| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 39.1 | Hunters rescued | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Tue Mar 10 1987 16:38 | 19 |
| Associated Press Tue 10-MAR-1987 12:54 BRF--Greenland-Rescue
Hunters Rescued after Week on Ice Floe
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Two polar bear hunters were rescued after a
week adrift on an ice floe off the northwestern coast of Greenland, but
16 sled dogs were lost, newspapers reported Tuesday. Police in Qaanaag,
Greenland, confirmed the report.
The hunters were following three polar bears on the ice off Greenland's
northwestern tip when a sudden storm caused the ice to break and they
started drifting away from shore. They survived on biscuits and other
provisions, but 16 of their 29 dogs died, the reports said. The hunters
shot nearby seals but could not collect them for food because the
surrounding ice was thin. When a police helicopter came to their rescue
Saturday, the ice floe had already drifted back to land.
Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, has 53,000 inhabitants,
including 43,600 Eskimos.
|
| 39.2 | I can't pronuonce it either. | COP01::STS | SVEND THEILL SORENSEN | Mon Mar 16 1987 06:30 | 21 |
| What do you think about having a customer with the name
QARASAAIAQARFIK?
It's better known as Q-data and it is a major DEC customer with
at least 7 clustered VAX 11/785 computers.
Q-data started out as the datacenter of the Royal Greenland Trade
handling nearly all retail trade (foods, buildings, material, you
name it - they've got it) and it is now the Computing and Statistical
Center of Greenland.
It's handled out of Copenhagen, but serviced by a resident DEC
engineer - soon maybe 2 residents.
That's quite a bit of VAX computing power when you look at the number
of people in Greenland - app. 1 Vax 11/785 pr. 7500 inhabitants.
I hope to mess up the renewal of their agreement so that I can get
a chance to go up there for negotiations.. :-)
Outlaw
|
| 39.3 | climate in Greenland? | TALLIS::DARCY | George @Littleton Mass USA | Mon Mar 16 1987 23:26 | 3 |
| Where in Greenland is Qarasaaiaqarfik located? What is the
climates in the non-glacier areas (during summer) ?
Would make an interesting trip.
|
| 39.4 | New head of government | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Jun 01 1987 10:01 | 42 |
| Associated Press Sat 30-MAY-1987 20:59 Greenland-Politics
Greenland has new leader in party shakeup
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Jonathan Motzfeldt is expected to be
replaced as the head of Greenland's semi-autonomous government
following a shakeup Saturday in his party and its coalition partner,
according to the Danish news media.
In the development described by the media as a "political coup," Lars
Emil Johansen was elected the new leader of the ruling social
democratic Siumut Party while Motzfeldt was on his way back to the
capital of Nuuk from a visit to southern Greenland.
Motzfeldt had headed Greenland's government as premier since the arctic
island attained semi-autonomous status from Denmark in 1979. But the
government's situation became uncertain following last week's election,
which was called a year early because of squabbling in the coalition of
Motzfeldt's Siumut party and its partner, the leftist Inuit
Ataqatigiit.
Johansen was selected to replace Motzfeld as head of the coalition that
holds 15 seats in the 27-seat legislature and will be able to form a
new government. Motzfelt came under criticism within his own party
after starting talks with the liberal Atassut opposition about a
possible alliance. Each party won 11 seats while the Inuit Ataqatigiit
won four and a new right wing party formed by fishermen took one seat.
Motzfelt also had been under attack for his stand on a U.S. radar
installation at the Thule airbase in northwestern Greenland. The
controversy dealt with whether an upgrading of the radar station
violated the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty between the United
States and the Soviet Union. The treaty bars the superpowers from
improving their defense against intercontinental missiles.
Danish Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen and Motzfeldt accepted
U.S. assurances that the station did not violate the treaty. While
Greenland's security and foreign policy remain vested with the Danish
government, the Thule radar base has been a major political issue here.
This vast and sparsely populated island has a population 53,000, and
43,600 are of Inuit or Eskimo origin.
|
| 39.5 | The language of Greenland | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Thu Sep 24 1987 13:29 | 37 |
| <<< UCOUNT::DUA4:[NOTES$LIBRARY]JOYOFLEX.NOTE;1 >>>
-< The Joy of Lex >-
================================================================================
Note 413.0 The Eskimo Language No replies
WELSWS::MANNION "Legendary Lancashire Heroes" 30 lines 24-SEP-1987 08:39
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An AP article appeared in yesterday's Guardian, too long to type
it all in here, but I'll copy it to anybody who wants it.
There were some rather interesting bits in it worth general noting,
though.
The Eskimo language is called Inuktitut in Canada, Inupit in Alaska
and Lalaallisut in Greenland. The article does not say what the
relationship between these three is, I assume it is a case of three
derivatives of one source. The Inuit of Alaska and Greenland use
the Roman alphabet, whereas the Canadians use "an exotic alphabet
called syllabics". Upto 50 Eskimo books are published in Greenland
each year, and are inaccessible to most Canadian Inuit, 67% of whom
speak Inuktitut at home - despite the onslaught of English.
The Inuit Circumpolar Conference is lobbying for a tripartite
broadcasting system to be established, and for the greater use of
Eskimo in schools - Canadian Inuit are taught in Inuktitut only
to Grade 3.
A US computer company has developed a syllabics wp system, allowing
publication of the weekly Nunatsiaq News to be computerised.
The article gives some examples of the development of Eskimo words
for new technology -
qangattaqtitausimajug - it has been made to fly - satellite
qarasaasiaq - little artificial brain - computer
Phillip
|
| 39.6 | stat from Denmark by Baedeker. | TELCOM::MAHLER | I make money the old fashioned way, I *earn* it. | Thu Sep 24 1987 15:07 | 34 |
|
Greenland
Area: 2,175,600 sq. km. (839,782 squ. miles)
Population: 51,000
Flag:
---------------------------------
| -- |
| /xxxxxxxx\ |
| |xxxxxxxx| |
| |xxxxxxxx| |
|xxxx| |xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|
|xxxx\ /xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|
|xxxxxxxx--xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|
|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx|
---------------------------------
Hey, I TRIED, right?
The largest Island in the world, is situated NE of the North
American coast. In the west, the island is seperated from the
Canadian Archipeligo by Davis Straight, Baffin Bay and Smith
Sound, in the E from Spitzbergen by the Greenland Sea and from
Iceland by the Denmark Straight.
By it's nature, the island forms part of the Arctic; 85 percent
of the surface is covered by a gigantic sheet of glacial ice
averaging some 4900 feet in thickness! The ice FREE area
[of course it's free, they have so much of it 8-] is
341,700 squ. km or 131,896 squ miles.
|
| 39.7 | 20 year old memory | MAY20::MINOW | Je suis Marxist, tendance Groucho | Thu Sep 24 1987 19:04 | 5 |
| At a linguistics institute, I met a fellow student who was from Greenland.
While in America, he travelled to Point Barrow, Alsaka, and had no trouble
conversing in his native language with the local Inuits.
Martin.
|
| 39.8 | Climate | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Fri Sep 25 1987 12:35 | 18 |
| Re: .3:
> What is the climate in the non-glacier areas (during summer) ?
No one else spoke up to answer the gentleman's questions in .3 so I
looked in the Library's copy of the Encylopedia Brittanica for climate
information. The encylopedia states that the town of Ivigtut, on the
southwest coast, has a normal mean monthly temperature of 49.5 degrees
F. (9.7 degrees C.) in July. For comparison, North American readers at
least will be able to appreciate that a mean monthly temperature of
49.2 degrees applies in the following situations:
Salt Lake City, Utah -- April
Juneau, Alaska -- September
San Francisco, California -- December
[Source of the US climate data was the Census Bureau's databook,
Statistical Abstracts of the US.]
|
| 39.9 | More Greenland party trivia | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Mon Nov 09 1987 16:20 | 24 |
| There are no daily newspapers published in Greenland and only two
weeklies, Atuagagdliutit/Gr�nlandsposten and Sermitsiag. [Anyone
what to subscribe? I do have the addresses!]
On the other hand, there were estimated to be approximately 12,000
television receivers in use in 1984 (about one for every fourth
inhabitant). The TV signal is fed via microwave link from 'Grenlands
Radio' studios in Nuuk (Godth�b) and distributed to most parts of the
west coast by cable and transmitters. There is also the American Armed
Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) TV station at S�ndre
Str�mfjord that transmits 16 hours a day [No Greenlandic subtitles
I'm sure.].
The only court in Greenland with a professional judge is the higher
court in Nuuk, called the 'Landsret.' All other courts use lay
assessors.
The Inuit Ataqatigiit (Eskimo Brotherhood) is currently Greenlands
second largest political party. In the elections of 6 June, 1984, the
Brotherhood earned 11 seats in the 25-member legislative body, the
'Landsting.' The Inuit Ataqatigiit has strong leftist leanings; its
platform calls for Greenland citizenship to be restricted to those of
Eskimo parentage and advocates Greenland's eventual independence from
Denmark.
|
| 39.10 | Rise and fall of the Norse settlements | MLTVAX::SAVAGE | Neil @ Spit Brook | Fri Feb 02 1990 11:17 | 132 |
| The following account was taken from an article by John and Mary
Gribbin, entitled "Climate and history: the Westviking's saga" that
appears in the magazine New Scientist, pp 52-55, 20 January 1990.
...
The story of the Viking voyagers has been embroidered down the
centuries, but large chunks of what seem to be genuine history are to
be found in the sagas, the oral histories of those days, written down
and preserved centuries later. The _Landnam Saga_ tells of the first
settlements in Iceland, and the _Greenlander Saga_ tells of the first
voyages and settlements farther west.
...
The sagas tell that Norse voyagers were blown off course and reached
Iceland by mistake in the 850s. The first attempt at a Norse settlement
there, led by a farmer, Floki Vilgerdason, took place in the 860s. As
we know from the record on the ice cores, Floki's band of adventurous
farmers arrived in the lands of the North Atlantic at the end of a run
of cold decades in the middle of the little optimum [a period of
relative climatic warmth - TT]. He lost his cattle in a severe winter,
and came home to Scandinavia with tales of "a fjord filled up by ice."
as the _Landnam Saga_ records. As so, the saga continues, "he called
the country Iceland".
Ironically, this is just about the last mention of sea ice near Iceland
for 300 years. In the 870s, the North Atlantic was warming up, and
other settlers following Floki's wake found Iceland much more
hospitable. They established a thriving colony, in spite of the
island's name.
Over the next couple of centuries, in the warmth of the little optimum,
some Norse travelers voyaged to the Mediterranean, trading with Italy
and the Arab world. Others, following the great river systems, moved
far into continental Europe, where they helped to found the state that
became Russia. Some even followed the rivers south and east as far as
Byzantium. From 900 to 1100, if Europe belonged to anyone, it belonged
to the Norse. They very nearly established permanent colonies in
America, as well.
Floki and the farmers who followed him had not been Vikings in the true
sense of the word, although they must have been rather tougher that the
average farmer in Europe today. But the next stage in the sagas of the
Westvikings fully lives up to their bloodthirsty image.
In 960, back in Norway, a rather nasty character called Thorvald
Asvaldsson killed a man and was forced to flee to Iceland, taking his
family with him. A hundred years after Floki's ill-fated voyage, the
settlement was well established, and the good land in the south of the
island was all occupied. Thorvald had to make do with poor land in the
north. But his son, Erik, married into a good family and set himself up
on a better farm. He seemed set for a secure life in Iceland when a
violent streak to match that of his father surfaced.
Outdoing Thorvald, Erik killed two men. In 982, he was banished from
Iceland for three years, to give him time to cool down. The sagas refer
to him as "Erik the Red", and it is tempting to see this as an
indication of his violent temper; it may just be that he had red hair.
Erik, with a shipload of followers, headed west. He had decided to use
his period of exile to explore a region that he had heard of in vague
stories: islands to the west of Iceland that had only been seen by lost
voyagers, more anxious to return home than to explore. The land he
reached was mostly rough and rugged. But there was a deep fjord on the
southwestern coast, well protected from the sea, warmed by the Gulf
Stream, and with adequate land for farming nearby. Conditions were
rather like those he had left behind in Iceland, and Erik called the
new country Greenland.
...
Researchers now know, from the ice thermometer, that Erik arrived in
Greenland near the end of a particularly warm period of the little
optimum, and that the coastal region where he landed must have been
green and fertile, by the standards of Icelanders at that time.
...
Once they had settled in Greenland, it was probably inevitable that the
Norse would also reach the mainland of North America. In fact it was
Leif Eriksson, the son of Erik the Red, who led the first expeditions
to explore the new land. They established at least two settlements,
and, for a time, provided valuable timber for the settlers in
Greenland. Leif became both rich and famous from his travels, earning
the name "Leif the Lucky". But the luck of the Westvikings was about
to change.
By the end of the 12th century, the little climatic optimum was past
its peak. Temperatures declined by about two degrees from the relative
warmth of the past few centuries to, typically, two or three degrees
below freezing. When the ice came back to Greenland in full force, the
Norse colonists were doomed, but not because life in that part of the
world became impossible. They failed to survive because they did not
adapt to the changing conditions around them.
In round terms, the Greenland colonies survived for 500 years, from
1000 to 1500, so they were far from being complete failures.
...
When the North Atlantic region cooled by about 2�C in the 13th and 14th
centuries, the colonies in Greenland were affected in many adverse
ways. Sea ice spread southward, making voyages to Iceland more
difficult and dangerous. With the ice, the Iniut came south, into more
direct conflict with the Norse. And on the farms, summer was now too
short and wet to provide enough hay to see the cattle through the
winter. Even the seals seemed to have changed their migratory habits,
perhaps because of changes in ocean currents, removing another
essential resource.
In the face of this, the Norse carried on their traditional way of life
as best they could, for as long as they could. ... The Greenlander's
last bishop died in 1378, and was never replaced; there was no
deliberate contact with the colonies at all after 1408, although
occasional ships would put in to trade or seek shelter. Archaeological
studies have now shown how the the surviving members of the shrinking
community carried on farming and raising cattle. The eloquent testimony
of skeletons from the graveyard shows that as conditions became harsher
and food more scarce, the average height of the Greenlanders declined
from about 177 centimeters in Erik's day to about 164 centimeters by
the 1440s.
Europeans maintained intermittent contact with the colonies during the
15th century. The last bodies laid to rest in the graveyard, preserved
by the even more severe weather that followed, were dressed in styles
from Europe from about 1500. Early in the 16th century, the last
colonist died. In 1540, ships driven to Greenland by severe weather
found no one left alive, and one dead man frozen where he had fallen.
[The article ends with several paragraphs that discuss the lesson:
"adapt or die." - TT]
|
| 39.11 | Acknowledgement to originator | OSL09::MAURITZ | DTN(at last!)872-0238; @NWO | Mon Feb 05 1990 05:51 | 16 |
| Neil,
I may have broken a rule just now, but not being versed in "NOTES"
jurisprudence, I hope to be forgiven.
I SAVE'ed your note on the history of the Greenland Colony (.10)
and did a WRITE of it into the conference STKCSC::HISTORY, thinking
that such an interesting piece had relevance for a much wider audience
than Scandia-freaks. (Don't let the Stockholm node fool you; the
moderator and myself are the only Scandinavians in the bunch---
participants are from all corners of the world)
Mauritz
(If I broke protocol, can you tell me how it SHOULD be done?)
|
| 39.12 | On copying Note .10 | WHYVAX::SAVAGE | Neil @ Spit Brook | Mon Feb 05 1990 09:45 | 8 |
| Re: .11:
Hej Mauritz,
If you did break protocol, you repaired it with your acknowledgement as
far as I'm concerned. I presume you copied it in its entirely, which
thus preserves the attribution as to the source (original authorship)
of the article.
|
| 39.13 | Not bad
| DUM::T_PARMENTER | Say no to voodoo tamales | Mon Feb 05 1990 16:42 | 2 |
| 500 years. Hmm. That's two years longer than the Columbus thing, which is
only in its 498th year.
|
| 39.14 | Acknowledgement #2 | OSL09::MAURITZ | DTN(at last!)872-0238; @NWO | Tue Feb 06 1990 03:17 | 8 |
| re .13
I also took the liberty to put a copy (in its entirety) of your
reply into the STKCSC::HISTORY conference. (That was indeed a clever
reply).
Mauritz
|
| 39.15 | There's gold... | MLTVAX::SAVAGE | Neil @ Spit Brook | Mon Feb 26 1990 09:13 | 10 |
| Extracted from the March 1990 Reader's Digest, page 130:
Canadian geologists have discovered a potentially huge gold deposit in
Greenland. The Danish newspaper _Jyllands-Posten_ revealed that the
deposit in on Greenland's east coast and covers about 15 square miles.
The paper compared the size of the discovery with that of some mines in
South Africa, the world's biggest gold producer. Mining of the precious
metal could begin in five years, and scientists calculate the deposit
might yield 12 tons of gold annually.
- AP
|
| 39.16 | Re: .5 & .7: some references for Greenlandic | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Mar 16 1992 15:17 | 73 |
| From: [email protected] (Bjorn Ellertsson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Greenlandic?
Date: 13 Mar 92 06:48:00 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
o You might try contacting Henrik Homboe at Aarhus University
for references. There is e.g. a decent dictionary.
Below are some books available in the US.
Bjorn
================
Author: Collis, Dermot Ronan F.
Title: Pour une semiologie de l'esquimau [par] Dermot Ronan F. Collis.
[Paris] Dunod [1971]
UCLA URL P 25 D66 no.14
Author: Fortescue, Michael D.
Title: West Greenlandic / Michael Fortescue. London ; Dover, N.H. :
Croom Helm, c1984.
UCLA URL PM 62 F6 1984
Author: Gessain, Robert.
Title: Vocabulaire du Groenlandais de l'est : 1473 mots de la langue
des Ammassalimiut avec leur traduction en Groenlandais de
l'ouest, francais, anglais et danois / Robert Gessain,
Louis-Jacques Dorais, Catherine Enel. Paris : Laboratoire
d'Anthropologie du Museum National d'Histoire naturelle, 1982.
UCSD Central PM63 .G47 1982
Author: Rischel, Jorgen.
Title: Topics in West Greenlandic phonology : regularities underlying
the phonetic appearance of wordforms in a polysynthetic
language / Jorgen Rischel. Kobenhavn, Akademisk Forlag :
Eksp., DBK, 1974.
UCLA URL PM 62 R57 1974
Author: Birket-Smith, Kaj, 1893-
Title: Five hundred Eskimo words : a comparative vocabulary from
Greenland and Central Eskimo dialects / by Kaj Birket-Smith.
New York : AMS Press, 1976.
UCR Rivera PM63 .B5 1976
Author: Klausen, A.
Title: Greenlandic dictionary of useful phrases and military terms, by
A. Klausen. Edited by William J. Walsh with the help of B.F.
Hoffman and Charles Sheehan. Julianehaab, Greenland [1942]
Description: 51, 7 p.
Notes: "U-1470, AF."
Mimeograph copy.
Call numbers: UCSB Library PM63 .K58
Title: Pioneers of Eskimo grammar : Hans Egede's and Albert Top's early
manuscripts on Greenlandic / edited by Knut Bergsland & Jorgan
Rischel on the basis of preparatory work by Marie Krekling
Johannessen & Ole Solberg. Copenhagen : The Linguistic Circle
of Copenhagen, 1986.
UCD Main Lib P25.L56 v.21
Author: Thalbitzer, William Carl, 1873-1958.
Title: A phonetical study of the Eskimo language, based on observations
made on a journey in North Greenland 1900-1901; with a
historical introduction about the east Eskimo, a comparison of
the Eskimo dialects, a new collection of Greenlandic
folk-tales, songs and music, and a map of the Eskimo
territories, by William Thalbitzer .. Copenhagen, Printed by
B. Luno, 1904.
UCB Anthropol E99.E7 T666
--
Bj"orn Ellertsson, Program in Computing, UCLA (310) 825-4701
Internet: [email protected] BITNET: bje%math.ucla.edu@INTERBIT
UUCP:...!{ucsd,purdue,rutgers,uunet}!math.ucla.edu!bje
|
| 39.17 | from the CIA World Factbook | TLE::SAVAGE | | Tue Jun 30 1992 13:42 | 227 |
| Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: [email protected] (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Subject: CIA World Factbook 1991 on nordic countries
Sender: [email protected] (Usenet pseudouser id)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1992 14:41:44 GMT
Copied from the gopher server tree, definitions for terms available
there.
Greenland
(part of the Danish realm)
------------ Geography
Total area: 2,175,600 km2; land area: 341,700 km2 (ice free)
Comparative area: slightly more than three times the size of Texas
Land boundaries: none
Coastline: 44,087 km
Maritime claims:
Exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm;
Territorial sea: 3 nm
Disputes: Denmark has challenged Norway's maritime claims between
Greenland and Jan Mayen
Climate: arctic to subarctic; cool summers, cold winters
Terrain: flat to gradually sloping icecap covers all but a narrow,
mountainous, barren, rocky coast
Natural resources: zinc, lead, iron ore, coal, molybdenum,
cryolite, uranium, fish
Land use: arable land 0%; permanent crops 0%; meadows and pastures
1%; forest and woodland NEGL%; other 99%
Environment: sparse population confined to small settlements along
coast; continuous permafrost over northern two-thirds of the island
Note: dominates North Atlantic Ocean between North America and
Europe
------------ People
Population: 56,752 (July 1991), growth rate 1.2% (1991)
Birth rate: 20 births/1,000 population (1991)
Death rate: 8 deaths/1,000 population (1991)
Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1991)
Infant mortality rate: 28 deaths/1,000 live births (1991)
Life expectancy at birth: 63 years male, 69 years female (1991)
Total fertility rate: 2.2 children born/woman (1991)
Nationality: noun--Greenlander(s); adjective--Greenlandic
Ethnic divisions: Greenlander (Eskimos and Greenland-born
Caucasians) 86%, Danish 14%
Religion: Evangelical Lutheran
Language: Eskimo dialects, Danish
Labor force: 22,800; largely engaged in fishing, hunting, sheep
breeding
------------ Government
Long-form name: none
Type: part of the Danish realm; self-governing overseas
administrative division
Capital: Nuuk (Godthab)
Administrative divisions: 3 municipalities (kommuner,
singular--kommun); Nordgronland, Ostgronland, Vestgronland
Independence: part of the Danish realm; self-governing overseas
administrative division
Constitution: Danish
Legal system: Danish
National holiday: Birthday of the Queen, 16 April (1940)
Executive branch: Danish monarch, high commissioner, home rule
chairman, prime minister, Cabinet (Landsstyre)
Legislative branch: unicameral Landsting
Judicial branch: High Court (Landsret)
Leaders:
Chief of State--Queen MARGRETHE II (since 14 January 1972),
represented by High Commissioner Bent KLINTE (since NA);
Head of Government--Home Rule Chairman Lars Emil JOHANSEN
(since 15 March 1991)
Political parties and leaders: two-party ruling
coalition--Siumut (a moderate socialist party that advocates more
distinct Greenlandic identity and greater autonomy from Denmark), Lars
Emil JOHANSEN, chairman; and Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA; a Marxist-Leninist
party that favors complete independence from Denmark rather than home
rule);
Atassut Party (a more conservative party that favors continuing close
relations with Denmark), leader NA;
Polar Party (conservative-Greenland nationalist), leader NA;
Center Party (a new nonsocialist protest party), leader NA
Suffrage: universal at age 18
Elections:
Landsting--last held on 5 March 1991 (next to be held 5 March
1995);
results--percent of vote by party NA;
seats--(27 total) Siumut 11, Atassut Party 8, Inuit Ataqatigiit
5, Center Party 2, Polar Party 1;
Danish Folketing--last held on 12 December 1990 (next to be held by
December 1994); Greenland elects two representatives to the Folketing;
results--percent of vote by party NA;
seats--(2 total) Siumut 1, Atassut 1
Member of: NC
Diplomatic representation: none (self-governing overseas
administrative division of Denmark)
Flag: two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a
large disk slightly to the hoist side of center--the top half of the
disk is red, the bottom half is white
------------ Economy
Overview: Over the past 25 years, the economy has changed from one
based on subsistence whaling, hunting, and fishing to one dependent on
foreign trade. Fishing is still the most important industry, accounting
for over 75% of exports and about 25% of the population's income.
Maintenance of a social welfare system similar to Denmark's has given
the public sector a dominant role in the economy. In 1990, the economy
became critically dependent on shrimp exports and an annual subsidy
(now about $355 million) from the Danish Government because cod exports
had fallen, the zinc and lead mine closed, and a large promising
platinum and gold mine was not yet operational. Greenland has signed a
contract for its largest construction project, a power plant to supply
the capital. To avoid a decline in the economy, Denmark has agreed to
pay 75% of the costs of running Sondrestrom Airbase and Kulusuk
Airfield as civilian bases after the US withdraws in 1992.
GNP: $500 million, per capita $9,000; real growth rate 5% (1988)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 4.4% (1989)
Unemployment rate: 9% (1990 est.)
Budget: revenues $381 million; expenditures $381 million, including
capital expenditures of $36 million (1989)
Exports: $417 million (f.o.b., 1989 est.);
commodities--fish and fish products 78%, metallic ores and
concentrates 19%;
partners--Denmark 74%, FRG 11%, Sweden 6%
Imports: $394 million (c.i.f., 1989 est.);
commodities--manufactured goods 36%, machinery and transport
equipment 26%, food products 13%, petroleum and petroleum products
10%;
partners--Denmark 69%, Norway, FRG, Japan, US, Sweden
External debt: $480 million (1990 est.)
Electricity: 84,000 kW capacity; 176 million kWh produced,
3,180 kWh per capita (1989)
Industries: fish processing (mainly shrimp), potential for
platinum and gold mining, handicrafts, shipyards
Agriculture: sector dominated by fishing and sheep raising; crops
limited to forage and small garden vegetables; 1988 fish catch of 133,500
metric tons
Economic aid: none
Currency: Danish krone (plural--kroner); 1 Danish krone (DKr)
= 100 ore
Exchange rates: Danish kroner (DKr) per US$1--5.817 (January 1991),
6.189 (1990), 7.310 (1989), 6.732 (1988), 6.840 (1987), 8.091 (1986),
10.596 (1985)
Fiscal year: calendar year
------------ Communications
Highways: 80 km
Ports: Kangerluarsoruseq (Faeringehavn), Paamiut (Frederikshaab),
Nuuk (Godthaab), Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg), Julianehaab, Maarmorilik,
North Star Bay
Merchant marine: 1 refrigerated cargo (1,000 GRT or over) totaling
1,021 GRT/1,778 DWT; note--operates under the registry of Denmark
Civil air: 2 major transport aircraft
Airports: 11 total, 8 usable; 5 with permanent-surface runways;
none with runways over 3,659 m; 2 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 2 with
runways 1,220-2,439 m
Telecommunications: adequate domestic and international service
provided by cables and radio relay; 17,900 telephones; stations--5 AM,
7 (35 relays) FM, 4 (9 relays) TV; 2 coaxial submarine cables; 1 Atlantic
Ocean INTELSAT earth station
------------ Defense Forces
Note: defense is responsibility of Denmark
|
| 39.18 | Rare seismic event | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Jul 20 1992 12:30 | 14 |
| From: [email protected] (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.news.disaster,clari.news.europe
Subject: Quake in Greenland Sea
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 6:03:44 PDT
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- An earthquake was reported Monday in the Greenland
Sea, far from land, and no damage was reported, the U.S. Geologic Survey
said.
Spokeswoman Rebecca Phipps said the quake registered 6.7 on the
Richter scale and was centered 315 miles southeast of Nord, Greenland, a
research station, and 690 miles northwest of Tronso, Norway. It struck
at 3:47 a.m. EDT.
Phipps said it was the biggest quake in the area since one
registering 6.8 in June 1915.
|
| 39.19 | Alternative home for Santa Claus | TLE::SAVAGE | | Tue Sep 01 1992 15:13 | 89 |
| Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: [email protected] (Foxvog Douglas)
Subject: Greenland claiming residence of Santa Claus
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: VTT
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1992 12:10:18 GMT
According to a Reuters report in the 8-17-92 Washington Times which
someone sent me (quoting without permission):
GREENLAND MAKES IT OFFICIAL WITH $2 MILLION SANTA CENTER
COPENHAGEN (Reuters)-- Greenland has haunched an official Santa Claus
Post Office complete with psychologists[!] who will help answer up to
100,000 letters a year from children all over the world.
The post office in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, part of a $2 million
Santa center that will be ready before Christmas, was inaugurated by
Danish Prime Minister Poul Schlueter on Tuesday [11-8-92].
"Letters arrive every day, even in the summer. There were 80,000 last
year and we think the figure will rise," *marketing manager* Frank Busk
told Reuters by telephone.... All letters receive a reply and a token
gift from Santa.
The Christmas entertainment theme park, situated in an abandoned
dockyard, also features a workshop at which visitors can buy gifts, a
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's Restaurant, Eskimo handicrafts and
stage shows.
It aims to attract American and Japanese charter tourists.
Greenland, Denmark's Arctic province, which is suffering from economic
recession, hopes Santa Claus will generate around $20 million in income
a year for the island.
Mr. Schlueter said it is now an undisputed fact that Santa lives in
Greenland.
"Legend has it that he lives in a castle of ice in Greenland, close to
the North Pole. He still does. But now we know that Santa's Post
Office is to be found in Nuuk, Greenland," said a first-day cover.
Finland, a competitor for lucrative Christmas trade, has also claimed
Santa as its own.
But the 29th World Congress of Father Christmases, meeting in
*Copenhagen*, agreed that Santa's sole address was "c/o the North Pole,
Greenland," and that FINLAND'S SANTA WAS NOT ALLOWED TO ATTEND, said Mr.
Busk, the marketing manager of Santa's Post Office.
============End of Quoted text====================
This is an attempt by Greenland and Denmark to grab a share of the
income Finland receives from being the land where Santa lives. Finland
has a Santa's Post Office near the Arctic Circle at the town of Rovaniemi,
where Santa receives hundreds of thousands of letters a year.
Santa does not live in Rovaniemi, but every Finnish child knows that he
really lives on Korvatunturi, a hill on the Russian border in Lapland
far from any roads. I know that US kids are told that Santa lives at
the North Pole, but that does not agree with the reindeer in the area or
the buildings made from local wood. Both of these points also can serve
to demonstrate that Greenland also has the wrong environment for Santa's
residence.
The point of the Christmas theme park is obviously to raise money --
they hope to receive $20M per year (over $300 per resident of
Greenland), mostly from charter tourists. Rovaniemi currently receives
a number of Concordes from the UK and Japan with Christmas tourists.
Mr. Schlueter's claim in the article, that it is an undisputed fact that
Santa lives in Greenland, is totally false, as millions of people realize
that he lives in Finland. How could his residence be "in Greenland,
close to the North Pole" when New York is closer to Miami than Greenland
is to the Pole?
Denmark rigged its "World Congress of Father Christmasses" by not
allowing attendees from Finland. Despite what they say, Santa's sole
address is NOT "c/o the North Pole, Greenland," as the Rovaniemi post
office which handles Santa's mail has not received a change of address.
The correct address for Santa Claus is:
Santa Claus [or St. Nick, Father Christmas, ... in any language]
Rovaniemi 99999
Finland
The mail will also get to Santa with "Arctic Circle", "Korvatunturi", or
even nothing as the town name (and of course people from other countries
are not expected to know the postal code).
Greenland may set up its theme park, but as the stickers available in
the post offices say, "Santa Claus comes from Finland."
--
doug foxvog
[email protected]
|
| 39.20 | Re: .10: demise of the Norse settlement | TLE::SAVAGE | | Wed Nov 30 1994 11:18 | 65 |
| An excerpt from:
<><><><><><><><> T h e V O G O N N e w s S e r v i c e <><><><><><><><>
Edition : 3204 Wednesday 30-Nov-1994 Circulation : 5267
VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH: [W. Stuart Crippen, VNS Correspondent]
===================== [Acton, MA, USA ]
Viking teeth recount sad Greenland Tale
---------------------------------------
From Science News, November 12, 1994, Vol. 146, No. 19, Pg 310
Author: R. Monastersky
Although 500-year-old corpses can't describe their deaths, geochemists
have found a way to pull vital clues directly from the mouths of ancient
Norsemen whose colony in Greenland thrived for centuries before
disappearing mysteriously in the late 1400's. Studies of oxygen locked
within the enamel of the Viking teeth reveal that Greenland's once
balmy climate turned frigid, sealing the colony's fate.
Henry C. Fricke of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his
colleagues are the first researchers to decipher information about past
climates using isotopic evidence from human bodies. While geochemists
often use oxygen isotopes to reconstruct conditions, they typically
analyze oxygen from non-biological materials such as seafloor sediments,
soil, or ancient ice.
"People are interested in humans and their relationship to climate
change. If this technique works, it tells what kind of climate the
humans lived under because the evidence comes directly from humans,"
comments Paul Koch of Princeton University.
Fricke and his colleagues tried the technique because previous studies
on modern animals had shown that tooth enamel records the ratio of
oxygen-18 to oxygen-16 in precipitation consumed by the animals during
their formative years. That isotopic ratio, in turn, indicates the local
temperature.
Fricke and his coworkers looked at 29 teeth uncovered at three
archaeological sites in Greenland and one in Denmark. to test the
technique, they documented that the isotopic ratios varied as expected
with latitude. Next, the researchers looked at how ratios changed over
time in souther Greenland. By comparing teeth from the year 1100 with
those from 1450, they found that mean annual temperatures dropped by
about 1.5C, which would have had significant effects, says Fricke. They
reported their findings late last month at a meeting of the Geological
Society of America in Seattle.
The tooth study corroborates other evidence linking climate to demise of
the Norsemen on Greenland. The colony had flourished during the first
few centuries of this millennium, but a cooling in the 1300s and an
increase in icebergs hampered shipping between Greenland and Iceland,
ultimately cutting off contact with Greenland. Historians believe that
the colder temperatures brought food and fuel shortages. When ships
again reached Greenland in the late 1400s, no living colonists remained,
says Fricke.
Climate may not have worked alone, however. As the region cooled,
northern Inuit moved into the Europeans' territory. Anthropologists
have wondered whether conflict with the Inuit helped extinguish the
Norse colony.
<><><><><><><><> VNS Edition : 3204 Wednesday 30-Nov-1994 <><><><><><><><>
|