Tourist guide stuff

I've titled this input "tourist stuff" not because I'm gonna write page after page about all the amazing tourist offers we have here in Nuuk (because at this time of year that wouldn't even take up a whole line) but because I've been asked to write some very general textbook/guidebook material for people who don't feel like reading a rough guide themselves or who's unable to look up Greenland at Wikipedia. So, if you're one of them then enjoy the read:-)

To start with Nuuk (which means "the headland") it has just under 16.000 inhabitants and is by far the biggest town in Greenland. Next biggest town is I believe Sisimiut (meaning "the inhabitants at the foxholes") with around 4500 inhabitants (who all aparently live close to a foxhole;-P) and after that you have Maniitsoq (which means "the rugged place") with about 3000 inhabitants. Most towns are situated either in South or on the West coast. The East coast is less populated because of more intens weather making it difficult to both reach the area and get away from there again. Often in winter time people are stranded for weeks either in Nuuk wanting to go back to the East coast or in of the towns over there trying to get back to Nuuk.

Country wise Greenland is part of the Danish Kingdom and is therefore not a country of its own. However, in 1979 it was granted home rule which means that it was given a local government and its own parliament. Also it was given some legal areas with which it could make up its own rules. Since that time Greenland has been granted more and more legal areas and today the Danish governement only remain in charge of foreign affairs, security and the financial policy. As a financial aid to the country Denmark gives out a subsidy of about 3,4 billion kroner every year. That's about 467 million € or approximately a yearly check for 8300€ for each Greenlander. And before you start to wonder let me just tell you that that's a lot. Greenland has to some extend an illusion about becoming independent one day and who's to say that won't happen, but the only road heading in that direction is the one cutting the subsidy little by little until one day it's completely gone. And the way the economic situation looks right we're looking at a very long roadtrip, so for now Greenland stays Danish.

The history of Greenland is both very short and very long. It's very short in the terms that it wasn't really "discovered" and populated until 1721 when the Danish-Norweigian missionary Hans Egede dropped by and decided that Nuuk (at that time Godthåb) was the place for him. As a missionary his goal in life was to pour water on strangers' heads and give them new names, preferably while giving some all important speech about his favourite friend, God. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at finding volunteers for getting wet or he's competition was too hard - the German Herrnhuts were also in town doing the same thing just with better music and drinks, and so 15 years later he went home leaving his son Paul Egede in charge. Little by little however people started responding to names like Hans, Kirsten, Anne and Erik and not so much Minannguaq, Ajassaussuaq or Sapiitsoq and before you know it we've reached present time.

The history of Greenland is however also very old because of the Paleo-Eskimo settlement which have been here since around 2500BC. The cultures these settlement brought to life are still vital to the people living here today and because of this Greenland has indeed a very long history. In between these two "histories" is also the Norse settlement lead by Icelandic and Norwegian vikings from around 936AD and forward. (For those of you who like vikings check out Erik the Red, a Norwegian viking who founded the first Norwegian settlement in Greenland. He came here due to a 3 year exile sentence placed on him by the Icelanders for quite a lot murders he'd done back in 982AD. The history holds a lot of blood, battles and swearing but is actually rather good and entertaining).

Coming back to the present, everyday life here is fairly traditional. People are very tied to their family and think a bit "in the old days"-kinda style. Young people don't really educate themselves, eventhough it's quite possible to do so, and they tie familiy bonds at a young age. Girls often become pregant when they're about 16 years old and young men (age 16-17) tends to look for hard labour rather than taking an education. Therefore the society here is very divided, both between rich and poor but also between Greenlanders and Danes. Danes often come here with a higher education and thus gets a better job while the Greenlanders are often seen in very low educated jobs. F.ex. at my work most employees in higher positions, like the head of a department or the middle-leder are mainly Danes, whereas the people working in the cantine or doing all the service jobs (like setting up conference rooms, receptionists and light case management) are all Greenlanders. In some ways it's extreme, especially because it doesn't look like it's gonna change anytime soon.

In the spare time people spend the time with their family. They go to "kaffemik" which is basically a coffeebreak at someones house with lots of homemade cakes and very strong coffee. Some Greenlanders also drink quite a lot and tend to spend their spare time at one of the towns local "pubs". The "pub" style is good old Danish bodega style, a.k.a. dity, shabby and stuffy little places with (in Denmark cheap) beer and old music. Young people drink less than you'd perhaps expect and many don't drink at all. Here, you either "drink like a fish" (dansk = drikke sig i hegnet) or you don't drink at all. Very few choose the middle road where "less is more".

The town has, condering its size, quite a lot of cultural offers. The culture house often has a concert of some kind and the cinema shows movies 3 times a week (the movies are the same as the ones in Denmark). Otherwise there's also a few facilities around town for families that want to host their own party but don't have room. If there's something going on in the town, like a concert, everybody goes to it. And often people go out to dinner before. There's 2 exclusive resturants in town, about 3 midleprized ones and quite a few cheap pizzarias/grillbars. Fastfood has certainly made it to Nuuk big time and the young families seems to live off it entirely. Among the middleprized places are Hereford Beefstouw (a Danish steakhouse of better quality) and Godthåbs Bryghus (a brewery combined with a restuarant), they're both okay but still a bit expensive (a main course is about 250-300kr, e.i 33-40€). Service here is very slow and most waiters are from Thailand (or at least Asian) speaking a very funny combination of bad English, Danish and Greenlandic... Fingers and pointing seems to be the preferred way of ordering food here. The reason for the Thai polulation here is that Danish men seem very fond of heading in that direction for vacation bringing back more than just petty souvenirs and sexual diseases. Sometimes they bring back just a girl but often it seems they get more than they bargained for and end up with a whole family of siblings and cousins.

The nature here is of course also a very fond spare time occupation. Most people own a boat and many fish and hunts. Among the poor population hunting is a necessary income which most can't live without. Often they hunt just to put food on their own table but sometimes you can also see them selling their meat in front of city's the food shops.

The people my age are rarely seen. I'm not actually quite sure where they are but they're certainly not at my work. At my work we have around 700 employees and I'm the only one in the 20'ties, something I find that rather remarkable and strange. I've been told that young people either go to Denmark for an education (if they come from rich families) or they settle down and start up families, making them almost invisible in the townscape. Another reason is unfortunately also the high suicide rate. Many people my age commit suicide for various reasons and the rate is specially high here in Nuuk. It's not something talked about in the news or on the street but everybody are aware of it and most tend to just shrug their shoulders when confronted with the fact. The Greenlandic have a history for suicides both between young and old and in some ways it seems like they find it naturally that some people can't handle life. The cemeteries here are filled to the brim with white anonymous crosses with nothing but a number on them. Names or dates are never used and so it's difficult to "read from history" when crossing a graveyard. (It's also not possible to have a family grave but often relatives lie in "split levels" one above the other. This is because graves are dugged in rows parallel to each other and often the men dies before the women. Due to this the husband is burried in one row and by the time the wife dies the graves have started in a new row, often placing the wife just above her husband. Freaky, but true!).

When it comes to the youngest part of the population, the children and babies, they're booming the place. Everywhere you look there's a bunch of kids. The children are in some ways spoild in the way that they're brought along everywhere and can make as much noise and racket as they wish without as much as a finger-wagging from the parents or anybody else in the room. However, in other ways you can't help wondering about their future when you consider the poor quality of the education up there (9 years of public school is required but its quality is bad due to too few teachers and not enough interest from neither Danish nor Greenlandic politicians) and the few possiblities they have in a society moving so slowly in comparison with the rest of the Western world.

This is to some extend some of the tourist stuff you're find in a guidebook. In my next input I'm gonna write more about the shops up here, especially the food shops which is quite an experience, and I'll might also touch upon the style of peoples' clothes because I don't want people to think everybody here goes around in nothing but kamiks and sealskin:-)

I also have a little "story" about the Greenlandic flag, I'll write down once I'll find time for it.

Feel free to mention if there's something in particular, that I should write about and I'll see if I can gather some thoughts on it:-)