Headline, May24, 2013

'''NATURE'​S DISCO : GREENLAND'​''

On the very edge of civilization. You can most easily find yourself further away from any human being than you have ever been. This place is the unholy marriage of solitude and inspiration. And then suddenly the night bursts into glorious green and purple flames. The colors flare across it with rocket tails before disappearing: Nature's Disco is open for business.

On dreaming  -it is perfect, a unique landscape on the very cusp of humanity. Any further north and the terrain becomes too harsh to survive. Greenland is the exit point to nothingness, one of the last places there is life. But amid all this wonder,  -the majestic icebergs on mirrored ocean, the icecap mercilessly straddling the land. 

Though four hours away on a plane, Greenland is still a part of Denmark. It is, however, self-governing. This is perhaps why they take such a relaxed attitude to penal reform, the perfect example of eccentricity if ever there was one. Convicted criminals, even murderers, are allowed out of prison everyday between 7am to 8pm so that they can work.

Everything here is pretty; the cluster of brightly colored pastel houses is delightful. This is likely to do with the fact that there just aren't many people. The largest settlement like Sisimiut, have population of just over 5000. In Kangerlussuaq is the point you get closest to the ice cap. It began its life as an American Air base during the Second World War, a stop-off point for Uncle Sam's forays to Europe.

Realising that this was one country they didn't need to be in nearly 50 years later, the last American finally left in 1992. Perhaps because they couldn't be bothered to pack before they left, they buried their munitions  -of which there were a lot  -in the surrounding land but no one bothered to record exactly where!!

The Greenlanders are a race both man and nature have conspired against. But they are also a people so characteristically hard that they just don't care. It's to the icecap, now melting so quickly that it loses more water in a day than New York will use in a year.

Ilulissat resides at the fjord where the icebergs depart for the sea and is set in the most beautiful enclave you could discover. In the harbour, rusty boats battle a frozen sea for your attention. There is a mesmerising peace here. But the Greenland that you may have fantasised about, is out at sea. On a small boat, about an hour from the dock.

You dart between two icebergs, each about 80m tall. They dwarf you, make you realise just how powerless a player in this existence thing you really are. And if it is your day, you hear a noise of a high pressure jet hose. Whales  -over 20 feet long-  just then break the surface into the air. Their thick oily blackness is framed by the pure white of the berg.

The Greenlanders work very hard, and they live very hard and the land is like the most compelling mistress,  so beautiful one minute that she can break your heart,  so harsh the next that she can crush your spirit.

Greenland is a beautiful  fickle siren! Before you is a sight that exists nowhere else, a feeling that never can be created by man. There is you, them, there is the view and the ceaseless passing of time into eternity.

With respectful dedication to the Students and Professors of Greenland. See you all on !WOW!: Living The Life.

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless