[lit-ideas] Re: Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize?
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:04:55 -0700
On Oct 14, 2009, at 9:03 AM, Paul Stone wrote:
Of course, Arafat, Rabin and Peres won it, so who the Hell knows
what goes through the awarders' heads.
I have been thinking about this. If you look at the list
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/
you may see at least two kinds of prize: those awarded for
achievement and those awarded in hope. Oddly Obama's prize seems to
belong more to the first half of the twentieth century when Sir
Norman Angell and Charles Dawes achieved little, but embodied hope.
I imagine the committee sitting and sifting and saying, "We could
give it to an NGO, or this person who has done a lot of good, or to
that person who took a stand, but who currently represents the best
hope for 'fraternity between nations?' Who is 'abolishing or
reducing standing armies?' Is anyone 'holding or promoting peace
congresses?' With any degree of success? We could decide not to
give the award...or there's this fellow in whom people worldwide have
invested a lot of hope. We know he may turn out to be no big deal,
we know he's done not much more than write a couple of books and get
himself elected, but why not take the risk of adding to that
investment?"
I imagine a vigorous debate on the five person committee. It's hard
to tell from a quotation, but I think I might describe Kaci Kullman
Five as tight-lipped. Somewhat less enthusiastic than her left wing
colleagues?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091013/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nobel_peace_obama
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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