21 July 2009
Home Rule self governing of Greenland by Greenlanders in Greenland takes effect on the 21st of July 2009, Independence Day.
Greenland is now advancing quickly towards Step Two in the devolution to Independence. In Step Two, the Home Rule will become even more self governing, taking over even more areas of control from the Danish Government.
As the very first issue, Greenland’s politicians are saying, “We wan’t to take control and earnings from the underground mineral sector.”
The Third, and probably last, step in the devolution will very likely be total independence. Some have recokoned that might take another thirty years time. Others want it tomorrow.
One of the conditions imposed by Denmark for this Step Two, Self Governing, to happen, is that the Danish government, is required to go to the United Nations (UN), and explain that there most definitely is an indigenous Inuit population in Greenland after all, and that we demand and deserve the international recognition as an indigenous population.
Greenland was until 1953 a Danish colony. Today, Greenland is a semi-autonomous zone under the control of Denmark. Local opinion in Greenland is that Denmark somehow convinced the UN that the Inuit race had died out, or was so mixed up in bloodline with the Viking Norse and, later, with the European whalers, that there no longer was a indigenous population on the island. This attitude permited the Danish conquerers to ignore the native rights of Inuit when it suited them.