 It doesn't take long to realize that they do things differently in Greenland. Touching down at Kangerlussuaq Airport, passengers are treated to a video on how to catch the giant sharks that lurk 600 m below the ice floes. Apparently, the best way to haul these 700-kg monsters out of the deep is to thread the hook through the eyes, attach the other end of the line to a sled and let the huskies do the rest of the work.
Greenland certainly isn't a place for the faint-hearted, or for die-hard vegetarians either. Down at the market in the country's capital, Nuuk, shoppers can choose from an array of guillemots, razorbills, seal and whale meat or more regular fare such as halibut, shrimp and cod. There certainly aren't many mushrooms on offer.
For over 4,000 years the largely Inuit people who inhabit this ice-clad island in the North Atlantic have done their own hunting and fishing. In some remote settlements, this tradition still lives on. Under the light of the midnight sun in the town of Ilulissat, a flotilla of small fishing boats sets off in search of a narwhal and several hours later locals can be seen trudging up the hill with bags of freshly cut whale-meat slung over their shoulders.
But in Nuuk, where almost a quarter of the island's 56,000 people live, things are changing fast — shoppers are more likely to pop down to their local supermarket to get a frozen whale steak than go off in search of it themselves. In fact, the supermarkets look a lot like they do in other European towns — until you realize that almost everything is imported. There are no cows or hens on the world's largest island, so milk, beef, chicken and eggs have to be imported from Denmark.
Although Greenland has enjoyed over two decades of home rule, it is still heavily dependent on its former colonial ruler. Over half the country's income comes from a block grant from Copenhagen and Danes still run much of the country's administration. But rather than accept this money graciously, most Greenlanders appear to be bitter about the level of dependency. Says MP Hans Egede: "When you get your parents to pay your own bills, you are not independent; when you can produce your own checkbook, you are."
At present, fishing accounts for almost all Greenland's export earnings. But the discovery of massive oil reserves off the west coast of the country could give Greenlanders a standard of living more similar to their Norwegian neighbours to the south-west. Veteran Prime Minister Jonathan Motzfeldt denies that total independence from Denmark is on the political agenda. However, many in the country believe that once the cod return to Greenland's waters and oil revenues start flooding in, it will be only a matter of time before Greenlanders shrug off two centuries of Danish domination.
The government is also banking on a steep rise in tourist revenues to balance its books. Currently, only 20,000 visitors make the trek up north every year, despite the breathtaking beauty of the glaciers, fjords and icebergs and a wealth of offbeat activities ranging from dog-sledding to igloo building. Greenland could certainly do with any extra income because at present it faces a host of social ills common to many European cities but rare to a people used to fending for themselves.
Most of Nuuk's population are crammed into Soviet-style blocks of flats, yet there is still a 13-year waiting list for accommodation. Added to this, there is a host of problems resulting from the rapid change from hunter-gatherer society to a largely urban culture dependent on generous grants from over the water. Alcoholism and drug abuse are rife, unemployment affects almost a third of the population in winter months and suicide rates are among the highest in the world.
There is little doubt that urbanization and societal change are leading to the sort of stresses and strains that occur elsewhere in the world. But fears that one of the earth's last great wildernesses is in danger of disappearing are exaggerated. Life has always been hard in this cold and barren corner of the world. And in spite of cars, mobile phones and satellite TV dishes, it will continue to be in the near future. As Prime Minister Motzfeldt explains: "It is the omnipotent Arctic nature that rules our land. And it is only because of the respect we have for the enormous forces of nature, the knowledge handed down to us by our forefathers and an ability to adapt that we Inuits have survived up here."
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True North
Along the back roads and around the islands to find space researchers in the Arctic Circle and African asylum seekers in Denmark
Photo Gallery
Check out the photos from this leg of TIME's Fast Forward Europe voyage
Hard Times
The Sami people continue their reindeer-herding traditions despite setbacks
Prick Up Your Ears
How Finnish melancholy permeates the European pop charts
Magic Wand
Finnish telecommunications entrepreneur Pekka Sivonen shows off Helsinki's Virtual Village
House of Faith
A mosque created from a Stockhold electricity plant provides a focus for Sweden's Muslims
Greenland Comes In from the Cold
This isolated island in the North Atlantic is learning to cope with life in the 21st century
The Hippies Hit Their Golden Years
The residents of Christiania, where the 1970s never died, face a very modern problem: an aging population
Rock of Ages
Life's a blast on Iceland's Heimaey island
Life Among the Volcanoes
Heimaey Island may be a firecracker waiting to go off, but the locals like it
Running on Thin Air
Iceland is making its dream of a hydrogen economy come true
People To Watch: The Cajanders | Mart Laar | Kalle Lasn | Philip Diklev
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