Self-rule introduced in Greenland
(from http://news.bbc.co.uk/ 21 June, 2009.)
The Arctic island of Greenland is assuming self-rule, in the latest step towards independence from Denmark.
“Self-rule” is defined as: “taking control of the police and the courts”.
Now, the Scottish movement for full independence shares some characteristics with Greenland. Yet, devolution in Scotland is not uniformly equated with steps “towards independence”. Scottish devolution is seen by some as a mechanism for strengthening the Union, not a move towards rejecting it. There are multiple views on the purpose of devolution, and Greenland is not Scotland. But if a reader employs parallel thinking, it could easily be argued that the BBC writer is equating Scotland’s self-rule with her implied movement towards independence.
I don’t think that the BBC staff writer even thought about Scotland, nor was any implication intended to be drawn from the piece. Or maybe it was. The BBC article draws a potentially erronous comparison with Scotland’s position in the Union by claiming that “Denmark has the final say in defence and foreign-policy matters”. This mirrors what Scotland can do in the UK parliament (which, of course, contains Scottish MPs so the parallel is not exact). Yet, New York Times claims that Greenland does actually have “control over . . . to a certain extent, foreign affairs”, which is not the same as Scotland’s ability.
I don’t know which version is correct, but the BBC version echoes the Scottish question whereas the US version does not. Coincidence? Probably not, but the question of worldwide identify at the nation-state level is brought up seriously when the BBC report that:
Greenlanders – most of whom are native Inuit – will be treated as a separate people under international law.
Evidently there are the same types of internal self-doubt in Greenland as in Scotland concerning issues of fiscal governing and the abilities of the politicians themselves, especially over corruption claims:
Corruption in the political system is still a big problem, and this is one of the reasons why some have been worried about cutting the ties with Denmark
The BBC obviously cannot decide on these issues by themselves. However, they need to be much more critical of their position in the UK society when they publish articles that have a direct and powerful correlation here.
