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Welcome to the Free Greenland Ruby website the official website of The 16th August Union.
In the eastern arctic today a group of native Inuit Greenlanders are being systematically prevented by their government and the Danish Colonialistic Government from practicing their traditional small-scale ruby prospecting and from economically benefiting from the Greenland Ruby stock. According to the native Greenlanders, their local government is acting in collusion with a Canadian mining corporation creating a ruby monopoly to the exclusion of the native Greenlanders.
Native Greenlanders are Inuit (“eskimo”) people with native rights to the land written into law and enshrined as custom. Inuit have centuries of practice with the ruby. Their rights enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and The United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights have been intentionally violated. Greenland’s government is a former relict of colonial Denmark, the self goverment Parliament of Greenland dosen't own the ownership to the undergorund, it is still owned and controlled by the danish goverment.
Breaking news to this issue is that Greenland finds it self today with an opationety to take the ownership to the underground, and there by the minerals home from the danish goverment. As some of you might know, Greenland declared it self as self governed in june 21 this year, we haven't resiewed total independency, but we have gained some rights, in one of those rights law the right to the underground.
Another Breaking news is that there has been an drastic change in the politic arena, the former strickly goverment who was quit hostile to the 16th union is now replaced by new goverment who see things more like we do.
We were quick to make a contact to the new minister of mineral and petrol, and he ordred the BMP office to meet with our union and its entourage, that meeting can be readed in this link, written by the 16th unions best friend Greg Valerio, who also were in that meeting.
At the end of the meeting we became what the call it as; a hearingspart to the upcoming law for the underground and there by a change to be in the process of cowritting the legistation for a proper small scale mining law.
We do take that change seriously, because the fact is still this that we find the existing law for small scale mining law unfitted to our traditions and way of living.
Greenlander’s know that the small-scale mining of ruby is a positive economic asset during times of drastic cultural transition due to global climate change. The effects of global climate change are most pronounced and most clearly evident at highest latitudes, towards either pole. The Arctic and Antarctic are the “canaries in the coal mine” of global warming.
The 16 August Union was formed as a small scale miners union to defend their rights and traditions to collect and commercialise Ruby and all other precious stones on the Island of Greenland for all future generations. The politics of the situation are complicated and revolve around the issues of Native Indigenous Rights, European Colonial Power, mineral wealth and trans-national companies and the right to self-determination and democracy. The natural resources of this beautiful island belong to its people and the Ruby is quickly becoming the symbol of the inuit peoples right to determine their own economic destiny free from colonial and neo-colonial interference as well as a link to their rich and historic traditions.
- We are back in business
- 18/05/2012 7:19pm
- After a very long time out of the picture I am delighted to let everyone know that the 16 August Union is still out their and campaigning hard on the Ruby issue and the other mysterious issues surrounding the development of the mining and mineral sector in Greenland. The Union have a very active Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/308551699160262/) that I want to ask everyine to visit and contribute to. Over the coming weeks we will be looking to reactivate this site as a campaign platform to bring some international transparency to the development or regression of the mining issues in Greenland. Please we need you help to make this issue as internationally profiled as possible, so please forward this website to everyone you know. the more poeople we have following, the more pressure we can bring to the injustices that are taking place.Read more >>
- Appeal for help from Founder of 16th August Union
- 13/05/2009 10:36pm
- Niels Madsen, Inuit Founder of the 16th Union, Appeals For Help Against Greenlandic Government[http://www.fairjewelry.org/archives/1759]Read more >>
- Freegreenlandruby Now Online
- 23/04/2009 10:05pm
- Free Greenland Ruby, the official Website for the 16th August Union is now online.Read more >>