Greenland Overview
Greenland is situated between the Arctic Ocean and the northern Atlantic Ocean, northeast Canada and northwest Iceland. Greenland has no land border and 44,087 kilometers from the coast. A sparse population is confined to small settlements along the coast.
Infrastructure
Cities have roads, but they are not connected to each other through a road network. Shipping continues to be the main factor in Greenland’s infrastructure. A well-organized freight transport system links the island with Denmark and, increasingly, with Iceland and Canada. Some local passenger transport is also carried out by boat, although most Greenland travelers travel by air. At the local level there is helicopter transport, while for travel between districts and large cities it is more common to use the plane.
Social Security
According to HOMOSOCIETY, Greenland has a developed but expensive social security system. The main social benefits are old-age and early retirement pensions, scholarships and aid related to unemployment and the promotion of birth rates.
Education
One of the main objectives of the Autonomy is to ensure that the population can receive an education without having to leave Greenland, for which it has regional institutions that offer technical training in a wide range of subjects. To these centers must be added the secondary schools in Nuuk, Qaqortoq, Aasiaat and Sisimiut. Regarding higher education, there are schools for teaching, social pedagogy and commerce and a small university (Ilisimatusarfik).
Culture
Institutions
The Church of Greenland is integrated into the Danish Evangelical-Lutheran Church. The Nuuk National Archives and Museum serves as Greenland’s “national” museum.
The construction of the Nuuk House of Culture (1997) led to the creation of a very important meeting place for the rich Greenlandic cultural life; this institution constitutes a point of contact with foreign cultural experiences and, at the same time, with current and traditional Greenlandic culture.
visual arts
In Greenland, art has always been closely linked to nature and natural materials. Soapstone and bone are important materials for the carving of artists’ figures and sculptures, with Christian Rosing (1944 -) and Aka Høegh (1947 -) as the main representatives. Aka Høegh is also famous for being one of the greatest pillars of Greenlandic painting; Like that of, for example, Jens Rosing (1925 -), Kristian Olsen (Aaju) (1942-), Kistat Lund (1942 -) and Naja Abelsen (1964 -), his work takes its starting point in the meeting of man with the great Greenlandic nature.
Literature
In the past, storytelling was a central element in Greenland, but the introduction of written language in the 18th century and the construction of the South Greenland Press in 1857 made the written word a significant element in cultural life. The Danish-Greenlandic explorer Knud Rasmussen (1879 – 1933) wrote literary works inspired by the Greenlandic tradition and was at the same time the leading documentary maker of the stories and legends of Greenland and the way of life of the Arctic people. Many writers, for example, Mathias Storch (1883- 1957) and Otto Sandgreen (1914-1999), have dealt with the great transformations experienced by Greenlandic society throughout the 20th century, a central theme also in the work of poets such as Aqqaluk Lynge (1947-).
Song
Although popular drum music continues to grow, the dominant trend has been the polyphonic choral tradition introduced by the Moravian Brothers and developed, for example, by the Greenlandic choir Mik. The most characteristic in today’s music scene are rock bands like Sume, G-60 and Zikaza, along with Ole Kristiansen (1965 -) and Rasmus Lyberth (1951 -). The popular drum dance has been almost totally replaced by more modern manifestations by the hand of amateur theater groups, which resort to traditional forms of expression, covering their faces with masks or paintings, while focusing on current problems. The role of the Silamiut group is, in this sense, fundamental.
Communication
Despite the great distances and the nature of the landscape, communications are highly developed. The backbone of telecommunications is a digital radio chain that stretches the entire length of the coast. KNR (Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa, Radio Greenland) is the main responsible for radio and television ; producing radio programs and a relatively high number of television programs.
Sports
Greenland is not particularly famous for sports, but it does have some teams, such as the soccer team, the Greenland Soccer Team, run by the Greenland Football Union, with a 2,000-seat stadium in the capital Nuuk. The handball team has already participated in the Handball World Cup on more than one occasion (Germany 2007, Portugal 2003, France 2001). In addition, Greenland competes every two years in the Island Games. The 15 of September of 2010 the FIFA president, Joseph Blatter, I visit the country, causing great expectation, and shortly before the first Greenland artificial grass stadium was inaugurated in Qaqortoq, which was financed by FIFA.
