The American author Mark Twain said that history does not repeat itself, but that it often rhymes. And 2026 rhymes with 1860 when it comes to soldiers in the streets of Nuuk.
An airlift between Europe and Greenland sends an unprecedented number of military personnel to the city. It creates fear.
The children can't sleep at night, the parents are "prepping", the city is demonstrating, and the politicians are commuting to Europe and America.
Nuuk Mayor Avaaraq S. Olsen has addressed the fears:
– No one had predicted that the military would occupy so much of our cityscape and everyday life. In fact, it already occupies far too much of our city for many citizens. So far, we have seen Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, English, German, French and Dutch soldiers, and more flags, languages and nationalities are on the way.
2026 rhymes with 1860
In 1860, severe ice along the West Coast meant that many ships sought safe harbor in Nuuk; including the English naval ship "Bulldog" and the American schooner "Nautilus", whose soldiers and crew used the waiting time for sightseeing.
The overwhelming number of uniforms in the streets created fear among the town's 300 inhabitants.
The newspaper Atuagagdliutit was published for the very first time in January 1861.
The naval visit the summer before filled the front page, and the magazine's editor Rasmus Berthelsen wrote:
– One of the ships was a large English warship with many soldiers. Some residents of Nuuk were frightened when they saw the soldiers coming ashore, and wondered why they had come to Greenland.
(«Bulldog» investigated the possibilities of an undersea telegraph cable between Europe and America, ed.). The famous artist Aron from Kangeq was in Nuuk in the summer of 1860, and the newspaper asked him to illustrate the article about the naval visit. Aron's watercolor documents the overwhelming number of soldiers in blue uniforms among the few Greenlanders in red anoraks.
Fear in 1860 rhymes with fear in 2026.
