January 10, 2003
Bad spirits haunt Greenland
bureaucrats
The Financial Times reported
this week that Jens Lyberth, a senior civil servant within Premier Hans Enoksen’s
government, called in a "spiritual distance healer" to improve relations between
Danish and Greenlandic Inuit employees.
The healer, Maannguaaq
Berthelsen, says it took her twice as long as normal to clean the "bad vibes"
out of Greenland’s government offices.
Her efforts, however, may
have created even more bad vibes between the government and other Greenlanders.
Church leaders in Lutheran
Greenland are reportedly incensed, and Per Berthelsen, leader of the opposition
Democrats, said "witch doctors" and "unga-bunga practices" have no place in
modern Greenland.
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January
10, 2003
U.S. asks Denmark for NMD
base at Thule
An NMD-related early-warning
system at the U.S. base in Thule, Greenland, became more likely last month,
when the U.S. government presented Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen
with a formal request for permission to do the work.
It’s no secret that
the U.S. government wants to upgrade its radar site in Thule to serve as part
of the early warning system used for a ballistic-missile defence shield. But
until last month, they made no formal request to the Danish government.
Rasmussen has already responded
by saying that Denmark will be in no hurry to provide the U.S. with a quick
answer, saying the issue needs to be debated widely in Denmark, Greenland and
the European Union first.
One possible outcome is
that the European Union will join with the United States in the development
of its anti-ballistic missile shield — which used to be called "NMD," or
"National Missile Defence."
He told Canadian reporters
last month that Denmark and its European allies are "investigating the possibility
of creating a missile defence which could protect us from a rogue state."
At the same press conference,
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, refused to say if Canada would provide
a radar site if the Greenland is not available to the U.S.
It’s not likely that
the U.S. request will be denied.
But the Greenland government
says it wants an agreement with the U.S. that includes significant financial
compensation for its use of the base.
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January
10, 2003
Nunavut nurse hunters comb
Newfoundland
Recruiters from the Nunavut
government’s department of health and social services were in St. John’s,
Corner Brook, Gander, and Grand Falls-Windsor this week, hunting for experienced
nurses willing to work in Nunavut.
The Telegram newspaper
of St. John’s reported that two Nunavut recruiters, Roxanne Stuckless,
the executive director of the Baffin Regional Hospital, and Lori Barbour, Nunavut’s
nursing manager, are once again back in Newfoundland to recruit nurses for Nunavut’s
perennially understaffed health-care system.
Stuckless and Barbour are
Newfoundlanders themselves.
Starting salaries range
from $56,600 to $68,900, and nurses may also earn $24,000 labour market if they
stay in Nunavut for three years.
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Nunavut 99
