“Trump's Greenland proposal is more than just a quirky real estate venture; it's a strategic play for dominance in the Arctic and a prelude to the looming showdown with China. When he first floated the idea of purchasing Greenland back in 2019, it was met with laughter and skepticism, leading to a canceled state visit to Denmark. Now, six years later, the former president is reigniting his interest in the world's largest island, and this time, the stakes are higher than ever…

https://theconversation.com/trumps-greenland-bid-is-really-about-control-of-the-arctic-and-the-coming-battle-with-china-246900

Disclaimer: The views shared in this text are entirely those of Germán & Co. and should be taken as such…

Happy Sabbath to everyone….

Thoughts on January 10, a day woven with dreams and dashed hopes...  The dangers of deviation in the human brain . . . 

Humanity is confronted with the tragic symphony of the Cosmic War—an ensemble that weaves pandemic loneliness, petty strife, poverty and inflation into a wretched soundscape. 

However, the perils associated with deviations in human cognition are exacerbated by the oppressive, distressing, narcissistic, and histrionic dominance exhibited by dictators.  These dictators are often products of societies that have faltered under the corrosive influences of their environments, in this case, the Caribbean Sea.

Just yesterday, President Donald Trump took a daring stance, dubbing Nicolás Maduro Moros a dictator and painting him as a puppet of the Cuban regime.  

…Kudos to President Trump for his bold statements, but we still have a way to go. 

Additionally, on December 19, 1989, former Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Oscar Arias, recounted a moment of profound anxiety when he received a call from then-President George H.W. Bush.  At the time, Bush was serving as Vice President under Ronald Reagan, and he informed Arias that U.S. Air Force planes were in route to Panama for a bombing operation.  Arias described experiencing a physical reaction of panic upon hearing this news; however, he later grasped the rationale behind Bush's statement, which indicated that the objective was to eliminate a drug trafficker rather than to depose a legitimate head of state. (1)

The soundscape  is a concept devised by the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer in the sixties of the twentieth century and perfectly understood Don José Antonio Abreu Anselmi (Valera, May 7, 1939-Caracas, March 24, 2018), musician, economist, politician, activist, educator and the "Gran" Minister of Culture who founded the National Youth Orchestra and the National System of Youth, Children's and Pre-Children's Symphony Orchestras of Venezuela. 

Venezuelan anthropology is characterized by a profound and transparent harmony that contributes to the formation of an intelligent, peaceful, and supportive society. This discipline endeavors to navigate its fragmented trajectory in accordance with these principles; however, it is regrettable that, in certain contexts, these ideals may prove insufficient.

Imagine a symphony of isolated notes and sounds, each a unique thread woven into the rich tapestry of the auditory world that envelops humanity in each moment and space.  The essence of the soundscape concept lies in its ability to peel back the layers of history, revealing the fundamental acoustic and political nuances of a particular era. We focus on a significant moment in time, namely the Venezuelan plain during the late 1920s. 

Indeed, we’re talking about Rómulo Gallegos, the novelist and politician born in Caracas on August 2, 1884.  He is the mastermind behind the captivating tale of Doña Barbara.  This narrative echoes the struggles he faced during his presidency in 1948, a time overshadowed by the weight of oppressive forces.  Gallegos captures the rich soundscapes of the plains, where the symphony of nature intertwines with the human experience.  The rhythmic neighing of horses, the sharp crack of a whip, or the piercing sound of a whistle create an immersive auditory tapestry, each note brimming with profound significance. 

Over the past few decades, Venezuelan civil society —alone, entirely alone— has grasped the gravity of their situation, bravely standing their ground against a monster.  Among valiant, courageous individuals like María Corina Machado, the expectation that someone can bring about transformative, miraculous change is no longer realistic.  Likewise, Don Edmundo González Urrutia committed himself to be noble solely by a profound love for the nation, despite the significant personal sacrifices he endured.

This is precisely why the recollections of President Oscar Arias hold such significance in this somber tale of the plains: “Back then, Bush was the Vice President under Ronald Reagan, and he relayed to Arias that U.S. Air Force planes were en route to Panama for a bombing mission. Upon hearing this, Arias felt a wave of panic wash over him; yet, he eventually came to understand the reasoning behind Bush's words, which suggested that the aim was to take down a drug lord rather than to overthrow a rightful leader.” 

https://www.germantoroghio.com/blog-1-2/5flh6ewlg7n74sf-kf9b4-2ez5f-37lnf-zbyza-tjbhy-zzdh5-enxl7-cz6mk-8z3fk-gkdgw-ws7xl-rxf4f-kc3a6-f343j-947nl-799rl-hnghj-a6rb7-2sjr3-jaa7m-ct3xb-gxana

Today…

Trump joins history’s long line of suitors coveting Greenland…

America’s 20th and 19th century expansionists would have been delighted by the president-elect’s proposed land grab…

Politico EU, authored by Jamie Dettner, January 11, 2025

Gratitude is a vital aspect of our existence...

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https://x.com/Germantoroghio/status/1878046401646522402

Trump joins history’s long line of suitors coveting Greenland…

America’s 20th and 19th century expansionists would have been delighted by the president-elect’s proposed land grab…

Politico EU, authored by Jamie Dettner, January 11, 2025

In 1946, the last time the United States tried to buy Greenland, Washington offered $100 million in gold bullion and a land swap that would have transferred ownership of Point Barrow in Alaska over to Denmark.

Maybe the Danes should have agreed. If they had, then they wouldn’t now have to be fending off the persistent would-be purchaser Donald Trump and enduring one of his sons touring the island marketing the benefits of becoming American. They also would have been the beneficiaries of the richest petroleum discovery in American history with the opening up of the giant oilfield in Prudhoe Bay in 1967.

“While we owe much to America, I do not feel that we owe them the whole island of Greenland,” then Danish Foreign Minster Gustav Rasmussen told the infuriated Americans in 1946 when rejecting their offer.

That offer had been made because the joint chiefs of staff and State Department officials decided turning the world’s largest island, located on the shortest polar route between Washington and Moscow, into the 51st state was one of military necessity for the United States. Time magazine dubbed the island the world’s largest “stationary aircraft carrier.”

The Americans judged the island was completely worthless to Denmark and had been neglected — a common theme in other U.S. bids to purchase Greenland. “There are few people in Denmark who have any real interest in Greenland, economic, political or financial,” announced William Trimble, a senior State Department official. 

That didn’t persuade the reluctant Danes — all the country’s political parties dismissed the proposal with Rasmussen dubbing it absurd in a parliamentary debate.

Meanwhile, the Americans were equally obdurate in their refusal to withdraw from U.S. bases first established on the island in 1941 to ensure Nazi Germany couldn’t use Greenland to attack the American mainland nor gain control of important raw materials. That refusal eventually prompted Denmark to join NATO.

Long line of suitors

Trump is just the latest in a long line of suitors — and not just American — who have come knocking at Denmark’s door wanting take the island off its hands.

Trump is likely to prove among the most persistent and aggressive — he’s now upped the ante by declining to say whether he would ever invade Greenland, the first time such a threat, in jest or otherwise, has been made by a U.S. leader. But it got him the headlines.

“If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be interviewing about Greenland, I would not have put that high up on my list of possible topics the media would be interested in,” says historian John C. Mitcham of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. “But it is also really fascinating, somewhat troubling too, that we’re hearing the echoes of the past with Victorian language about sovereignty and security.”

He adds: “You and I are talking about this in context of Greenland, Canada, and Trump, but the same can be applied to some of the rhetoric surrounding Russian annexation in Ukraine, of Chinese maritime ambitions in the Pacific. It really is quite… What’s the phrase? New wine in old bottles.”

Critics may deride the president-elect for his expansionist ambition to annex Greenland, but geopolitical considerations and military logic have prompted U.S. diplomats before to offer to buy the island.

Critics may deride the president-elect for his expansionist ambition to annex Greenland, but geopolitical considerations and military logic have prompted U.S. diplomats before to offer to buy the island. | Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images

The first time was in 1867 when the then powerful secretary of state William H. Seward, fresh off buying Alaska from Russia, floated the idea. It was “worthy of serious consideration,” he said.

An ardent expansionist, Seward, who also coveted Canada, commissioned a favorable study, much as Trump might do to lure investors to back yet another casino hotel. “The final document — which Seward had printed and distributed to lawmakers— was hardly objective in its findings,” wrote historian Jeff Ludwig, director of education at the Seward House Museum in Auburn, in a 2019 article.

Certainly, ‘A Report on the Resources of Iceland and Greenland’ didn’t under-sell the potential of Greenland, and its author, Benjamin Peirce, a surveyor, waxed enthusiastically about the island’s abundant wildlife, game and fisheries, its great mineral wealth, including coal, and the fact that it was “largely more than half the size of all Europe.”

Bye bye, Canada…

Above all, and music no doubt to Seward’s ears, Peirce stressed that securing Greenland combined with the Alaska Purchase would mean the United States had successfully outflanked British America [Canada] on both the Arctic and Pacific. Pierce said that the Dominion of Canada had been “gotten up in England in a spirit of bitter hostility to the United States.”

By outflanking Canada it would “greatly increase British America’s inducements, peacefully and cheerfully, to become part of the American Union,” he argued.

Alas for Seward, his proposal to expand the United States only excited opposition from a deeply hostile Congress, which was at loggerheads with President Andrew Johnson, who assumed the presidency following Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Congress had already nixed Seward’s proposal to buy Denmark’s West Indies, subsequently bought from Copenhagen in 1917 for $25 million in gold and renamed the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Trump’s Folly…

Subsequently, in 1910, there were behind-the-scenes talks between Washington and Copenhagen, part of a proposed highly complicated global real estate swap — one that would have Trump drooling — involving the trading of islands in the Philippines and West Indies along with Northern Schleswig between the U.S., Germany and Denmark.

Not to be outdone, Britain and Canada have also coveted Greenland, with London trying to secure Danish agreement during World War I that it would get first right of refusal in the event Copenhagen ever decided to sell, partly to ensure the U.S. didn’t get it. 

That effort came after British and Dominion leaders agreed among themselves at a highly secret meeting in 1917 that Britain should buy Greenland for the Canadians as part of a post-war global territorial adjustment. “The Canadian government had its own more reserved annexationist designs during the course of the First World War oriented towards the idea of creating a North American Canadian Empire,” says Mitcham. “And it became very interested in Greenland,” he adds.

“When the United States begins to show its own interest in Greenland, this is when the British Foreign Office began to back off from its support of Canada’s ambitions,” Mitcham says.

The Danish also showed only muted interest, and emphasized their determination to maintain ownership of the island by formally declaring in 1921 sovereignty over all of Greenland. Norway challenged Danish sovereignty in 1931 but its claim was dismissed by the Permanent Court of International Justice, part of the League of Nations.

“We need Greenland for national security purposes,” Trump said during his Tuesday press conference. “People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to [Greenland], but if they do they should give it up because we need it for national security.”

Seward, secretary of state during the Alaska Purchase, would have been delighted. At the time, his deal was dubbed by his enemies as Seward’s Folly, but history has largely taken a kinder view on the venture.

Trump’s Folly is still to be played out.