The [Nobel Peace] Prize should be an award for action
Charles Rangel
Here�s a novel idea: Nobel Prizes should be given to people
after they have done things � not before.
Well, at least it seems somewhat novel since Friday, when the
Nobel Committee selected President Barack Obama as the 2009
recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Unlike the other prizes that are awarded for lifetime
achievement in a discipline � physics, chemistry, physiology or
medicine, literature and, since 1968, economics � the peace
prize has frequently been awarded proactively to encourage
potential peacemakers to continue to pursue their efforts.
People like Mikhail Gorbachev, Yasser Arafat and Al Gore were
all given their Nobels in the midst of their endeavors as an
affirmation of the steps that they were taking, and not
necessarily as a reward for the progress they had made.
But doling out recognition before the work has been done � or in
this case even started � cheapens the prize. I�ll take one Nobel
Prize for Literature, please. You know, for all of those great
novels I plan on penning.
See what I mean? Cheapening.
Although Obama certainly has made important contributions to
changing the tone of international relations, as he mentioned in
his acceptance speech, he hardly deserves to be among the ranks
of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Teresa.
Obama supporters are angry because we had hoped that president
Obama would win this award, we just had thought it would come 20
years and a few Middle East negotiations later. But giving the
award out to people who have not had time to prove their
diplomatic chops doesn�t help to further the cause of peace.
Selections like these take away the award�s prestige and make it
a mere political ploy.
Zach Ammerman is a sophomore majoring in French and political
science.
Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize was a good thing. But
if you had to make the pick between him and one of these people,
would you have really made the same decision as the Nobel
Committee?
1. Mir Hussein Mousavi: The nation of Iran is currently at a
major crossroads in its history. Mousavi � after almost
certainly having the 2009 presidential election stolen from him
� stood up and demanded peaceful resistance to the government
crackdown that followed the election. Official police reports
document 450 post-election arrests, but the number is likely in
the thousands. Moreover, there have been widespread allegations
of rape and torture of the prisoners. Mousavi has used his voice
relentlessly in opposition to the increasingly repressive
government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
2. Morgan Tsvangirai: Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of
Zimbabwe, has been beaten so terribly he has had to be
hospitalized on more than one occasion, arrested without cause,
accused of treason, almost thrown out of a 10-story window and
had two elections stolen from him. And he has to work with the
man responsible for it all: the despot President Robert Mugabe.
Tsvangirai has openly advocated peaceful and effective protest
to Mugabe�s leadership. Tsvangirai was also nominated for the
2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
3. Dr. Denis Mukwege: Mukwege established a hospital for the
treatment of victims of horrific sexual violence in Bukavu, a
city in the war-torn region in eastern Democratic Republic of
the Congo, by far one of the most dangerous places in the world.
On an average day, Mukwege treats 10 women, 30 percent of whom
have complications from rape that are serious enough to undergo
major surgery. Every day, hundreds of women are brutally raped
in the Congo. Because of the hospital established by Mukwege,
many of them survive and receive free psychological care and
medical treatment.
Lamont Cranston
> http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=70918
>
> Here�s a novel idea: Nobel Prizes should be given to
> people
> after they have done things � not before.
That's what has just happened.
Announcement
The Norwegian Nobel Committee
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel
Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack
Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen
international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The
Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision
of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
Obama has as President created a new climate in
international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained
a central position, with emphasis on the role that the
United Nations and other international institutions can
play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments
for resolving even the most difficult international
conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has
powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control
negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now
playing a more constructive role in meeting the great
climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and
human rights are to be strengthened.
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama
captured the world's attention and given its people hope for
a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept
that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis
of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of
the world's population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to
stimulate precisely that international policy and those
attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading
spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now
is the time for all of us to take our share of
responsibility for a global response to global challenges."
Oslo, October 9, 2009
Joe Steel
news:60b7a00d73cd6c1c...@msgid.frell.theremailer.net:
>
> Unlike the other prizes that are awarded for lifetime
> achievement in a discipline � physics, chemistry, physiology or
> medicine, literature and, since 1968, economics � the peace
> prize has frequently been awarded proactively to encourage
> potential peacemakers to continue to pursue their efforts.
>
The Nobel Committee made a good choice. Even if Obama did nothing more,
his work to move America away from the war mongering and criminality of
the Bush regime would be enough.
--
Building a better American by hammering the right.
The Joe Steel Blog
http://thejoesteelblog.blogspot.com
Al Smith
> after they have done things � not before.
>
You nut, go way with ya. I was thinking the Nobel Peace Prize for
2010 should be awarded to Obama wife now to save time ... you know,
for things she hasn't done yet and won't have done by 2010.
-Al-
Lamont Cranston
Grapes are a little sour, huh?
Taco Bell With Dripping Snot
>http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=70918
>Here�s a novel idea: Nobel Prizes should be given to people
>after they have done things � not before.
That would be idiotic and rightarded.
---
Republicans: "The emotional maturity of bratty 13-year-olds" - Paul Krugman
http://tinyurl.com/yagkcbq
Al Smith
Spin it any way you like, for Obama to get the Peace Prize before he
has actually done anything -- and I mean *done* anything -- for
peace just makes a mockery of the Prize, and of Norwegians generally.
-Al-