Sad little doc on Greenland

[MsAmerica]

I don’t know if you Brits have a free over-the-air television channel that broadcasts some documentary stories?

In the U.S. we have a non-commercial Public Broadcast System, once called “educational television” (which Trump and his predecessors have been trying to kill off), which shows reliable news, British import fiction series, and a wide range of documentaries.

I was flipping around the television channels, trying to find something to watch, stumbled across something and was drawn in. It was a group of people speaking in a foreign language, then one of the people said something like, “Why do we Greenlanders have this tendency to look down on ourselves?” That got my attention. It looked like the unhappiest place in the world, outside of being stuck in an active war zone. Not raging grief and oppression/privation, but a dull, settled sense of gloom, apathy, and being left behind. The program part of a series called POV, “Winter’s Yearning,” a documentary about a town called Maniitsoq that has been hoping for big investment money from the American Alcoa smelting, waiting for a windfall that never happens. The people were low-affect, the conversation lifeless, and the town looked unrelievedly frigid (okay, probably winter) and inescapably barren. Some sad stories of alcoholism and loneliness. I always wonder why people choose to stay some place like that, in the modern world, but toward the end, one man was sadly musing of a wish to be autonomous. So of course I was thinking gloomily about Trump’s planned predations.

www.pbs.org/pov/films/wintersyearning/

Do you have free channels for socio-political documentaries? Do you ever watch? This has had great docs about Trump's misdeeds, and a huge range of other subjects like poverty, healthcare, Ukraine, etc.

Never heard of it and wouldn't watch it anyway.

I can't watch the video because of my location, but that town looks ok. Remote for sure, but it is Greenland.

Maniitsoq • Your Ultimate Travel Guide to Maniitsoq | Guide to Greenland

The smelter has been talked about for a long time it appears. I found an article from 2008 about interest. Aluminum smelting does take a massive amount of energy, and hydro is usually used. Hence smelters often being in remote places. But that brings other issues of course. And these things do have to turn a profit. So unless Trump is talking about a socialist style command economy with massive subsidy to industry, investment does take a lot of study.

To add to my above post, a bit more digging into this smelter, and I found this. This article does appear to have a heavy pro socialist bias, but a line in it is very eye catching.

Alcoa aluminium coming to Greenland - Nordregio

This line here :

"One of the major concerns here is, for some, the prospect of having up to 3 000 Chinese workers constructing the aluminium smelter on ‘international wages’."

And a bit more digging, and yes, US company Alcoa does have a joint venture with the Chinese state owned aluminium company.

So Ironically, Trumps yelling about wanting Greenland, and the "deal" to keep China and Russia out, might have knocked the whole project on it's head.

And that is why, I suppose, people should elect leaders who know what they are doing.

Not that it's going to happen as Trump is determined to keep China out, but if it did, the Chinese workers will be from their prison population, the surrounding waters will be fished out by them, and they will be kept under control by a single overseer who can speak the local language.
However, they will also work very hard and keep to themselves, so causing no trouble to the locals at all.

It's not a Chinese project. So does not appear to be a belt and road thing. Looks to be a US company using a Chinese contractor to keep costs down, these remote projects being marginal. The contractor is possibly connected to the Alcoa joint venture in China.

And China is the country at the moment with companies and the workers experienced in building Hydro schemes.

Oh I don’t know. What about that Greenlander on the news who said that Trump should listen more and talk less? She seemed pretty bright. I’m sure UK troops and their families would agree with her today, too.

I've heard of PSB, no idea of how and where it gets it's broadcasting materials from; but I'd assume anything that was cheap or free or that they were paid to broadcast....

@MsAmerica what a shame that clicking the trailer link brings up a message that video was not available. I would certainly be interested in watching that documentary.

"I don’t know if you Brits have a free over-the-air television channel that broadcasts some documentary stories?"

Really? Or is this trolling?

There some good documentaries and interesting programmes on PBS.
Well worth a look.

Greenlanders are immensley proud people, they are also incredibly generous and welcoming. What ever happens in Greenland should be the decision for Greenland and its people. At the moment they are self governing but are part of the kingdom of Denmark. They enjoys the benefits of this close relationship and are intelligent enough to understand that free healthcare, pensions and education is something to be valued....so at the moment they are reluctant to be completely independent.

China has no intention of running greenland, it absolutely ridiculous to even consider it. They might own businesses in Greenland but they also own businesses in the UK. What right does America have to demand that a self governing country can't do business with China.

This exactly what Mark Carney was talking about, big super powers using coersion to force policy changes in other countries....its wrong.

The thing is the people in Greenland welcome US troops to their bases, the hotel and service sector benefit from it too. I think Trump has been very rude and disrepectful in the way this has been handled. The man is rude and has no manners.

I didn't expect that people would necessarily know about PBS, but I'm sorry you're so cynical. Over-the-air television is free in the U.S., and PBS is a non-commercial channel. It creates its own news content, and their main program, PBS News Hour, is constantly winning awards. They buy or commission documentaries, and are particularly noted for being the territory for Ken Burns, the most distinguished American history documentarian.

Well, I'd say that any sane person would believe that Trump should listen more and talk less.

We have the BBC. I am a little surprised that you haven’t heard of it.

OP have you honestly never heard of the BBC?

I’ve never been to either so could be completely wrong but I imagine parts of Greenland are very similar to parts of Alaska, as an example.

I never mentioned the BBC one way or the other. Of course I know about it. We get BBC news on PBS.
What I meant was, I don't know if you have a range of free channels. Long ago, England supposedly only had something like one or two channels. With all the cable/streaming options now, I don't know what you have for free. And I don't know if the BBC shows documentaries. PBS imports their fictional series.

Right, in terms of being cold and not exactly centrally located

But what caught my attention was mostly just the sense of inertia and hopelessness. They're waiting for an Alcoa that will likely never come.

I would feel a sense of hopelessness if I lived in the US at the moment 🤷🏻‍♀️

To me they seem similar in terms of the people, the towns and the way they live.

Exactly right! You'd better believe it! And that's exactly how Trump and his buddies want us to feel!