Trumpip Alfred kamatsippaa

It provokes Greenland's first Sirius man, Alfred Olsen, violently every time President Trump makes fun of the Danish defense in Greenland, which according to the president consists of a couple of dog sleds.

- It shows that he has not understood anything about Greenland. Dog sleds are a superb form of transport in desolate, cold Arctic areas like Northeast Greenland, Alfred Olsen tells Sermitsiaq.

- It shows that he has not understood anything about Greenland. Dog sleds are a superb form of transport in desolate, cold Arctic areas like Northeast Greenland, says Alfred Olsen to Sermitsiaq.

- Dog sledding technology has been developed over hundreds of years in Greenland – and for the soldiers in the Sirius patrol, the sled dogs are the key to survival. The dog sled starts every day – regardless of the weather, it is easy to repair and maintain, even if there is no workshop nearby – and the dogs are a fantastic sensor system that detects all dangers before the soldiers.

- If you don't understand the nature and climate in Northeast Greenland, you won't last long. Then the surroundings are a far more dangerous enemy than the Russians and the Chinese, snorts Alfred Olsen, who doesn't believe that the president will have a Chinese man's chance of surviving in Northeast Greenland.

- He has never been a soldier, so he probably doesn't know much about survival - especially not in the Arctic. If he comes to Kangerlussuaq, he will probably not survive the ten-kilometer sled ride from the dog park to the harbor, the prediction goes.

- It's a bit funny that it's the Americans who make fun of the dog sleds. During World War II, the Americans were quite happy with the Northeast Greenland Sled Patrol – the forerunner of Sirius – which always found the German attempts at landings so that American troops could finish the job. The Germans never managed to establish themselves in Greenland despite several attempts.

Americans shivered with cold

Alfred Olsen also remembers his time at Sirius preschool in the winter of 1970.

- We were on a NATO course in winter warfare in Norway. Among the participants were some of the famous Green Berets (American special forces) from the Vietnam War. They were shivering so much from the cold that they could hardly hit a polar bear from ten meters away, says Alfred Olsen.

He acknowledges that there are gaps in the defense of Greenland.

- But that is the Americans' own merit. Because they closed down all the bases except Pituffik – and here they have reduced the number from almost 10,000 men in the sixties to less than 200 men today. It is the USA that has neglected the defense of Greenland, the Sirius veteran notes.

- It's as meaningless as everything that's coming from the president and his people now. It was amazing that Vance visited Pituffik and was amazed that it was cold in Greenland. That's the whole point of going to Greenland. It's cold here, and it's nice.

Alfred Olsen emphasizes that Greenland and Denmark stand together in the current situation and protest against Trump's repeated insults against the Greenlandic people, so he can also be found among the participants in Saturday's large demonstrations throughout Greenland and Denmark.

Alfred Olsen will be demonstrating in Aalborg. After a long career in Sisimiut, he moved a few years ago to Hals at the mouth of the Limfjord. Here he enjoyed last week's frost and snow.

Dog sled drivers should demonstrate

- It was nice to feel frost in my lungs again, says the now 78-year-old Sirius man, who also has an idea for the next demonstration against President Trump and his condescending attitude towards dog sledding.

- Every year, hundreds of kilometers are driven by dog sled in Greenland - in total, probably as far as the distance from Washington to Nuuk and a little more.

- I dream of all Greenlandic dog sled drivers going for a ride at the same time – maybe just ten kilometers in a group in the different cities with Greenlandic flags on the sleds. Trump probably doesn't care, but it could be a beautiful demonstration of the dog sled and its importance in Greenland. It is part of our culture – and also an important capacity in the defense of Greenland, says Alfred Olsen.

Alfred Olsen escaped through the eye of a needle in 1970 and became the first Greenlander to become part of the Sled Patrol Sirius, which with 12 men and around 100 sled dogs enforces the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark in Northeast Greenland.

Alfred Olsen served on Sirius for a little over two years, and in the spring of 1971 he came close to losing his life when he and three other Sirius patrol officers lost all their equipment in a snowstorm – and the four only survived by lying on top of each other in the snowdrift. Alfred Olsen escaped the accident with minor frostbite, while two of the others were disabled for life.