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And The Nobel Winner Is... |
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Conservative Compass Blog
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Written by Bob Sordahl
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Saturday, 10 October 2009 |
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The Norwegians have exercised their yearly ritual attempt to show their relevance in the world wide picture. They awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama, not apparently for his accomplishments, but rather for what they hope he will accomplish. Admittedly I am not a scholar of the Nobel Prize, but I think this approach is a bit of getting the cart ahead of the horse. Even Obama's most ardent supporters were left scratching their heads over the announcement, but the Nobel committee's past winners list should leave no one surprised by the capriciousness of this current decision.
In many ways it appears as if the Nobel Committee is trying to guide and formulate a future agenda by awarding their prize to particular individuals. Some past winners include:
Al Gore and the IPCC (2007)
"for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"
Jimmy Carter (2002)
"for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development"
UN and Kofi Annan (2001)
"for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world"
Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin (1994)
"for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East"
It's a good thing they don't rescind the award for future failures.
Additionally one might ask: If the Nobel Committee is so smart, how come they missed the most famous and celebrated peace activist of all time, Mahatma Gandhi? He was nominated on several occasions, but never received this revered award. If you want to see a piece of skillfully crafted spin, I recommend you read the Committee's own explanation at: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/gandhi/index.html . They even go so far to suggest that they left the Peace Prize un-awarded one year to honor him. "Thanks a lot."
So here we are today with the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to President Obama. Never mind that the nominations had to be submitted only 12 days into his new administration. Never mind that the Prize is to be awarded for accomplishments of the previous year. Never mind that the world doesn't seem any more peaceful than it was under the previous President. Never mind that Obama's previous year was spent as a Senator from Illinois who was campaigning non-stop for the office of President... I present to you:
Barack Obama (2009)
"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"
In his own words, Alfred Nobel wrote in his will:
"The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."
Notwithstanding those crazy Norwegians, I must have missed something.
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