Greenland: The land of suicides
Everyone in Greenland knows someone close to them who has taken their own life. A good friend, a relative, a brother, or a neighbor. A parent, a sister, a classmate, or a pupil. It is impossible to find — this journalist did not find — a single person on this frozen island who has not been robbed of someone by suicide at one stage or another in their life. Doris Jakobsen, a member of parliament for the Social Democrat Siumut Party, 50: “Of course I know them. In fact, that was one of the reasons I got into politics.” Rikke Ostergaard, a 48-year-old graduate in social sciences: “Of course I know them. Just like everyone else. Here, you are born, go to school, grow up, become a teenager, smoke your first cigarette, have your first boyfriend, your friend kills themselves, you finish school… It is part of everyone’s biography.” Poul Pedersen, social worker, 30: “My best friend and my cousin killed themselves. And my best friend killed herself years after her little sister did. Every time someone kills themselves here, we ask ourselves: Who will be next?” Maliina Abelsen, sociologist, 48: “I know at least 10 people.”
