I am including this, not for the politics (although for the record I am for Greenland belonging to Denmark) but for the fact that people – not just Donald Trump – are often very confused about Scandinavia in general. I noted that Trump mixed up Iceland and Greenland a few times at Davos.
Interestingly, Greenland joined the EC (the predecessor of the EU) in 1973 as part of Denmark. It withdrew from the EU in 1985.
I have lived in Sweden for 27 years this year. Some of my family and friends believe I live in Switzerland. Some of them believe that Scandinavia is a country. And in general, people do not know the difference between the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). Years ago, I had a surreal debate with a friend who insisted I lived in the country of Scandinavia, not in Sweden. He just would not give up so to this day he probably believes he was correct.
I guess it is the same way people confuse England, Britain and UK. Or talk about Europe/US/Africa as countries. If you don’t live there, it can be confusing.
Another common misconception is that the Nobel Prizes are all awarded in Sweden, by the government. The Nobel Peace Price is awarded in Norway, while all other prizes are awarded in Sweden. This was stipulated in Nobel’s will, possibly because Sweden and Norway were in a union at that time. The prizes have nothing to do with the government; they are awarded by institutions named in Nobel’s will. Government Ministers usually attend the ceremony, but they have no power over any of the awards. In fact, the second largest party in the Swedish Parliament has been excluded from the awards for years due to The Nobel Foundation maintaining a policy of excluding individuals whose values it deems inconsistent with the principles of the Nobel Prize.
Some people are convinced tigers are native to Africa (nope). I spent years believing that Sweden had polar bears (still nope)
The US is a country, America is a continent like Europe and Africa. But this is a nice piece of writing about Scandinavia (I notice that the Nordic countries include Scandinavia which is confusing) I have seen maps of Europe (these include Scandinavia which is good but also a huge swathe of Russia). I may not be able to differentiate (or pick out) Norway, Finland or Sweden on the map but I know that Denmark is a different country and is not linked to the aforementioned three,
Janet, this is very interesting. Could you please explain the difference between Scandinavian and Nordic, since the 3 Scandinavian countries are also on the Nordic list? Thanks!