A Nobel Cause indeed!
By ArchieIndian | Social Media16 Oct 2009
Prologue: It was not just his chiseled “Harvard looks” that stole the show (and the elections of course). Obama symbolized change. A change that The United States of America was desperately seeking. The first ever black American president candidate epitomized a turn of tide in every possible way. With the country’s economy turning in its grave, nation at war, homes and jobs lost and businesses doomed, Barack Obama symbolized hope and renewal. And this is what his campaign centered around.
“America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love” (Source: Obama’s nomination victory speech in Saint Paul, Minnesota)
It was time indeed. Time for a man to assume the most powerful position in the world. Time to create Brand Obama.
Not only did Obama capture the presidency, but he led his party to sharp gains in Congress. The election ended as one of the most remarkable contests in American political history. That was the 4th Day of November, 2008.
9th Day of October, 2009: Just when we thought that this man couldn’t generate further hype and influence, a piece of news proved many wrong. Barack Obama being declared as the winner of Nobel Prize for Peace left many gasped in shock! What is even more interesting is that, the Nobel Prize committee sets out February as the deadline for filing of nominations (nobelprize.org). So effectively, a 90 day stay in the White house is all that the committee had to scrutinize and consider him worthy of such a stupendous honor.
This bears a disturbing resemblance to a swarm of film producers trying to sign star kids up for their movies, the moment they see first rushes of the bloke’s debut film (that has a decent probability of going kaput at the box office mind you!).
The next joke that you’ll probably get to hear on the Late Show with David Letterman will go as: Obama awarded another Nobel for gifting a pooch to Maria and Sasha!
Isn’t it too early though? Is giving hope to people who are responsible for your victory, enough to fetch you the priceless ($1.4 million worth on second thought) honor? (The money by the way was given to charity, another Nobel in the pipeline for that!!)
Jokes apart however (difficult?? Try…try.), the Nobel committee [quote] recognized Obama’s efforts at dialogue to solve complex global problems, including working toward a world free of nuclear weapons . Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future [unquote].
Oddly enough, the last date of filing of nominations (February if you recall…Or re-read) is also the time when Obama approved of a significant troop increase in Afghanistan! This step was taken in order to [quote] to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan [unquote] (CNN politics.com). Now if that does not bear an uncanny resemblance to Bush ’s statements during US troop invasion, what will?
The other day I found myself caught in the midst of a heavy discussion centered on Mahatma Gandhi and his efforts that weren’t considered good enough to earn him a Nobel.
I tried looking up for similar discussions on the internet. The Nobel committee does have an explanation for it. Apparently up to 1960, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded almost exclusively to Europeans and Americans. Also, Nobel Prize was not given for peaceful settlement of regional conflicts, something that Mahatma Gandhi bought about. He was, however nominated for the coveted honor in the years 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before he was murdered in January 1948. Even though the Nobel is never really given posthomously, the Norwegian Nobel Committee did consider his candidature after his death, according to some sources (nobelprize.org).
Nevertheless, the future will see many debates on the decision that the committee has been arriving at.
So while Barack Obama finds a suitable charity to donate his prize money and the citizens of America find some solace in the fact that they’ve elected a “Peace Prize Winner” (Christ!) and that some “change” has indeed arrived, may I call it a post.
No related posts.
Tags: Mahatma Gandhi, Nobel Prize, Obama
-
http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/2yW77U Tweets that mention A Nobel Cause indeed! | Microreviews.org — Topsy.com
-
Arkid Mitra
-
http://twitter.com/archieindian Arkid Mitra
-
Megha Joshi
-
Megha Joshi
-
Megha
-
Megha
-
Kumar Tanmay
-
Kumar Tanmay
-
Kartik
-
Kartik
-
Vikash
-
http://twitter.com/viksontweet Vikash
