Commentary: 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Obama's adventures in Wonderland

The Nobel Peace Prize has come too early for Barack Obama. Up to now, the 44th president of the United States cannot point to any real diplomatic success and there is very little likelihood of it coming in such short-term. Even so, the Nobel committee insisted on awarding the new worldwide political star. Their reason: his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples". But with all respect to both their decision and the recipient: is that enough to be the laureate?


By LUAN GALANI (luan.galani@wavemagazine.net)
from Curitiba, BRAZIL


The Nobel Peace Prize used to be awarded to people who could point to heavyweight successes and truly achievements. That was the ground rule. The once US president Woodrow Wilson was honoured with the prize in 1919 for his work on the creation of the League of Nations. The scientist Norman Borlaug was presented with the award in 1970 for saving more lives than any other person through his agricultural techniques that doubled the food production in the 1960s.

But it changed on Friday, when was announced that Obama's subtle attempts to create an international atmosphere, in which dialogue is in the centre, were worthy of by far the most important prize in the world. His brilliant and beautifully delivered speeches - likewise the remarkable one he did in Egypt in June to bury the hatchet with Islam - are meaningful and cast a romantic spell on us.

However, awarding him the Nobel Prize now is like choosing the best football player of a World Cup in the first match or giving a medal to an Olympic swimmer who has just managed the first meters in the initial seconds. In his short statement in front of the White House, Obama was critical enough not to leave doubts about the committee decision.

"To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize - men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace", he said.

The prize should have paid tribute to palpable results - like the ones got by the brave young female parliamentarian from Afghanistan, Malalai Joya; or by the bold human rights group Memorial, for example - rather than simple enthusiasm about diplomatic efforts. And Obama's efforts are laudable, but in comparison to others' they are really good-for-nothing.

Diplomatic challenges

The reality inside the walls of Washington is completely different from that of the committee in Oslo. The pressure cooker-like situation in Iraq is uncertain. When it comes to Afghanistan, it has even got worse. So that Obama is weighing whether or not to send as many as 40,000 additional US troops there, says the Washington Post. Moreover, just to highlight: it is oddly curious, at least, that the peacekeeper crowned by the Nobel is steering to continue the war in Afghanistan.

In spite of the seething mass of efforts by the US government, there is no immediate prospect of reaching peace between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East. The figurehead of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, is still playing his regime's nuclear games with the West. A nuclear-armed Pakistan looks close to collapse. Populist South-American governments seem to be arming themselves in order to prepare for a potential conflict, as it is the case of Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil's. And that is only the tip of the not solved problem iceberg that Obama has on his hands.

Obama as a peacekeeper

The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize. In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses". And that is definitely not Obama, considered to be a symbol of hope.

And that is what Obama is till now: a global symbolic figure that embodied the hopes of people around the world. A picturesque man that maintains most of the Bush Era monsters burning at the stake. A president that does not lose his sleep worrying about peace plans or undernourished people around the world, but a president that definitely loses his sleep when thinking of how to defeat the Taliban and fix his country's domestic affairs.

Therefore, the committee should have decided to wait a bit longer and put Obama on the waiting list for the next years' prizes. It would not hurt anyone. Instead of ear candy, it would have been a wisely-made decision. For those who think that the Nobel committee cannot be questioned when it takes such a decision, be assured: YES, WE CAN.


(Published: 11.10.2009.)