Greenland not for sale, Donald. And not Denmark’s to sell.

Donald Trump is miffed that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has rebuffed his offer to buy Greenland. It is rather reminiscent of the scene in the restaurant from the Blues Brothers

• [to man in restaurant] 
• Jake : [fakes accent]  How much for the little girl? How much for the women? Father : What? 
• Jake : Your women. I want to buy your women. The little girl, your daughters… sell them to me. Sell me your children!

This comes on the eve of his visit to Denmark and must be regarded, like Jake’s offer, as a bit tacky. Not that this would occur to someone who’s now referring to himself as the “Chosen One.” In a fit of pique, Trump has now cancelled the visit.

Felicity Jensz is a research associate professor at the University of Munster. This is an extract from an article that appeared in The Age (23/819]

The Greenland Home Rule Act in 1979 established Greenland’s own parliament and further sovereignty. In 2008 it hosted a referendum to support or oppose the Greenland Self-Government Act. Passing with 75 per cent of the vote, it declared Greenlanders are a distinct people within the Danish Realm.

Politically, this placed the Greenlandic parliament on an equal basis with the Danish one

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has dismissed Trump’s claims that Denmark essentially owns Greenland, stating “Greenland is Greenlandic”.

The agreement of Greenlanders would be essential for any “large real-estate deal” that stripped them of their land and sovereignty.

Greenland’s Prime Minister, Kim Kielsen, has said Greenland is not for sale. And if it was, he would be the one to ask – not Denmark. Greenland is not Denmark’s to sell.

Perhaps it’s time for Cricket to have a look at the rules regarding dangerous play and head injuries. Every other sport has.

In the first Bledisloe Cup match played in Perth, All Black Scott Barrett was marched when his shoulder made contact with the head of Wallabies captain Michael Hooper.

Some say it was the turning point of the match which the Wallabies won by a record 47 – 26 margin.

PHOTOSPORT
Scott Barrett, second left, is sent off by French referee Jerome Garces during Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup test

Barrett was later suspended for three weeks.

In the second Ashes test, Steve Smith went off the field having been hit in the neck by a vicious Jofra Archer bouncer.

Steve Smith receives treatment as lies on the ground after being hit on the head by a ball bowled by England’s Jofra Archer. Picture: AP

The actions of Barrett and Archer were deliberate in both cases.

The outcomes were completely the opposite.

In rugby, Barrett, the perpetrator, was sent off. Hooper remained on the field.

In cricket, Archer the perpetrator, remains on the field. Smith the injured player goes off.

it’s ironic, that in all contact sports search as rugby league and rugby union, there are rules about contact the head. It’s a sendoff offence. But not so in cricket. Nor, in AFL. Although, it’s reportable in AFL.

So is perfectly acceptable for a fast bowler like Archer to try to injure batsmen like Steve Smith and possibly permanently Injure him through concussion injury.

Safe workplaces? Time for cricket to have a look at this issue.

Life appears to return to normal as the All Blacks win the Bledisloe Cup for the 18th year in a row

From a distance it looks normal. The All Blacks have not lost a game at Eden Park for 25 years and last night was no exception.

A loss last night would have lifted preparation for the World Cup in a complete shambles. The finished third out of four and the recent rugby championship between Australia, Argentina, South Africa and New Zealand, so they were desperate for a win.

They needed to deliver big time and they did with the 36-0 victory. That’s a big margin but it’s also an emphatic victory because the Wallabies were held pointless. The All Blacks scored five tries to nil and kicked two penalties.

Changes that the All Black selectors were made and underlines the depth of talent that exists within the squad that will go to the World Cup.

Pictured above try-scorers Richie Mo’unga, Aaron Smith, Sevu Reece and Beaudin Barrett.

Australian commentator Gordon Bray started the night off well by citing the motivational techniques of ex-Australian rugby coach and now Radio 2GB shock Alan Jones who last week suggested that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison should stick a sock down the throat of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. 

Good one, Gordie.

All Black hooker Dane Coles was given a yellow card for throwing the Wallaby’s halfback out of a ruck when he didn’t have the ball. It was quite funny to watch. Suddenly this body came sailing through the air.

Undeterred, the seven-man All-Black scrum drove the Wallabies back at next two encounters.

You can imagine the discussion between Steve Hansen and Coles after the match.

Hansen: Dane, for f…’s sake!

Coles Yeah, OK.

So, let the games begin.

All Australian female MPs should repudiate Alan Jones’ comments about New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

THE AGE Shock jock Alan Jones has gone on the attack against New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for a second day after she brushed off his comments that Prime Minister Scott Morrison should “shove a sock down her throat” following her criticism of Australia on climate change.

Robust political commentary is one thing, but suggesting violence against women, particularly a woman who is the Prime Minister of another country, is beyond the bounds of civilised behaviour. This comes on top of Jones’ appalling attack on Australian PM Julia Gillard.

Women from both sides of Parliament should condemn Jones for his personal attacks on women in politics. To remain silent is to support him and condone what he says. It is female politicians who must be speak out against him.

It is particularly important that female politicians on the right of politics should condemn Jones, because it is they who will receive, and do receive, support from Jones in his political views and broadcasts. So is important that they distance themselves from any suggestion that they would receive benefit from the particular views that he espouses.

It appears that Jones is driven into an apoplectic and uncontrollable rage by seeing women being successful in the political arena and this leads him to the most appalling acts of vitriol in his broadcasts.

2GB radio has clearly no interest in reining Jones in and so Australians must continue to hang their heads in shame at these appalling demonstrations of misogyny from a national broadcaster.

But here is a thought

Wouldn’t it be great if, after the haka at the beginning of the second Bledisloe Cup match at Eden Park tomorrow, instead of a huge roar from the crowd, the entire crowd stood up, in silence, with a black sock pulled over their right arm and held it high above the heads.

That would go viral. Global viral

Alan Jones would be immortalised.

Victims to blame for El Paso shootings according to Trump

Washington Post: It’s a shame about the deaths, in other words, but they never would have happened if immigrants didn’t keep trying to come here, and if Democrats would just let me stop them. “So, this atrocity,” as Nicole Hannah-Jones aptly summed up his view, “was caused by immigration.”

Having essentially blamed the victims for their own murders, the president was happily and enthusiastically acceding to what authorities think are the alleged killer’s specific demands.

If the immigrants hadn’t been in El Paso, the shooter wouldn’t have gone there. Therefore, we shouldn’t allow immigrants. If the children haven’t gone to Sandy Hook school, then the shooter wouldn’t have gone there either. It’s a stupid argument. But that is not going to stop President Trump from mounting it.

Pop-up shops selling humble pie appear all over New Zealand following All Blacks biggest defeat in the 116 years

The once-mighty All Blacks were defeated by the Wallabies 47-26 last night. There will be all manner of excuses. But the better side won and now has a chance of winning the Bledisloe cup for the first time since 2002.

Michael Hooper celebrates a Wallabies try AAP: Dave Hunt

That will be realigning tectonic plates somewhere in the middle of the Tasman Sea.

The Wallabies will need to win at Eden Park and win against an All Black side the knows it needs to rescue its World Cup campaign which now has a poor win against Argentina, a draw against the Springboks and the loss to Australia as a fairly enviable record.

If BJ Lochore were alive, he would probably be volunteering to run on to Eden Park next week.

To make matters worse, the Springboks have won the Rugby championship and if Wales beats England, they, rather than the All Blacks, will be the world number one going into the World Cup.

AB coach Steve Hansen must be hoping that Brodie Retallick will make a speedy recovery for the World Cup. He wouldn’t want to be relying too much on Scott Barrett who became only the fourth All Black in history to receive a red card. One of the others is Sonny Bill Williams, who must now be in contention to be playing in the centres.

That ought to fix the gun problem! Texas moves to relax gun laws.

The Washington Post reports: Texas is getting new gun laws. But they’re not restrictions on firearms like those Ohio’s governor proposed days after Sunday’s mass shooting in Dayton.

They reflect many Texans’ embrace of expanded access to guns even after several high-profile shootings in the state, as gun-rights advocates argue that armed citizens can stop attackers.

Harel Shapira, a professor at the University of Texas who studies the gun-rights movement Said “A lot of legislatures are responding to these shootings.. by make\ing it easier for people to have access,” 

For state Rep. Dan Flynn, the weekend’s massacres in Ohio and Texas are further proof that people need to arm themselves in “soft targets” such as churches, schools and shopping centers.

So it won’t be long before the next tragedy occurs where some deranged psychopath begins shooting and a good guy with a gun shoots back and another good guy with a gun mistakenly start shooting at the good guy with a gun and suddenly you have mayhem.

When will there be justice in the Malka Leifer case?

THE AGE Malka Leifer was the head of Melbourne’s ultra-orthodox Adass Israel school and faces 74 charges of sexual assault of female students,

She fled to Israel in 2008 after the sex offence allegations emerged. An Israeli court ruled in 2016 that Ms Leifer, who has denied the charges, was mentally unfit to face extradition and trial.

She was re-arrested in 2018 after a police investigation cast doubts on her health claims, and is in prison awaiting an extradition ruling.

Malka Leifer in court. CREDIT:GABRIELLE WEINIGER

“The investigation that followed into Health Minister Litzman revealed that the Israeli police’s position was that there was enough alleged evidence against Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman of offences of fraud, breach of trust, and impeachment in testimony in the [Malka Leifer] extradition case,” 

The investigation allegedly found that psychiatrists feared they would be fired if they did not follow the orders of Mr Litzman, who is also chairman of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party.

There must be many people who struggle with the concept of an alleged sexual predator being “mentally unfit” to be extradited. After all, it’s only an aeroplane trip. What this argument effectively does is place the rights of the accused above the rights of victims.

And that seems to deny the proper course of justice.

It’s now been over a decade since Malka Leifer fled Melbourne. And if my memory serves me right, she was aided by members of her congregation. It is difficult not to come to the conclusion that she fled to Israel because she knew extradition would be difficult from there. And history has probably proved her correct in that assumption.

The Israeli justice system must lay this matter to rest. The best way to do this is to return Malka Leifer to Australia to prove her innocence or otherwise.

White Crow never really takes flight

White Crow is a story of the early life of Rudolph Nureyev, the greatest male dancer of the 20 century. He grew up in the Soviet Union where he learned to dance. He defected to the West where he was a sensation particularly dancing with Margot Fonteyn at the Royal Ballet.

Russian ballet dancer Oleg Ivenko as Rudolf Nureyev

The film, directed by Ralph Fiennes, traces Nureyev‘s up until his defection to the West in early 1960s. He was aided in this by Clara Saint. However, as with much of this film, the relationship between the two is not explored in any depth and we have no idea what happened between them after his defection.

Adèle Exarchopoulos as Clara Saint

Because this film deals with the early life of a very talented artist who defects to the west, it draws comparisons with Never Look Away which is an every way a far superior film.

Never Look Away’s Kurt Barnert 

Oleg Ivenko as Rudolf Nureyev and Ralph Fiennes as Alexander Pushkin 

Like Nureyev, Never Look Away‘s Kurt Barnert is a talented artist oppressed by the Communist political system. But the audience sees the way in which his art suffers as a result of the political system. This is never played out in White Crow. In fact, we never really get the sense of Nureyev’s immense talents. Nor do we get any sense of his immense passion for dancing. Those of us who are old enough to remember his defection the 1960s and who watched him dancing Le Corsaire know of this but It’s an ageing demographic now and the film gives little hint of brilliance that was to come.

What we do get in the film is young man strangely preoccupied with himself. He doesn’t seem to be terribly engaged with Clara nor with Xenia the wife of his mentor Alexander Pushkin’s with whom he has an affair.

And all this is tainted by the recent documentary in which new roof comes across as a narcissistic, self-centred hedonist.

One interesting aspect of the film is the role played by the young actor who plays Nureyev, as a child. There are no publicity shots of on the web and he is not mentioned in the cast details despite giving an outstanding performance in the film.

His name is Maksimilian Grigoriev  and he is very talented young dancer but clearly his parents have decided to keep him out of the limelight. One can only hope he returns to it one day.

Albanese says he has not seen any corruption in the Federal politics. What about the funny little guy who looked like Mr Bean?

SMH reports Labor leader Anthony Albanese says he has not seen any evidence of “direct corruption” among Australia’s federal politicians.

You don’t really want to start making up a list of people but ex-Labor senator Sam Dastyari immediately springs to mind.