News from Greenland, Turkey and China

Greenland’s parliament voted on Thursday (Oct. 24) to end a decades-long prohibition on mining for radioactive materials like uranium, further opening up the country to investors from Australia to China eager to tap its vast mineral resources.

The move will not only allow the mining of uranium deposits, but also of rare earths, minerals used in 21st century products from wind turbines to hybrid cars and smart phones and that are currently mostly extracted by China.

With sea ice thawing and new Arctic shipping routes opening, the former Cold War ally of the West has emerged from isolation and gained geopolitical attention from the likes of Beijing and Brussels thanks to its untapped mineral wealth.

“We cannot live with unemployment and cost of living increases while our economy is at a standstill. It is therefore necessary that we eliminate zero tolerance towards uranium now,” Greenland Prime Minister Aleqa Hammond was quoted as saying by local newspaper Sermitsiaq during the debate.

Hammond’s government won the heated debate by 15-14 votes.

The possibility of uranium mining has been criticized by environmental groups. Earlier, a group of non-governmental organisations warned (that they believe) uranium mining in Greenland could threaten the Arctic region’s pristine ecological system.

While Greenland is self governing, former colonial ruler Denmark still has a say in security and defense issues and the uranium decision may need to be approved by the Danish parliament – possibly putting the two nations on a diplomatic collision course.

Greenland’s “zero tolerance” policy on mining radioactive materials is inherited from Denmark, but the island is keen to develop mining to help pay for welfare and jobs in this country with a population of around 57,000 people, mostly Inuits.

Since Greenland won self-government in 2009, most politicians have aimed for growing autonomy and eventual independence.

The more revenues from mining or oil, the more Greenland weans itself off Denmark’s annual grant that accounts for more than half the island’s budget. …

TURKEY – Rail tunnel linking Europe to Asia opens

ISTANBUL | Turkey has opened an underwater railway tunnel linking Europe and Asia, and the two sides of Istanbul, realizing a plan initially proposed by an Ottoman sultan about 150 years ago.

The Marmaray tunnel runs under the Bosporus, the strait that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and divides Istanbul between Asia and Europe. The tunnel is 8.5 miles long, including an underwater stretch of 4,593 feet.

It is among a number of large infrastructure projects under the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that have helped boost the economy but also have provoked a backlash of public protest. …

Officials hope that with up to 1.5 million passengers a day, the tunnel will ease some of Istanbul’s chronic traffic, particularly over the two bridges linking the two sides of the city. A more distant dream is that the tunnel may become part of a new train route for rail travel between Western Europe and China.

The underwater portion of the tunnel wasn’t dug, but was dropped in sections to the sea bottom – the immersed-tube method used around the world. Turkish officials say that at more than 180 feet deep, it is the world’s deepest railway tunnel of its type.

Started in 2005 and scheduled to be completed in four years, the project was delayed by important archaeological finds, including a 4th century Byzantine port, as builders began digging under the city.

Rejecting any fears that the tunnel could be vulnerable to earthquakes in a region of high seismic activity, Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim said that it is designed to withstand a massive 9.0 magnitude quake. He calls it “the safest place in Istanbul.” …

The tunnel is just one of Erdogan’s large-scale plans. They include a separate tunnel being built under the Bosporus for passenger cars, a third bridge over the strait, the world’s biggest airport, and a massive canal that would bypass the Bosporus.

The projects have provoked charges that the government is plunging ahead with city-changing plans without sufficient public consultation. The concern fueled protests that swept Turkey in June.

[Opponents accuse Erdogan, still broadly popular after 10 years in power, of bypassing city planners and bulldozing history to make way for pet projects in an ancient city that was the capital of the Byzantine Empire, then after the 1453 Islamic conquest became the center of Ottoman power.]

Tuesday’s ceremony on the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic was attended by Erdogan and other officials, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose country was heavily involved in the construction and financing of the railway tunnel project.

Japan’s Seikan tunnel linking the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido is the world’s deepest, getting 460 feet below the seabed and 790 feet below sea level. The Channel Tunnel linking Britain and France is as much as 250 feet below sea level.

CHINA – Push for Urban Growth Carries Social Costs

BEIJING | As many as 64 million Chinese households have had their land seized or their homes demolished during a decadeslong building boom, a study said, throwing an uncomfortable light on the dark side of the country’s urbanization process.

China’s new generation of leaders, which took office in March, has championed urbanization as an engine of economic growth.

China’s urbanization rate, at 53%, remains low by international standards. Bringing more workers from the agricultural sector into more productive work in cities could help lift China’s economic growth rate, which in 2012 fell to its slowest pace in more than a decade.

But the country’s urbanization carries a social cost. About 16% of Chinese households covered in a survey by Beijing’s Tsinghua University have seen their land expropriated or their homes hit by the wrecking ball at some point.

The estimate of the total number of households affected was based on a survey of 12,540 adults and 7,517 children across China last year. It was designed to be representative of the whole population.

Most of those who lost their land were in rural areas on the fringes of cities that are rezoned for development, according to the study.

China’s farmers don’t have the right to sell land themselves, and are often at the mercy of local authorities who seize land for development projects, often with little concern for compensation. The issue is a frequent source of friction between farmers and local governments.

“If we understand that there is such a large-scale process of demolition, perhaps we will not be surprised that there are so many disputes,” said the report.

Farmers are typically rehoused and receive cash compensation, but they often struggle to find work or adapt to city life. About 80% of those who lost land received some compensation, though the study didn’t say how much they received.

The study also said that only 10% got access to social-welfare benefits in the cities where they were relocated.

Under China’s Mao-era household registration system, benefits such as health insurance and pensions are tied to residency. Only 28% of the population has an urban registration, though more than half live in cities.

Migrant workers at low-paid jobs in manufacturing and construction, normally have no access to benefits. Just 4% of those rehoused were given help finding work, the survey found.

China’s leaders are expected to discuss changes to land policy at a Communist Party meeting next month, but reform will be difficult to push through. Local governments rely on the profits from land expropriations and sales for most of their revenue, and land reform requires big changes to the tax system to give them an alternative source of income.

“Land-grabbing is the single biggest source of social instability,” said Meina Cai, an expert on China’s land policy at the University of Connecticut. “The logical reform would be to unify the rural and urban land markets, but it’s unlikely to occur.The biggest beneficiary of the system is the state, the local governments.”

(The news briefs above are from wire reports and staff reports posted at London’s Daily Telegraph on October 25, NY Post on Oct. 30 and The Wall Street Journal on Oct. 30.)