Originally posted by chithappens
I think it's fine to believe he shouldn't have won the award but at least have someone else in mind and say that was a better candidate rather than just bash Obama cause he is not the precise ideal you think he should be.
Originally posted by RocasAtoll
Try these for start:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/10/meet_the_people_who_were_passe_1.asp
Did you know about those people before this or was that just a google search?
even if we assume that is true, how is that relevant?
It doesn't make that list of people any less qualified. To assume that people who aren't on the Nobel Peace Prize committee are supposed to have a list of potential laureates on hand is ridiculous. The lack of media attention on peace and the work of the little guy sort of indicates this is something that the general population wouldn't know.
Also, in the bigger picture, it patently obvious that the leader of a nation involved in 2 illegal wars, and all the other wonderful things that Obama still hasn't changed, doesn't deserve to win a nobel peace prize. Rather than attacking someone for their "internet warrior" status, which is patently ad homenim, why not defend the points made by the nobel committee, which I laid out earlier.
Or, I don't know, Compare Obama to any other winner than Gore or Kissinger. Here is the list of the last 10 years (1999-2008 [I wanted to keep MSF, as it proves my point all the more])
1999 - Médecins Sans Frontières
2000 - Kim Dae Jung
2001 - United Nations
2002 - Jimmy Carter
2003 - Shirin Ebadi
2004 - Wangari Muta Maathai
2005 - International Atomic Energy Agency
2006 - Grameen Bank
2007 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
2008 - Martti Ahtisaari
so, everyone that I've bolded, while maybe not being the best choice of the year, has accreditations putting them light-years ahead of Obama for their actual impact on peace in the world. Those in italics are ones that are probably politically motivated, though it is inarguable that these people have a better record on promoting international peace than Obama.
We can talk about how serious of a victory it is for the UN to win the award. It is without argument that Obama has done nothing close to what these people have, including the arguments made by the nobel committee themselves.
Originally posted by inimalist
even if we assume that is true, how is that relevant?
I dunno. But that's what I got out of his post. Just tryin' to help you understand what his point was, not defend his position.
I personally couldn't care less about this topic other than to say that Obama didn't deserve to win. That's it. Isn't it obvious to everyone?
It is obvious, but it is also unfortunate. Nobel prizes in the sciences are still very reputable. The Nobel Committee is only making itself irrelevant.
over $1mil and the notoriety that come along with such an award can be such huge motivators for peace, if for no other reason, the people fighting in the trenches have more resources, and for a day or two, the world pretends to care about their issue.
Giving it to the rich leader of the most powerful country... not so cool.
This prize could have real meaning
Originally posted by inimalist
It is obvious, but it is also unfortunate. Nobel prizes in the sciences are still very reputable. The Nobel Committee is only making itself irrelevant.
Indeed. Which is what I thought when I first heard it on the radio while driving to work. I was like "WTF? This thing is worthless, now!" I care about the nobel prizes as far s the sciences go. Only thing I care about is the degradation of those prizes when I heard teh newz.
What also bothers me is that this takes away from any previous winner.
Look at this thread, from the beginning (myself included) the statements were, "past 10 years there have been no real winners" etc.
So, now the Grameen Bank or MSF look like Liberal elites who won the same honour as Gore and Obama, while their work is in dire need of more publicity for the exact opposite reason. This act takes away credibility from any individual or organization which may have deservingly won the prize.
Robert Fisk on the Obama win
His Middle East policy is collapsing. The Israelis have taunted him by ignoring his demand for an end to settlement-building and by continuing to build their colonies on Arab land. His special envoy is bluntly told by the Israelis that an Arab-Israel peace will take "many years". Now he wants the Palestinians to talk peace to Israel without conditions. He put pressure on the Palestinian leader to throw away the opportunity of international scrutiny of UN Judge Goldstone's damning indictment of Israeli war crimes in Gaza while his Assistant Secretary of State said that the Goldstone report was "seriously flawed". After breaking his pre-election promise to call the 1915 Armenian massacres by Ottoman Turkey a genocide, he has urged the Armenians to sign a treaty with Turkey, again "without pre-conditions". His army is still facing an insurgency in Iraq. He cannot decide how to win "his" war in Afghanistan. I shall not mention Iran...
very good read, and not just because it says stuff I agree with.
Originally posted by inimalist
arguablehis work with the IRA and the Free Ache movement, not to mention Kosovo, give him more credibility than Obama. I'm not saying he should have got the award, just that there is more reason to give it to him than Obama.
Wait, you mean his active support for dismandeling a sovergin nation along ethnic borders which has been ceased forecefully though illegal immigration and expulsion of indigenous peoples dating back to communist Yugoslavia?
Not to mention charges that he was taking bribes while working on his mission in Kosovo.
Greg Copley, the chairman of the International Strategic Studies Association, confirmed on July 14th 2008 I believe, that his organization has seen intelligence documents from German BND showing that Ahtisaari accepted bribes from the Albanian mafia.
And do not even get me started on his dirty money grabbing fingers doing their work in Africa. It just makes me sick.
Credibility...right.
Nobel prize has no credibility, and it hasn't had it for however many years. Obama winning it just probes this in the most obvious of ways - he absolutely did nothing apart from lead one very clever popularity campaign.
Other than that, I don't see how Obama could have won. I just do not see.
Does it surprise me? No...considering past winners, it does not surprise me he won.
What is surprising however is that other ''winners'' were actually involved in something (damaging mostly) for number of years...at least.