Canada/Denmark call truce (agree to disagree over Hans Island)

[lindisfarne]

Canada and Denmark Call Truce Over Island
-
Monday, September 19, 2005

(09-19) 15:24 PDT OTTAWA, Canada (AP) --

Canada and Denmark called a truce Monday in a dispute over Hans Island, but neither is renouncing its claim to the wind-swept patch of Arctic rock.

Canada's Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, who met with his Danish counterpart during a U.N. summit in New York, said they agreed the two NATO allies would keep each other informed about any activities around the tiny island.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said, "We will show restraint in order to avoid unnecessary incidents and escalation."

Canada's defense minister, Bill Graham, rankled Danish officials by making an unannounced visit to Hans Island in July, touching off a new diplomatic dustup. In a similar vein, Canada formally protested the planting of Danish flags on the outcrop in 1984, 1988 and 2004.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT


URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/09/19/international/i152415D78.DTL

[Canuckistanian]

1. Whew! That was close...

Denmark won't be attacking us. Good thing, too, since the bullets for our guns are still on back-order....

[smirkymonkey]

5. As an American, the nations I fear the most are Denmark and

Canada. Followed by Finland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. :scared:

:sarcasm:

[Canuckistanian]

6. Don't forget Poland!

They have some mean MFers in Poland....

[smirkymonkey]

8. Oh yes - we musn't forget the Pierogi wielding Polish!

They are truly the most vicious of all!

[DrDebug]

2. LOL Where is Hans Island?

BTW. There is a little island off Haiti called Navassa and it's been in conflict with the US since 1857 and as far as I know there hasn't been a truce about that either.

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/misctopic/navassa/navassa.htm

POOP DREAMS

It's a guano-covered rock in the sea. So why do so many people want a piece of Navassa Island?
Article by Brennen Jensen
From Baltimore City Paper, Feb. 21, 2001

This is a story about bird shit.

Or rather, to be more precise, guano, the fetid, often petrified feces of the avian world.

A humble substance, but one that once had the power to move men's souls. In ancient times, spices, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, were the coveted commodity that drove Western explorers. Gold, the eternal prize, led the Spanish to conquer the Incas and Aztecs and sent thousands of novice prospectors scrambling into the Californian mountains. Today, oil builds fortunes, causes wars, and elects presidents.

And then there's guano. Prized as a fertilizer, it was what sent men down to the sea in ships in the 19th century. And Baltimore, with its booming port and proximity to nutrient-starved farmlands, was in the thick of this "guano rush." One hundred and forty years ago, the mayor-proclaimed "Greatest City in America" might have claimed a less peppy (but more easily provable) motto: Guano Capital of the Nation.

So yes, in a way, this is a story about bird shit. But it's principally the tale of a teardrop-shaped hunk of forbidding limestone and coral lying in the Windward Passage some 40 miles west of Haiti. This two-square-mile chunk of land has no inhabitants and no fresh water. What it does have is tons of petrified guano. Baltimoreans killed and died on it. African-Americans were virtually enslaved on it, decades after the Civil War. It caused the world's most powerful nation to battle one of the world's poorest. And this obscure rock led an erstwhile California gospel singer to sue President Clinton and the U.S. government. Such is the saga of Navassa Island.

(...)

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/misctopic/navassa/poop.htm

[CHIMO]

7. Canada, Denmark dispute ownership of tiny Arctic island

Defence Minister Bill Graham's recent visit to an Arctic island off the northwest coast of Greenland has set off a diplomatic row.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/07/25/hansisland050725.html

[Moderator]

3. lindisfarne

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[eissa]

4. How can this be?

A problem was resolved without a major bombing campaign? Not even threats of violence? Is that even possible? What sorts of countries are these?!

[one_true_leroy]

9. i see brinkmanship is a global issue and threat to all humanity.

thankfully, calmer intents prevailed. we can all look to this resolution for hope and solace that vast, chasmic differences can be overlooked in the pursuit of peace, mortal eniemies can be reconciled, and the world can breath a collective sigh of relief as two hardened foes disregard cartographic vagueness to forge bravely the proverbial axe that they may now bury so as to ensure a brighter future of peace and hope for generations to come. may other world leaders look to this bright beacon of diplomacy and have their paths to reconciliation illuminated by the fire forging the burying axe and glowing around the bonds of deletante.

salut!!