The American President. As if this title is not powerful and popular enough, President Obama was bestowed upon a new and more powerful one this time – Nobel Peace Laureate. When I read the news this morning during the wee hours, I was seriously, “Is it for real?!?!?” Honestly I don't think President Obama deserves to be a Nobel Laureate for his “current” candidature. Deep down inside he knew this.
The Norwegian committee announced President. Obama as the recipient of Nobel Peace prize for the year 2009 for his extraordinary efforts in strengthening international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. I can agree that he promoted "international diplomacy" between the white collar politicians and bureaucrats across the world who makes millions and millions of $$$ every year in an economy when the prices of even mundane things are skyrocketing. But I'm highly skeptical about the ‘promoting-the-cooperation-between-peoples' part. Did he do anything tangible to promote peace that created an impact on the common people like us, let alone the sufferers and 'I-desperately-need-peace' seekers? The only instance I can think of is the moment where he promoted the peace between a white Massachusetts cop and a black Harvard Scholar. The war in middle-east and Afghanistan resulted in the death of thousands and thousands of innocent peoples. Did President Obama do anything to promote peace using International diplomacy? At least, even after swearing as the President of America did he pull out the troops from Afghanistan and Iraq? How can someone like President Obama possibly promote peace on one side and sign a hefty billion$$ check to promote the war on the other side? [No, he is not waging a War against terrorism. Wake up, people!!!] This just doesn’t make sense, does it?
Albert Einstein – one of the scientists I admire the most – discovered the phenomenon of photoelectric effect in 1905 and received the Nobel Prize during the year 1921. It took almost 16 years for the Nobel committee to evaluate someone like Albert Einstein who was considered as one of the brightest brains lived during 20th century. Someone like President Obama, for reasons purely known ONLY to the Norwegian Nobel committee for peace, the honor happened just like that. Let me go one step higher. Mahatma Gandhi introduced the word ‘Ahimsa (non-violence) to the world and lived beside it. He executed promoting the peace during the time when the whole world was merely reading about it. Despite the extraordinary efforts of Gandhi both in India and elsewhere, the Norwegian Nobel Peace committee did not have the guts to stand up and acknowledge Mahatma Gandhi. Instead, they remained as faithful puppets to the Queen of England. The magnitude of fear the Nobel committee is entitled to get by giving the Prize to Gandhi is certainly much less than the magnitude of pride and publicity that they are going to receive after announcing the ‘undeserved’ President Obama as the recipient of Peace prize. And finally, not so long ago, the Sri Lanka army literally killed its own citizens in the Northern part. More than hundreds of thousands of people cried to President Obama for help. Did the incumbent Nobel Peace Laureate President Obama “who is best adjudged for “promoting cooperation between people” tried anything "fruitful" to stop the killing? Even today there are 300,000 people living in an open prison as refugees of their own country (Sri Lanka). Did President Obama do anything of the sort of ‘International Diplomacy’ to help the 'in-house refugees'? The ‘non-Obama’ version of the answer for the above two questions is “NO”. Oh wait; I know why he did not do that. Because the northern part of Sri Lanka has no oil or anything of that sort a politician like Obama will be interested in.
There is a main difference between Sir Alfred Nobel and President Obama. Sir Alfred Nobel made a huge amount of money after creating an explosion (i.e., by inventing the dynamite), whereas President Obama created a huge explosion (among the peoples’ mind) out of the $1.6 million money that he is about to receive. I am pretty sure he will donate the money to some charity to gain even more popularity.
Promoting international diplomacy is THE job of a politician/President of a nation. Also, International diplomacy and promoting peace are mutually “exclusive”. Zilch!
I was mad at the Nobel Peace committee as an Indian, and now I am mad as “one-of-the-people”.
Now that President Obama got the Nobel Peace prize, I guess someday I will get it too. And not just me, You can get it too. And you, the person sitting on the back row. And you the person hiding behind the tree. And you the person who is a living dead in Sri Lanka. And you the person who lost the arms and legs in Iraq war. And you Mr. Osama Bin Laden. And you ex-President Pervez Musharaff. I finally understood the meaning of Obama’s election mantra - “Yes, we can"!!!
