Forget Iraq and North Korea. This is truly worrisome. Two modern nations notorious for the instability of their governing institutions, the near-pathologic obstinance of their leaders, and the barbaric blood lust of their citizens are squaring off in a territorial dispute.
CANADA, DENMARK DUKE OUT SOVEREIGNTY ISSUE VIA WEB
Individuals or government agencies from the two countries are using Google ads for various claims to a tiny Arctic island.
TORONTO (AP)--Canada and Denmark have taken their diplomatic tussle over a scrappy lump of Arctic rocks to the Internet, with competing Google ads claiming sovereignty over Hans Island.
The flap has provoked some Canadians to call for a boycott of Danish pastry, in the same vain as Americans pooh-poohing french fries when Paris declined to join the coalition forces in Iraq.
The diplomatic debate began Monday when Denmark said it would send a letter of protest over a visit to the 1.3-square-kilometer (1/2-square-mile) Hans Island last week by Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham.
Graham stated that Canada has always owned the uninhabited chunk of land, roughly 1,100 kilometers (682 miles) south of the North Pole.
Denmark responded: “Hans Island is our island.”
One patriotic Canuck, Toronto resident Rick Broadhead, googled the matter and found an ad that touted Hans Island as strictly Danish. “Does Hans sound Canadian? Danish name, Danish island.”
When Internet users clicked on the rotating ad, it directed them to the Danish Foreign Ministry's Web site.
That really ticked him off, so he paid for his own Google ad Wednesday and quickly created a Web site to promote Ottawa's sovereignty over the island. His rotating Google ad--8 cents per hit--leads users to a fluttering Maple Leaf flag and plays the national anthem….
[Click "Read More" for rest of story.]
Poul Erik Dam Kristensen, Denmark's ambassador to Ottawa, said Thursday that both countries must reopen talks on the island. He insisted that whoever placed the Google ad in favor of Danish sovereignty was acting alone, and not on behalf of Copenhagen.
“This is just a small irritant,” that must be put aside, he said.
But folks like Broadhead and the Canadian government don't see it that way. Canada intends to beef up its military presence in the Arctic and global warming is opening up the frigid region to shipping and mining. [emph added]
Now, that's odd. We don't have any "global warming" down here in the United States.
In 1973, Canada and Denmark drew a border down the inhospitable Nares Strait halfway between Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, and Canada's Ellesmere Island.
But the countries decided that sovereignty over Hans and other islands in the Arctic region would be determined later.
In 1984, Tom Hoeyem, who was Denmark's minister for Greenland affairs, caused a stir when he raised a Danish flag on the island, buried a bottle of brandy at the base of the flag pole and left a note saying: “Welcome to the Danish island."
My personal opinion, based on absolutely no knowledge of international law, is this: the buried bottle of brandy is binding and irrevocable.
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