{"id":312316,"date":"2026-01-26T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=312316"},"modified":"2026-01-20T06:12:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:12:02","slug":"greenland-isnt-the-scandal-the-system-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/01\/greenland-isnt-the-scandal-the-system-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenland Isn\u2019t the Scandal–The System Is"},"content":{"rendered":"

20 Jan 2026\u00a0<\/em>– Europe woke up in 2026 with a hangover and a revelation: Wait\u2026 we\u2019re a colony?<\/em>
\nApparently, watching Nicol\u00e1s Maduro paraded in Nike gear like a petty criminal was funny\u2014until Europeans realized they, too, are potential Maduros. Same script, better tailoring.<\/p>\n

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Cue France, Britain or Germany sending troops to do \u201csymbolic\u201d military exercises with Denmark, to \u201cdiscourage\u201d Donald Trump from annexing Greenland. Symbolic being the key word. Because let\u2019s be serious for half a second\u2014just half. Europe is already under American military occupation. The main army stationed on European soil is not French, not German, not Danish. It\u2019s American. And it operates under NATO, that famous \u201calliance\u201d where everyone salutes and one country gives the orders.<\/p>\n

So when Trump says he wants Greenland, he isn\u2019t announcing a rupture. He\u2019s reading the minutes out loud. Greenland is already militarily occupied by the United States. The biggest base there is American. The Americans could arrest French soldiers on Greenland before Macron finishes his press conference. This isn\u2019t provocation. It\u2019s disclosure.<\/p>\n

What panics Europe isn\u2019t Greenland. It\u2019s precedent.<\/p>\n

For exemple France knows how this story goes\u2014because it wrote half the earlier chapters. A state stitched together by slavery, colonial conquest, and overseas micro-territories suddenly realizes the imperial big brother might start shopping in its<\/em> backyard. If Greenland can be taken\u2014or \u201cnegotiated,\u201d or \u201ceconomically aligned,\u201d or whatever euphemism is trending\u2014why not Martinique? R\u00e9union? New Caledonia? When Trump knocks on Denmark\u2019s door, French elites hear footsteps in their own hallway.<\/p>\n

This is the real late awakening: the realization that neocolonialism does not come with loyalty rewards. Vassals don\u2019t get insurance policies.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s not pretend Trump is improvising. This is a well-rehearsed strategy: manufacture a crisis, then sell the compromise. We\u2019ve seen it with tariffs\u2014threaten 100%, settle at 15%, declare victory. Europe protests, then signs. With Greenland, the playbook is identical. Loud threat. Moral outrage. Symbolic troop movements. Then economic pressure. No war. No rupture. Happy ending\u2014American style. Greenland stays \u201cDanish,\u201d but its resources suddenly speak fluent English.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Europe clutches international law like a comfort blanket it only remembers when convenient. Threatening to buy or seize territory violates the \u201crules-based order\u201d the West claims to uphold\u2014except when it doesn\u2019t. Except when it\u2019s Iraq. Or Libya. Or Palestine. Or Congo. Or Haiti. Or, inconveniently, Greenland itself.<\/p>\n

And speaking of colonial amnesia: watching European leaders rush to \u201cdefend Denmark\u201d over Greenland is surreal. Denmark\u2019s record in Greenland includes forced sterilizations of Inuit women, the removal of children from their families, and decades of social engineering so brutal that elderly women today still say, \u201cI never understood why I couldn\u2019t have children.\u201d<\/em> Supporting Denmark\u2019s \u201cownership\u201d of Greenland without centering Inuit voices is not anti-imperialism. It\u2019s colonialism with better PR.<\/p>\n

Remembering and paraphrasing my friend and elder T\u00e9t\u00e9-Michel Kpomassie<\/strong>, (as it appears in different translations of An African in Greenland<\/em>): \u201cI did not go to Greenland to discover a land, but to meet a people\u2014and I found human beings where others had only seen ice.\u201d<\/strong>
\nThe real question is not whether Greenland should be Danish, European, or American. The real question\u2014conveniently avoided\u2014is: What do the Inuit want?<\/em> Independence? Continued association? Something else entirely? And if Trump \u201cbuys\u201d Greenland, who gets the money? The Danish state? That would be colonialism squared.<\/p>\n

As T\u00e9t\u00e9-Michel said it again well again and repeated to me: \u201cThe cold was not the hardest thing in Greenland. The hardest thing was realizing how invisible its people were to the world.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the twist; when Greenland stops being European, some of us won\u2019t cry. Because Europe\u2019s sudden moral outrage is less about justice and more about losing exclusive access.<\/p>\n

Trump, of course, doesn\u2019t stop at Greenland. In the same breath, he proposes ethnic cleansing in Gaza\u2014two million people displaced to create a Riviera for investors\u2014and blames plane crashes on diversity. No evidence. No shame. Just noise. This isn\u2019t madness. It\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n

Steve Bannon explained it back in 2018: flood the zone.<\/em> Three scandals a day. Overwhelm the public. Kill critical thinking by saturation. By the time you process the last outrage, the next one is already law, policy, or profit.<\/p>\n

So yes, feeling stunned is normal. That\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n

Greenland isn\u2019t a scandal. It\u2019s a stress test. It reveals structural racism, colonial continuity, and the hierarchy of power that Europe pretends ended in 1945. Trump isn\u2019t breaking the system. He\u2019s saying the quiet parts out loud.<\/p>\n

And Europe doesn\u2019t know whether to laugh, protest, or salute\u2014because for the first time in a long time, the mirror is facing the right direction.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Ra\u00efs Neza Boneza is the author of fiction as well as non-fiction, poetry books and articles. He was born in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Former Za\u00efre). He is also an activist and peace practitioner. Ra\u00efs is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Media Service<\/em><\/a> Editorial Committee and a convener of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/em><\/a> for Central and African Great Lakes. He uses his work to promote artistic expressions as a means to deal with conflicts and maintaining mental wellbeing, spiritual growth and healing. Ra\u00efs has travelled extensively in Africa and around the world as a lecturer, educator and consultant for various NGOs and institutions. His work is premised on art, healing, solidarity, peace, conflict transformation and human dignity issues and works also as freelance journalist. You can reach him at <\/em>rais.boneza@gmail.com<\/em><\/a> – <\/em>http:\/\/www.raisnezaboneza.no<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20 Jan 2026\u00a0– Europe woke up in 2026 with a hangover and a revelation: Wait\u2026 we\u2019re a colony? Apparently, watching Nicol\u00e1s Maduro paraded in Nike gear like a petty criminal was funny\u2014until Europeans realized they, too, are potential Maduros. Same script, better tailoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":301237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3033,1268,1747,559,249,70,557],"class_list":["post-312316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-denmark","tag-european-union","tag-greenland","tag-maduro","tag-trump","tag-usa","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312318,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312316\/revisions\/312318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}