This is good news. In this era of globalisation and European unionising, Greenland votes to be free:
http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2008/11/gre...dependence.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Greenland Votes for Independence</b>
Greenland, the world's largest island, has voted overwhelmingly for independence. They are finally taking the bold steps necessary to achieve independence from European rule. While their population numbers in the mere tens of thousands, the natural resource wealth of their budding nation will open up tremendous opportunities for them in the future. Hopefully India will reach out to this fellow developing nation and facilitate its entry into the international community.
Posted by san at 11/26/2008 05:29:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: europe, global economy
<b>nizhal yoddha said...</b>
  most interesting. the indigenous peoples are now hitting the white guys were it hurts, i take it. bolivia did it first, electing morales -- a native american -- with a thumping majority. now the inuit are getting their act together too. india should (but won't) immediately offer its solidarity with the oppressed native populations of the world.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/artic...W_pxqk-sXh39NJQ
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Greenland votes massively in favour of self-rule</b>
1 day ago
NUUK, Greenland (AFP) â Greenland voted massively in favour of self-rule in a referendum that paves the way for independence from Denmark and gives it rights to lucrative Arctic resources, final results showed.
A total of 75.54 percent voted "yes" to greater autonomy, while 23.57 percent said "no."
A self-rule proposal hammered out with Denmark earlier this year gives Greenland, which was granted semi-autonomy from Copenhagen in 1979, rights to potentially lucrative Arctic resources, as well as control over justice and police affairs and, to a certain extent, foreign affairs.
The new status will take effect on June 21, 2009.
The head of the local government Hans Enoksen hailed the outcome in an emotional televised address.
"I say thank you to the people of Greenland for this overwhelming result. Greenland has been given a mandate to take another step" toward independence, he said.
In Nuuk, the capital that is home to a quarter of the island's 57,000-strong population, fireworks lit up the night sky even before the final results were announced.
Opinion polls prior to the referendum had suggested the result would be a clear "yes."
Anne Sofie Fisker, a voter in her 60s, was prophetic as she left a Nuuk polling station earlier in the day. "It's a day to celebrate, a historic day, one that I have waited for for years and years," she told AFP.
"It was time for us for to regain our rights and freedoms that were stolen from our ancestors, a people of free and proud hunters whose lands were colonised" by Denmark 300 years ago, said David Brandt, a former fisherman.
Others however, including Johannes Mathiassen, feared the self-rule "is too early, and the country is not ready to assume these new responsibilities."
There are potentially lucrative revenues from natural resources under Greenland's seabed, which according to international experts is home to large oil and gas deposits.
Melting ice in the Arctic owing to climate change could make the region more accessible to exploration in the future.
The countries ringing the Arctic Ocean -- Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States -- are currently competing over territorial claims in the region and Greenland is keen to garner its share.
A Danish-Greenlandic commission that studied which policy fields would be transferred to the local government in Nuuk in the event of self-rule proposed among other things that "the revenues from activities related to raw materials be distributed to Greenland" in return for reducing annual subsidies from Copenhagen.
<b>"Self-rule will bring with it only good things for Greenland,"</b> said Lars-Emil Johansen, who was prime minister of the island from 1991 to 1997 and who helped bring about its semi-autonomous status in 1979.
Home to the US Thule radar base, Greenland will also with its new status be consulted on foreign and defence policy, which are now decided by Copenhagen, but Nuuk would not have the final say and little is expected to change in that area.
Greenlanders, who voted to withdraw from the European Union in a 1982 referendum, will be also be recognised as a distinct people in line with international law, and Greenlandic will be recognised as the official language.
Most of the parties in the local parliament were in favour of self-rule, but a fringe movement, backed by a single political party, the Democrats, had opposed it.
"With such a tiny population it is impossible to provide the human contributions needed to turn Greenland into a modern and independent state," politician Finn Lyng said.
With its 2.1-million square kilometre (840,000 square mile) surface, 80 percent of which is covered by ice, Greenland is the world's largest island and contains 10 percent of the world's fresh water reserves.
It counts 57,000 inhabitants, 50,000 of whom are native Inuits.
In 2007, the territory received subsidies of 3.2 billion kroner (432 million euros, 540 million dollars) from Denmark, or about 30 percent of its gross domestic product.
The local government said 71.96 percent of the island's 39,000 eligible voters had cast ballots.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->If they vote for total independence from christoism, they will finally be completely free.
http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2008/11/gre...dependence.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Greenland Votes for Independence</b>
Greenland, the world's largest island, has voted overwhelmingly for independence. They are finally taking the bold steps necessary to achieve independence from European rule. While their population numbers in the mere tens of thousands, the natural resource wealth of their budding nation will open up tremendous opportunities for them in the future. Hopefully India will reach out to this fellow developing nation and facilitate its entry into the international community.
Posted by san at 11/26/2008 05:29:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: europe, global economy
<b>nizhal yoddha said...</b>
  most interesting. the indigenous peoples are now hitting the white guys were it hurts, i take it. bolivia did it first, electing morales -- a native american -- with a thumping majority. now the inuit are getting their act together too. india should (but won't) immediately offer its solidarity with the oppressed native populations of the world.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/artic...W_pxqk-sXh39NJQ
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Greenland votes massively in favour of self-rule</b>
1 day ago
NUUK, Greenland (AFP) â Greenland voted massively in favour of self-rule in a referendum that paves the way for independence from Denmark and gives it rights to lucrative Arctic resources, final results showed.
A total of 75.54 percent voted "yes" to greater autonomy, while 23.57 percent said "no."
A self-rule proposal hammered out with Denmark earlier this year gives Greenland, which was granted semi-autonomy from Copenhagen in 1979, rights to potentially lucrative Arctic resources, as well as control over justice and police affairs and, to a certain extent, foreign affairs.
The new status will take effect on June 21, 2009.
The head of the local government Hans Enoksen hailed the outcome in an emotional televised address.
"I say thank you to the people of Greenland for this overwhelming result. Greenland has been given a mandate to take another step" toward independence, he said.
In Nuuk, the capital that is home to a quarter of the island's 57,000-strong population, fireworks lit up the night sky even before the final results were announced.
Opinion polls prior to the referendum had suggested the result would be a clear "yes."
Anne Sofie Fisker, a voter in her 60s, was prophetic as she left a Nuuk polling station earlier in the day. "It's a day to celebrate, a historic day, one that I have waited for for years and years," she told AFP.
"It was time for us for to regain our rights and freedoms that were stolen from our ancestors, a people of free and proud hunters whose lands were colonised" by Denmark 300 years ago, said David Brandt, a former fisherman.
Others however, including Johannes Mathiassen, feared the self-rule "is too early, and the country is not ready to assume these new responsibilities."
There are potentially lucrative revenues from natural resources under Greenland's seabed, which according to international experts is home to large oil and gas deposits.
Melting ice in the Arctic owing to climate change could make the region more accessible to exploration in the future.
The countries ringing the Arctic Ocean -- Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States -- are currently competing over territorial claims in the region and Greenland is keen to garner its share.
A Danish-Greenlandic commission that studied which policy fields would be transferred to the local government in Nuuk in the event of self-rule proposed among other things that "the revenues from activities related to raw materials be distributed to Greenland" in return for reducing annual subsidies from Copenhagen.
<b>"Self-rule will bring with it only good things for Greenland,"</b> said Lars-Emil Johansen, who was prime minister of the island from 1991 to 1997 and who helped bring about its semi-autonomous status in 1979.
Home to the US Thule radar base, Greenland will also with its new status be consulted on foreign and defence policy, which are now decided by Copenhagen, but Nuuk would not have the final say and little is expected to change in that area.
Greenlanders, who voted to withdraw from the European Union in a 1982 referendum, will be also be recognised as a distinct people in line with international law, and Greenlandic will be recognised as the official language.
Most of the parties in the local parliament were in favour of self-rule, but a fringe movement, backed by a single political party, the Democrats, had opposed it.
"With such a tiny population it is impossible to provide the human contributions needed to turn Greenland into a modern and independent state," politician Finn Lyng said.
With its 2.1-million square kilometre (840,000 square mile) surface, 80 percent of which is covered by ice, Greenland is the world's largest island and contains 10 percent of the world's fresh water reserves.
It counts 57,000 inhabitants, 50,000 of whom are native Inuits.
In 2007, the territory received subsidies of 3.2 billion kroner (432 million euros, 540 million dollars) from Denmark, or about 30 percent of its gross domestic product.
The local government said 71.96 percent of the island's 39,000 eligible voters had cast ballots.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->If they vote for total independence from christoism, they will finally be completely free.