There's nothing more American than Trump's proposal to buy Greenland as if it were a hamburger.
There's nothing more European than the exquisitely polite way they told him to get lost and mind his own business.
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I'm the son of a Danish-born father, and I have a significant personal connection to Denmark's ownership of Greenland.
Greenland is the largest island in the world, yet today it is almost entirely uninhabited.
The island is covered in ice and snow, and the few residents who live there are concentrated along the coastline, where they can make a living from fishing.
For years, ownership of this vast island was disputed between Denmark and Norway, both of which had their eyes on its strategic location and the enormous natural resources buried deep beneath its surface.
After Norway began showing signs of asserting sovereignty over the island, the matter was referred to arbitration at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In the first hearing, Norway came out on top.
For the next hearing, a senior Danish lawyer was urgently dispatched to represent Denmark — and went on to lead the country to victory in the case in 1933.
That lawyer's name was Georg Arie Cohen, and he was my father's uncle (pictured in the attached photo).
From that day to this, there is even some remote, uninhabited area of Greenland named after him in commemoration of the event.
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And one more interesting detail to close with:
Greenland has the highest suicide rate in the world, by a significant margin over any other country.
Apparently, living in a frozen wasteland is no walk in the park 😉
If you'd like to read more about Trump's proposal and what lies behind it, I invite you to read a wonderful article on the subject written by Dikla Sharabi — I'll add a link in the comments.