Nobel Peace Prize – Deserving or Undeserving?
On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 was awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. According to the Committee’s press release,
Obama as a 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 (Nobelprize.org, 2009).
Immediately after the announcement, the reactions came flowing in – some positive and some negative. One would believe that the reactions would follow political party lines but they didn’t. According to FoxNews.com the following statements were made from the political left:
Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein joked on Twitter: “Obama also awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry. ‘He’s just got great chemistry,’ says Nobel committee.” The Daily Beast’s Peter Beinart wrote: “I like Barack Obama as much as the next liberal, but this is a farce.” And Michael Russnow wrote on the Huffington Post that he too is an Obama supporter but, “Whatever Happened to Awarding for Deeds Actually Done?” Russnow likens the “extremely premature” award to “giving an Oscar to a young director for films we hope that he or she will produce.”
Even President Obama was quick to add "view it as recognition of my own accomplishments. I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize," he said. (FoxNews.com, 2009).
So what do you think? Deserving or undeserving? I think this subject falls pretty close to our analysis on celebrities. Sometimes being famous does not mean anything more than being well known. According to North, Bland and Ellis (n.d.) a celebrity is “[a] famous person whose achievements are well known nationally or internationally, but who does not create any objects or ideas of permanence or lasting importance.”
Only time will tell if Obama will become a hero.
References
Baier, B. (2009, October 12). Media reacts to obama's nobel peace prize win. Retrieved October 18, 2009, from http://www.foxnews.com
North, A., Bland, V., & Ellis, N. (n.d). Distinguishing heroes from celebrities. British Journal of Psychology, 96(1), 39-52. Retrieved October 24, 2009, from http://search.ebscohost.com, doi:10.1348/000712604X15473
(2009, October 9). The Nobel peace prize for 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2009, from http://nobelprize.org/cgi-bin
Jenny, i also have my disagreement with the health issue, and i do understand why others do, all I am saying is why does Fox news make it a duty to contradict or find everything wrong with this president. i used to watch Fox news but lately, it is of no interest to me, and I state public opinion, I asked are they racist...? I stopped watching because they just think negative about the president, but I am not as dumb to say that they are... they might be, it is on them, but they need to make sure that they have an impartial comment and not make it sound that everything the president does is wrong because frm president Bush already brought the country to the ground, Obama is not the one who did, they need to make sure to see that the president is trying not to make the dumb mistake that Bush did before, I am in the military, it is my job to obey the president of the United States because I work for him, even if us as soldiers stopped agreeing with the reasons he sent us to the war, the first war after 9/11 we understood but what about after? we see people die, we have to rely on each other. I am ready and willing to fight for my country and die for it, but give us a good reason to fight.
ReplyDeleteWe know that it is to early to give him a nobel peace prize but at least, people saw that he was making an effort to bring peace. Like he said, we can not fight other countries fight all the time, it is true, some countries resent us because of that, not one person ever said anything about it even if they thought it. We all want a peace that won't come if we keep on fighting all the time. By always be the first to be called when there is disturbance somewhere we do make enemies, and that might be one of the reason why people hate us so much.
ReplyDeleteWe are powerful and I am proud of that fact, but i also think that it will be better if we stop making to many enemies. I will still fight til I die for this country but like I said make it worth. I am Proud to be a soldier