Ukraine, and other former Soviet Union satellite countries; how quickly these high stakes are resolved might likely hinge on where the Greenland Saga lands.
For Both China, and Russia, president Trump’s AMERICA FIRST POLICY which has antagonized the transatlantic alliances, a fracture, and an eventual demise of NATO might be the gift that will keep giving.
China’s quest to isolate the US from her long time European allies goes without question. China’s interests, and that of her BRICS allies to rewrite with US-led world order would be much easier with an isolated U.S.
As for Russia, Putin’s stated desire to reconstitute the Soviet Union (USSR) is lost on no one. USSR was composed of 15 republics led by Russia. USSR rapture in 1991 was a result of economic chaos has been described by Russia’s president Putin as a tragedy.
BRICS as a rival alliance to US led alliances, the DE-DOLARIZATION campaigns in which the global south countries, companies, and markets work to reduce, and eventually wean off their reliance on the U.S. dollar for international trade, finance, and foreign exchange reserves. This reliance also exacerbated by Trump’s trade tariffs on steroids.
The U.S. monetary policy, and often use of financial SANCTIONS to purnish countries not adhering to international laws has driven a desire for economic independenceThis movement is driven by a desire for greater economic independence and a reduced vulnerability to U.S. monetary policy and financial sanctions. The US uses sanctions as leverage to advance its foreign policy, national security goals, and often to pressure governments to change behaviors like human rights abuses, or security issues.
THE LOUISANA PURCHASE – 1803
For most Americans, driving through the midstates comes as no brainer. All territories that drained into the Mississippi River, from the Gulf coast in New Orleans to the US- Canadian border belonged to France.
Napoleon Bonaparte, France’s emperor was set to establish his French empire in North America. The 3rd president of the US, and architect of the US constitution Thomas Jefferson desired to expand the US territories westwards. He offered to buy the French colonies as a peaceful resolution to what was increasingly becoming a tinder box. Napoleon accepted, and the deal was sealed in 1803 for USD 15 million. The LOUISIANA PURCHASE doubled the size of the United States of America.
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ACQUIRING GREENLAND LIKELY TO BOOST TRUMP’S LEGACY
