Noble price vs Nobel prize

Hi all.

Any others who were taken by surprise by this year's
Nobel Peace Prize laureate?

The debate has raged since the announcement of
Obama's name, mainly over the question "what has he
done to deserve it?" Whatever one thinks of Obama,
no one outside the Nobel committee are able to point
to anything he might have done to remotely deserve
the prize.

The chairman of the committee, Jagland, defended
the choise by 'Nobel's prizes are to be awarded to
somebody how achieved something in the *last*year*.'

Today one of the top bueraucrats in the Nobel system
was interviewed in the local press. He explained the
process that lead up to the award: "The first screening
of suggested candidates takes place around February 20th."

February 20th.

In other words, Obama passed first screening after a
mere 4 weeks in office.

As far as I can tell, the project that was started when Al Gore
was awarded the prize is now well on its way: Invaliadate any
prestige or political relevance the prize might once have held,
and reduce it to a formal excuse to arrange *real* show, the
Nobel concert.

Oh well.

Rune

Rune Allnor wrote:

> Any others who were taken by surprise by this year's
> Nobel Peace Prize laureate?

Yep, almost as stunned as when it was won Yasser Arafat,
Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994.

Erik
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Erik de Castro Lopo
http://www.mega-nerd.com/

>Hi all.
>
>Any others who were taken by surprise by this year's
>Nobel Peace Prize laureate?
>
>The debate has raged since the announcement of
>Obama's name, mainly over the question "what has he
>done to deserve it?" Whatever one thinks of Obama,
>no one outside the Nobel committee are able to point
>to anything he might have done to remotely deserve
>the prize.
>
>The chairman of the committee, Jagland, defended
>the choise by 'Nobel's prizes are to be awarded to
>somebody how achieved something in the *last*year*.'

Charlie Kao was an extremely well deserved winner this year, but he did
his key work in the 1960s. Its typical for these awards to go for work done
30 years or more before. Where did this "something in the last year" idea
suddenly spring from?

>Today one of the top bueraucrats in the Nobel system
>was interviewed in the local press. He explained the
>process that lead up to the award: "The first screening
>of suggested candidates takes place around February 20th."
>
>February 20th.
>
>In other words, Obama passed first screening after a
>mere 4 weeks in office.
>
>As far as I can tell, the project that was started when Al Gore
>was awarded the prize is now well on its way: Invaliadate any
>prestige or political relevance the prize might once have held,
>and reduce it to a formal excuse to arrange *real* show, the
>Nobel concert.

Steve

On 11 Okt, 11:47, "steveu" <ste...@coppice.org> wrote:
> >Hi all.
>
> >Any others who were taken by surprise by this year's
> >Nobel Peace Prize laureate?
>
> >The debate has raged since the announcement of
> >Obama's name, mainly over the question "what has he
> >done to deserve it?" Whatever one thinks of Obama,
> >no one outside the Nobel committee are able to point
> >to anything he might have done to remotely deserve
> >the prize.
>
> >The chairman of the committee, Jagland, defended
> >the choise by 'Nobel's prizes are to be awarded to
> >somebody how achieved something in the *last*year*.'
>
> Charlie Kao was an extremely well deserved winner this year, but he did
> his key work in the 1960s. Its typical for these awards to go for work done
> 30 years or more before. Where did this "something in the last year" idea
> suddenly spring from?

Apparently, that's a literal phrase taken from Alfred Nobel's
will.

But then, Jagland has a history of paying attention to the
fine print. About ten years ago, he was PM during an election
campaign. In an interview that was to propel him into infamousy,
he stated that the Labour Party would "need to consider if they
could remain in government if their result [in the upcoming election]
was significantly worse than in the previous election" (resume
of televised interview, recited off memory).

This realistic evaluation of the political situation was
interpreted by the Press as an ultimatum: "We will step down
unless we get a better result than the previous election!"

One can have sympathy with the guy, who made a very reasonable
argument, being misinterpreted like that: They got marginally
worse results than the previous time, but stepped down anyway.

But that incident ought to have teached him the difference
between academic ideas and real life.

Rune

>Hi all.
>
>Any others who were taken by surprise by this year's
>Nobel Peace Prize laureate?
>
>The debate has raged since the announcement of
>Obama's name, mainly over the question "what has he
>done to deserve it?" Whatever one thinks of Obama,
>no one outside the Nobel committee are able to point
>to anything he might have done to remotely deserve
>the prize.
>
>

Well now I am not surprised by this announcement. Mother Teresa had spent
her entire life and then she got the Nobel Prize.

I do not know how many of you have watched this, but if not then it is
worht watching it.

The name of the clip is The Obama Deception

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feature=fvst

Chintan

Conspiracy crackpots ...

If it was a white man you crackpots wouldn't have said a thing...

Go heil in some other crackpot group.

>Conspiracy crackpots ...
>
>If it was a white man you crackpots wouldn't have said a thing...
>
>Go heil in some other crackpot group.
>

It is nothing about black or white....

The achievements should be visible.....

Chintan

Rune Allnor wrote:
> Hi all.
> 
> Any others who were taken by surprise by this year's
> Nobel Peace Prize laureate?

The only reason I can imagine for it is that he got the prize for being 
Not Bush. Nobody was more surprised than Obama himself. He put the 
matter into perspective when he said to the press something like "My 
daughter brought me the news. She said, 'Daddy, you won the Nobel Prize, 
and remember we have a three-day weekend coming up'" I'll guess that he 
was tempted to refuse, but took the statesmanlike stand of announcing, 
"I will accept the prize as a call to action" clearly implying that it 
could not be construed an award for performance. It's too bad when 
politics rules the day.

Jerry
-- 
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
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On 10/11/2009 6:46 AM, Jerry Avins wrote:
> Rune Allnor wrote:
>> Hi all.
>>
>> Any others who were taken by surprise by this year's
>> Nobel Peace Prize laureate?
>
> The only reason I can imagine for it is that he got the prize for being
> Not Bush.

And some have pointed out that that may be how Carter and Gore got it as 
well.

> Nobody was more surprised than Obama himself. He put the
> matter into perspective when he said to the press something like "My
> daughter brought me the news. She said, 'Daddy, you won the Nobel Prize,
> and remember we have a three-day weekend coming up'" I'll guess that he
> was tempted to refuse, but took the statesmanlike stand of announcing,
> "I will accept the prize as a call to action" clearly implying that it
> could not be construed an award for performance. It's too bad when
> politics rules the day.
>
> Jerry

For the most part I agree.   There is, however, a bit of a question 
around whether anyone in the administration knew he'd been nominated or 
not, and if so, had done anything to head it off.

IMHO, the Peace Prize has been a bit of a joke for decades.   As was 
pointed out, Rabin, Peres and Yassir Arafat won it, Hitler was 
nominated, and Kissinger and Lu Duc Tho won it during the Vietnam war. 
Lu Duc Tho refused it, since the talks weren't successful and there 
wasn't peace in N. Vietnam.  There are more, similar examples (like, 
IMHO, Gore in 2007, which I thought was also a bit of a joke).

And Gandhi never won it.

So granting it to Obama just seems to me to be continuing the tradition 
of a politically oriented award used by the committee to make a 
statement of some kind.  The qualifications of the honoree seem to be a 
secondary consideration, and a loose one at that.

Just my 0.02.  YMMV.

-- 
Eric Jacobsen
Minister of Algorithms
Abineau Communications
http://www.abineau.com

On Oct 11, 8:39&#4294967295;am, "cpshah99" <cpsha...@rediffmail.com> wrote:
> >Conspiracy crackpots ...
>
> >If it was a white man you crackpots wouldn't have said a thing...

I don't it's a black/white issue.

> >Go heil in some other crackpot group.
>
> It is nothing about black or white....
>
> The achievements should be visible.....
>
> Chintan

I will be the first to admit that I like Obama [a lot], so it is hard
for me to be objective.

However, one has to ask if he is any less deserving than others.

What is necessary to receive the prize?

1. Is it longetivity of service? I know people who have been serving
abused and neglected children for 50+ years, tirelessly with great
sacrifice to themselves and their own families. Certainly there is
longevity here.

2. Is it steadfast adherence to principle of peace at risk of great
personal peril? Some have been doing it for a short time, like "Tank
Man" of Tianamen Square

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-nXT8lSnPQ

...some for a longer time, like Aung San Suu Kyi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi

...and some for even longer, like ****** ********
http://www.no-url-because-he-was-killed-by-incumbent-regime.com

3. Is it only VIP martyrs? The vast majority "worthy" awardees live
then die with no NBP. Maybe that's why Al Gore shared it.

Obama might not have spent 30 years in prison under wrongful
persecution, but he did something else:

While the Status Quo was sleeping, he went from obscurity to
proprietor of the most powerful podium in the world. And we he
arrived, he proclaimed without timidity or hesitation:

"I will no longer tolerate rapacious predation of the weak." [my
words]

His success depends on whether others believe he will be successful,
because true change comes from the group, not the individual whose
role it is to inspire the group. And right now, it might not be
apparent, but there is a lot of people who are inspired toward the
idea that they will no longer be preyed upon. Really. One could say
that Obama has managed to become the small-signal input into a high
gain, high input-impedance, low output-impedance Super Amp. He is
doing what other great changemakers have done before him, only he is
doing it in a fancy suit.

That's why I think he received the NBP.

-Le Chaud Lapin-