I was truly shocked when I was informed that USA president, Barack Obama had won this year’s Nobel peace prize and apparently I wasn’t the only one. According to the article found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8298580.stm “An estimated 75% of comment sent to The BBC expressed surprise at the award. Some said awarding the prize to Mr. Obama was plain wrong, others that the decision had come too soon, before he had made any concrete foreign policy achievement.” This same site also has a video of the actual award ceremony and a number of video links relating to the situation. High Five to The BBC for their coverage!
More seriously however, Obama was only inaugurated two weeks before the nomination deadline, what could he have possibly done in two weeks to deserve this honor? Being a South African with relatives in Zimbabwe I honestly believe that nominee Morgan Tsvangarai, prime minister of Zimbabwe, deserved the award far more than Barack Obama, he’s at least been fighting a tyrant for a few decades. Another view is from The Guardian1 which feels that this award is another way of Europe saying to America that they’re in cahoots* again and not truly about who the nominations comity (of only five people by the way) feels is deserving of this prestigious honor.
For a more controversial view on Mr. Obama’s reaction to the award go to http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100013494/barack-obama-oh-did-i-mention-i-won-the-nobel-prize where Toby Harnden, of the US Daily Telegraph assesses that the award was given to a ‘humble’ man who isn’t so humble after all.
1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/oct/16/obama-isnt-helping.
*cahoots – alliance or in a scheme together.
Photo: Jason Reed/Reuters – Guardian.
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