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Canada and Denmark fight over uninhabited island by leaving bottles of alcohol
- Ianvdl 11y agoIt's a fun way to deal with a minor border dispute, not a "fight".
- goodcanadian 11y agoI say we split the island down the middle. We already have the longest undefended border in the world with the US. We could also have the shortest undefended border with Denmark!
- seivan 11y agoDenmark actually deserves all of it. They've changed recently to becoming one on of the better Scandinavian countries who don't hate themselves. Bonus points for Christian the Tyrant making history classes fun and enjoyable while doing the proper thing to spineless... I've learnt to overlook their language problems. Danish is still disgusting. But so is manure.
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- Cyph0n 11y agoOk then.
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- bigethan 11y agoI started reading this thinking, why does everything have to be owned? This borders on the absurd. And then I thought, hey, someone should put in a helipad and start live streaming Thursday Night Monkey Knife Fights! So yeah, now I kinda get it.
- girzel 11y agoIf only China and the rest of the South-east Asian countries could solve their tiny-island disputes the same way. Think: Thailand throws water: Songkhran! China throws baijiu: alcoholism! The Philipphines... I don't know enough about the Philippines to know what they would throw.
- Svip 11y agoI don't think the Danish ambassador to the US said 'schnapps', he clearly meant 'snaps', which is somewhat different (and far more akin to Danish traditions). But I see this misquote often when reading about this story. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snaps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snaps (In Danish, 'snaps' can really only be an Akvavit, unlike Schnapps, which is any strong alcoholic drink.)
- moonshinefe 11y agoThis anecdote has unfortunately been on the front page of reddit and all over the internet for years.
- futuravenir 11y ago"Currently, a plan is in the works that could turn Hans Island into a shared territory that would be jointly managed by the Canadian and Danish municipalities bordering it." Let's get a public hearing on how we should jointly manage it. And get a board of directors, paying them each no less than 150k/year to negotiate. And...
- ctstover 11y agoThis is an interesting data point for my casual "research" of the HN demographic and comment culture. My guess is you were down modded for making fun of bureaucrats, which might hit too close home for west-coasters.
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- biot 11y agoHans island did shots first.
- mabbo 11y agoIt's about the northern passage. If Denmark owns that island, they have more territorial waters controlling another part of the soon year-round-open-forever passage for ships from Asia to Europe that bypasses the Panama canal. Everyone wants a piece of that.
- Arnt 11y agoNah... the passage goes through the Baffin Bay and then south of Greenland. Hans Island isn't even on the shortest route from Asia to Murmansk, far less any major Europoean ports.
- DoubleMalt 11y agoThe whole story reinforces my belief that all evil in this world comes from people taking themselves too seriously.
- Diederich 11y agoAmen.
- david-given 11y agoOut of morbid curiosity, if you mix whiskey and schnapps, do you get anything of interest other than a nauseating headache?
- shitgoose 11y agojust blow it to pieces to everyone's relief.
- peeters 11y agoI've always been fascinated by Hans Island, because to me the solution of splitting the island down the middle has more in PR value than either side winning the dispute in tangible value. Canada and Denmark both have only one land border (Canada with the U.S., and Denmark with Germany). How cool would it be to be able to say we each share a border with a country in another continent?
- ytjohn 11y agoIf they would also provide snacks, I could setup a tent there and live on the spoils of "dispute".
- dogma1138 11y agoCan we please have some loon move to the island and claim sovereignty and when ever the Danes or the Canucks try to evict him he'll file for asylum at the other side.
- Grishnakh 11y agoThey should just have a war over it, and fight each other on the island with paintball guns to see who gets it.
- johan_larson 11y agoHans Island is of no value to anybody. But neither country wants to back down, fearing it might set a nasty precedent. Personally, I think we may as well have a bit of fun, and settle the matter with a boxing match, Canadian national champion against Danish. Should be a fun evening.