Photo by Jurvetson
The Nobel Peace Prize is odd in that it’s usually awarded to encourage more than reward. People have won for the Israeli/Palestinian peace process, Iran nuclear disarmament, etc. These obviously not accomplishments. At this point they might actually be called failures. The Peace Prize is kinda meant to support people trying to do something now as much as reward past success. I personally think this is a bit off, but it has its own logic. In that sense Barack Obama is trying to do something now, and the language he has communicated to the world has already made a difference. However, I think it may have been more opportune to give the award to someone who’d already reached billions of people. Like Michael Jackson.
I think Obama is definitely the coolest person walking the face of the earth today. However, I don’t think he’s done what he’s set out to do yet. The Nobel might theoretically help him, but it can also hurt domestically. Right now he’s got this edgy health care debate and this Norwegian stuff doesn’t placate the Republican south. Not that they’re placable. The nomination date for the prize was also Feb 1, so he’d been President for 10 days. So the award would be basically for his campaign and contribution to global thought (which is actually immense). He still has a lot of work to do.
However, as mentioned, the Peace Prize is not necessarily a reward as much as encouragement. To quote Foreign Policy
The Nobel Peace Prize’s aims are expressly political. The Nobel committee seeks to change the world through the prize’s very conferral, and, unlike its fellow prizes, the peace prize goes well beyond recognizing past accomplishments. As Francis Sejersted, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the 1990s, once proudly admitted, “The prize … is not only for past achievement. … The committee also takes the possible positive effects of its choices into account [because] … Nobel wanted the prize to have political effects. Awarding a peace prize is, to put it bluntly, a political act.”
As Andrew Sullivan says, this is a potentially transformative moment in history and perhaps this is a downpayment on that. I dunno. I hope the Nobel will help, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily appropriate. He already has a Grammy.
God, he’s such a spoilt brat!
indi, you know as much about the American South (as if that’s really a descriptive term) as I know about how many hairs populate the taint of an average fisherman down south in SL. Obama is just as much a rent-seeking incrementalist as any other politician and this is merely the latest supplementary phenomenon.
I lived in Ohio for about 12 years. More Midwest than South, but the Civil War border was the bottom of the state. The Republicans have been pursuing what’s called a Southern Strategy for decades, and the polling still reflects their base is strongly in the south (National Journal).
I thought it was totally wtf-ey and random. :| I’m pro-Obama and all that jazz, but all he’s done so far is talk. Personally, the whole thing looks like a strange and uncalled-for gimmick.
If there is any time to use the word ‘fuck’, this indeed the best time to use it. With an exclamation followed.
I think many people don’t know that Rajan Hoole and K. Sritharan of UTHR – J were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2009.. its a pity that they didn’t get it!
“I think Obama is definitely the coolest person walking the face of the earth today”
Come off of it dude. That’s just plain cheezy.
People :) These are the operative words “The Nobel Peace Prize’s aims are expressly political”
That os exactly just what it is.
Oba has nice teeth.
look who the National Post thinks should’ve won.. http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=2088558
I’m a 3rd year PhD student without any significant results worth a PhD. The day I heard Obama has been awarded the Nobel peace price, I felt like meeting my adviser and asking him to give my PhD reading my SoP. I was one of those billions of people listened to Obama speaking from Chicago on that election night. I can’t believe people around me cannot see that we heard the same crap we have been hearing from all US presidents but this time it was concealed in Obama’s eloquence. Leading the world, the best nation on earth? Isn’t this the same supremacy of power coming at us in different form. IMHO whether its’ dems or repbublicans they are gonna fuck us anyway.
”However, I think it may have been more opportune to give the award to someone who’d already reached billions of people. Like Michael Jackson. ” Nobel prize for this guy? I wonder why he was never appointed as a UNICEF ambassador or something.