
Canada and Denmark fight over uninhabited island by leaving bottles of alcohol - kposehn
http://www.businessinsider.com/canada-and-denmark-whiskey-war-over-hans-island-2016-1
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Svip
I 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.)

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goodcanadian
I 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!

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DoubleMalt
The whole story reinforces my belief that all evil in this world comes from
people taking themselves too seriously.

~~~
Diederich
Amen.

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peeters
I'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?

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bigethan
I 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.

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biot
Hans island did shots first.

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Ianvdl
It's a fun way to deal with a minor border dispute, not a "fight".

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david-given
Out of morbid curiosity, if you mix whiskey and schnapps, do you get anything
of interest other than a nauseating headache?

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Grishnakh
They should just have a war over it, and fight each other on the island with
paintball guns to see who gets it.

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mabbo
It'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
Nah... 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.

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ytjohn
If they would also provide snacks, I could setup a tent there and live on the
spoils of "dispute".

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johan_larson
Hans 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.

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dogma1138
Can 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.

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futuravenir
"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...

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ctstover
This 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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girzel
If 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.

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kspaans
Suka! (vinegar, amazingly varied and delicious vinegar)

~~~
benten10
And then some genius will decide to bring Opium into the game. : (

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shitgoose
just blow it to pieces to everyone's relief.

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moonshinefe
This anecdote has unfortunately been on the front page of reddit and all over
the internet for years.

