Stop: rant time

[green_queen]

Who can tell me who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year? Off the top of their heads? Without having found out because of the Obama thing? Does anyone know anything about what the prize entails, or how the committee who awards it researches and makes their decisions? Can you think of someone you know of that you think really, honestly deserves it this year?

It's making me really angry that we're all commenting on whether or not Barack Obama "deserves" the Nobel Peace Prize, based on our pop politics and shallow understanding of how it works. Hell, I don't know a thing about the system, but I do know that Obama has proven that he wants to work hard to try to achieve peace. He's achieved a lot just by being a symbol of progress and change, let alone his actual work to unify people. He's probably made some mistakes, but I'm going out on a limb and guessing that pretty much everyone who's won the Nobel Peace Prize has. It seems to me that the backlash against him is because he's popular, and we don't seem to think that people who are popular and well-known and well-liked should win this supposedly prestigious award. It's meant to be people we've never heard of who are working to do good in the world without any of us knowing about it. Broaden your horizons, people. Open your minds. If you go out and look up how the system works, what it entails, and the work of every person who's ever won the Nobel Peace Prize, then you can have a say in whether or not you think he deserves it. If you're basing your opinion on the fact that he's popular and the Nobel Peace Prize is not, just give it a rest.

Green Queen

Comments

[laerwen.livejournal.com]

Seriously? Thank you for this post. My flist has been driving me batty today with this nonsense. He has completely changed the tone of this country's diplomacy in EIGHT MONTHS. He has extended diplomacy to the Muslim world in an unprecedented way. This is bad? How? Are we really that used to people hating us that we think the Nobel Peace Prize is bad??

But somehow, because he's popular and people love him, (and he's not some activist in the outback somewhere), he doesn't deserve it.

This line of thinking does not compute for me, and it's nice to see someone who feels the same way.

Edit: And by the way - our president IS an activist. How quickly people forget his previous job.

[flawed-karma.livejournal.com]

I think it's not what he accomplished so far, but the fact he was nominated after being in office just 3 weeks before the nomination deadline arrived.

That's what a lot of the kerfuffle is about.

I see it as an international "Atta boy, keep going!" to recognize his pledges from his first weeks in office and how he continued to make pledges and follow through.

Sometimes the prize can be a recognition of ideals as well as efforts, an encouragement to keep going. A vote of support, if you will.

I am just so sick of hearing he won 'cause he's turning the US into a socialist lizard jew muslim state.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

He may have been noinated then, but the decision wasn't made until fairly recently. They had all year to evaluate.

[kira-snugz.livejournal.com]

i don't know who won last year, but i do know the committee has given the award to worse people in the past, like Henry Kissenger, Yasser Arafat, and Lê Ðức Thọ (who at least had the grace to turn it down).


and i like obama. i adore him and think hes awesome. I support him in his presidency, but i wanted to see a bit more out of him before we all started the 'obama is the best' parties.

[snuffkin.livejournal.com]

lol right?! Exactly what I'm thinking.
The only person I know who has won a nobel prize is Mandela and maybe Ghandi? But I'm not even sure about Ghandi lol

[tuatha-de.livejournal.com]

You said this so well, I completely agree.

[frances-veritas.livejournal.com]

If you're basing your opinion on the fact that he's popular and the Nobel Peace Prize is not, just give it a rest.

Omg word. So. Much. WORD.

I was just talking to my sister about this and I was all, "does anyone even KNOW anything about the Nobel Peace Prize?"

*shakes head*

[baldie-troll.livejournal.com]

The Nobel prizes are so archaic, particularly in the area of science. They need a serious reformatting!

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

I love that this is the issue for you.

[thharwood.livejournal.com]

It's not that I think he doesn't deserve the award, I just think it's a bit premature. As someone who's actually affected by actions of people who claim to be part of the peace process I don't really feel he's made much of a difference *this year*. I think people who are working towards getting Gilad Shalit (the soldier who was kidnapped three years ago) out of Gaza have done much more significant work this year, and also I can tell you that Obama may be working very hard on the peace process in the middle east, but from what I can see here, both our and the Palestinian goverments aren't really paying too much attention to him.

So I know the Peace Nobel Prize is obviously given to people who are working towards peace, and not people who actually acheived it, but I do feel like maybe they should've waited to see if any of his plans actually pan out. Because at the moment he's sort of regarded here as a little kid who comes up with a plan and everyone goes "well done Obama, that's very good" and then just completely ignore him. :/

[flawed-karma.livejournal.com]

"Well done, lad. Good idea. Have a chocolate."

[kballgetlost.livejournal.com]

I think the trouble people are having with it is that it's extremely premature. He was only in office about 10 days when the nominations were due. And in my opinion there is nothing anyone could have done in 10 days to merit the Nobel Peace Prize. And yes he IS popular and a symbol of peace because that is all he talks about.....but he hasn't done it yet. I think it was way too premature (give him a few years in office to actually do something). And I think the Nobel Peace Prize should be given to anyone who deserves it whether they be popular or not. In this case, I think popularity was the only reason Obama got it...and that I do not agree with.

[fairandbright.livejournal.com]

THIS. I think he was nominated because most recent presidents also have won a Nobel Peace prize. I'm not going to argue whether he deserves it or not, after all, he did win it, but I wish people would stop assuming that other people who question him winning are all Obama haters and conservatives.

[shawcrossedlove.livejournal.com]

The last one to win it was Jimmy Carter. Before that was Woodrow Wilson and T. Roosevelt before that, for US Presidents, and I know Carter was not in office...it was MUCH later. So no, not recent presidents really. It wasn't just given for that.

[fairandbright.livejournal.com]

I was told by a family member that Bill Clinton had won (and that most recent U.S. presidents had won). Obviously I was misinformed, and it was Al Gore who had won before, not Clinton.

[gatezilla.livejournal.com]

YES.

I'm really tired of seeing "only in office 12 days!!1!". It's not like he was sitting on his ass before the election.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

People aren't always given it for actually fulfilling their aims, but for furthering them, and changing the climate so that they CAN be achieved.

[shawcrossedlove.livejournal.com]

THIS! <3 Yes!

[melissajane14.livejournal.com]

FFS Henry Kissinger won a Nobel Peace Prize, and he got the US in massive shit in Vietnam.

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

Well Obama's better than him...