Obama awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

[SHELLY]

mlk

From MLK's speech, "Beyond Vietman"

After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators -- our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change -- especially in terms of their need for land and peace.

The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy -- and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us -- not their fellow Vietnamese --the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go -- primarily women and children and the aged.

They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong"-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.

What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?

We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only non-Communist revolutionary political force -- the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?

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So MLK also spoke out against US foreign policy.

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[Rita]

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Peace, .... starts with the person who attempts to diffuse the tension and backs away from the inflammatory rhetoric.
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I'm using this as my new siggy. ...Unfortunately, very few of us will ever be able to do this - myself included. ..


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[30A Skunkape]

Lets teach those socialists a lesson and eat less lutefisk.

 

[MommaMia]

The President represents the United States

Well, I'm happy anytime the rest of the world acknowledges American exceptionalism! President Obama has done a great job of impressing the Nobel judges - kudos!

Obama took office when the U.S. standing in the eyes of the world was at an all-time low. This honor is an example of that perception changing and improving -- because of the respect many people outside the United States have for Obama and for the office he holds. I take this as an honor for the United States!

It's odd to me that critics of his presidency don't seem to recognize the difference between the "man Obama" and the "office holder Obama."

I'm proud to be an American and am happy whenever an international honor is bestowed on the highest officer of the land.

 

[Winnie]

Obama took office when the U.S. standing in the eyes of the world was at an all-time low. This honor is an example of that perception changing and improving -- because of the respect many people outside the United States have for Obama and for the office he holds. I take this as an honor for the United States!

It's odd to me that critics of his presidency don't seem to recognize the difference between the "man Obama" and the "office holder Obama."

I'm proud to be an American and am happy whenever an international honor is bestowed on the highest officer of the land.

Why did you quote my post?

It is an honor for the United States. President Obama's story couldn't have happened anywhere else. We are a great country - the greatest! I too am proud to be an American and, as I said before, happy anytime the rest of the world acknowledges American exceptionalism.

 

[sunspotbaby]

And other prize winners this year are:

2009

* Biology: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas.

* Chemistry: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M. Castano of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, for creating diamond film from tequila.[47]

* Economics: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks ? Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank, and Central Bank of Iceland ? for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa (and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy).

* Literature: Ireland's police service for writing and presenting more than 50 traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country - Prawo Jazdy - whose name in Polish means "Driving Licence".

* Mathematics: Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers by having his bank print notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.

* Medicine: Donald L. Unger of Thousand Oaks, California, US, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand but not his right hand every day for more than 60 years.[48]

* Peace: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.

* Physics: Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, Daniel E Lieberman of Harvard University and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, all in the US, for analytically determining why pregnant women do not tip over.

* Public Health: Elena N. Bodnar, Raphael C. Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, US, for inventing a bra that can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks - one for the wearer and one to be given to a needy bystander.[49]

* Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless.[50]


The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think". Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater

 

[Smiling JOe]

What does his time in office have to do with this? He didn't need to be President in order to win this award.

It has nothing to do with it, but why did he win? Was it his stump speech that he gave for the year and a half leading up to the award? He was great at saying he would bring the country together, but in reality, he has divided the country.

According to www.nobelprize.org: "On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes, the Nobel Prizes. As described in Nobel's will, one part was dedicated to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

I was a terrible student of English grammar. Maybe someone else can explain the the verb tense "shall have done." Is that past tense? Barack thinks it has something to do with the future, according to his acceptance speech.

Peace -- that is a tough one because you don't get peace without struggle. Perhaps Obama won the peace prize for his actions of increasing troop levels in our war with Afghanistan. HELLO, we are still at war! How can the top brass in our war win a peace prize? That confuses the hell out of me, especially since part of the specific language in Alfred Nobel's last will and testament calls for the abolition or reduction of standing armies.

This is the 2009 prize, so how do they select their candidates in Feb? That doesn't give any person much time to do anything. Shouldn't it be the 2008 prize if they are going to pick their peeps in Feb?

There are some valid winners of the prize such as Martin Luther King, Jr, Mother Teresa, the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso). Then, there are a few questionable winners, too like Yasser Arafat who spent most of his life fighting against Israel an was once labeled the world's number one terrorist for his attacks on civilians, and Al Gore, who never really did much except invest heavily in carbon buy out programs and make a good movie to scare everyone into buying carbon credits from his companies (though it did also bring some self awareness to us). Stalin and Hitler were nominated for the prize and then you have one of the greatest leaders of peace and freedom, Ghandi (who inspired Martin Luther King), who never won. So, real winners of peace easily shine through for all to see, and the prize no longer has anything to do with the wishes of the man who created the prize. Is all of this really worthy of a news story? Maybe a very short one. Congratulations Obama, I guess.

 

[Beach Runner]

When I heard that Obama won this morning at about 0545 I thought "for what?". My next thought was "the SOWAL thread is going to be epic!".

Exactly.

 

[idlewind]

I guess this is like my quarterback winning the league MVP before he has played a game. Since it is my team and anything that helps the team helps me, I am glad he won and happy for the acknowledgement. But privately I can't help but think the voters are idiots and laugh my a** off at them.

 

[Dia]

'Better to be thrown accolades than shoes'

Hillary Clinton: Better to be thrown accolades than shoes



WASHINGTON (CNN) - "Certainly from our standpoint, this gives us a sense of momentum - when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes."

That's the take of Hillary Clinton's State Department on President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, according to her spokesman, Assistant Secretary PJ Crowley.

Crowley was referring to the incident last December when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during his final visit to Iraq of his presidency.

Muntader Zaidi, who worked for the Iraqi television station Al Baghdadiya, hurled both his shoes at Bush and called him a "dog" during a press conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He narrowly missed the president, who quickly ducked.

The shoe-throwing, considered one of the highest insults in the Middle East, illustrated the deep anger toward the United States over its invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Crowley's comments suggested a recognition by the Obama administration that the Nobel Prize was as much an indictment of the Bush administration as it was an effort to praise President Obama's outreach to improve the US image around the world.

Echoing comments by the White House, Crowley said the award was not just an "affirmation" of the Obama administration's foreign policy strategy of engagement, but also on its robust foreign policy agenda, which includes non-proliferation, dealing with Iran and North Korea, and pursuing peace in the Middle East.

"There is an opportunity here," Crowley said. "The tone has changed - but obviously we recognize that, while the tone in the world has changed, the challenges remain. They are very significant."

This "call to action," Crowley said, will fall primarily on the shoulders of Secretary Clinton and the State Department, who will look "to advance the president's agenda and confront the challenges of the 21st century."

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