The Copenhagen Post | Mar 15-21

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Foreigners’ right to vote under scrutiny again

Tourists: Denmark is too expensive, Danes too rude

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15 - 21 March 2013 | Vol 16 Issue 11

Your guide to St Paddy’s Day

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Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk PETER STANNERS

NEWS

Copenhagen once again pushes for legalisation of cannabis and floats idea of importing it from US states

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NEWS

A god-free resting place Atheists want a plot of land in Vestre Kirkegård developed into a non-religious burial ground

“If they got the opportunity they would kill me” Fareed Ahmad Kabeer was an interpreter in Afghanistan; Denmark has denied him asylum

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10 COMMUNITY

Life’s a beach for a children’s theatre group producing a play aimed at adults

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BUSINESS

RAY WEAVER

Homer Simpsen? Will ‘The Simpsons’ – the most successful TV show of all time – be the latest addition to Lego’s toys?

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9 771398 100009

Price: 25 DKK

Greenlanders vote for change in meaningful election Island nation poised to have its first ever female premier

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REENLANDIC voters on Tuesday put the self-governing territory on a course towards greater autonomy and higher taxes for foreign mining companies establishing operations there. The election’s biggest winner was the socially-democratic orientated Siumut party, which will return to power after a four-year absence after garnering nearly 43 percent of the vote, giving it 14 seats in the 31-seat parliament. In a vote where turnout was 74.2 percent, incumbent premier Kuupik

Kleist and his Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party received just over 34 percent, leaving it with 11 seats. Should Siumut leader Aleqa Hammond be able to form a coalition, which seemed likely at the time of going to press, she would become the country’s first female premier. The results were viewed as a stinging rebuke of Kleist’s policies. “There has been too much secrecy about mining projects and too many problems for fishermen,” Hammond told the press. Kleist countered that his party had been punished for making tough and often unpopular decisions. “I am responsible,” he said. “Our defeat is the result of the tough decisions we have had to make.”

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Development was the central issue of the election. As climate change thaws the sea ice around the island and creates new Arctic shipping routes, Greenland has emerged as a place of interest to governments worldwide lusting after its untapped mineral potential and offshore oil and gas. Kleist’s government opened up Greenland to oil and mining companies, promising that development would create improved infrastructure, jobs and, most of all, wean the territory off its 3.5 billion kroner annual grant from Copenhagen. Many of Greenland’s inhabitants fear change may be coming too fast, however. Development also carries with it worries of environmental damage that could undermine Greenland’s traditions

of hunting and fishing. The election can also be viewed as a referendum on Greenland’s desire to completely free itself from Danish rule. Even after being granted increased autonomy in 2009, the island’s government still must defer to Copenhagen on foreign policy, defence and security issues. Greenland is far from financially selfsufficient, and the annual block grant accounts for more than half of its national income. The more revenues Greenland earns from mining or oil, the more control it has over its economic future. Many Greenlanders want to use the island’s mineral resources as a way to reduce dependency on Denmark, and during the campaign, Hammond spoke often about wanting to cut ties with the territory’s former colonial master.

Is opening! Strandvejen 169, Hellerup! Saturday the 16th of March

REE 6: F 12-1 CREAM ICE

/manologelato


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