Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
12
Fri, 10-09-2009 - 6:42am

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nobel_peace


OSLO – President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.


The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama's name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.


Speculation had focused on Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator and a Chinese dissident, along with an Afghan woman's rights activist.


The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage. The plaudit appeared to be a slap at President George W. Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for resorting to largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.


Rather than recognizing concrete achievement, the 2009 prize appeared intended to support initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.


"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee said. "In the past year Obama has been a key person for important initiatives in the U.N. for nuclear disarmament and to set a completely new agenda for the Muslim world and East-West relations."


He added that the committee endorsed "Obama's appeal that 'Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.'"


President Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson won in 1919.


The committee chairman said after awarding the 2002 prize to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, for his mediation in international conflicts, that it should be seen as a "kick in the leg" to the Bush administration's hard line in the buildup to the Iraq war.


Five years later, the committee honored Bush's adversary in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore, for his campaign to raise awareness about global warming.


The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize though it was not immediately apparent who nominated Obama.


"The exciting and important thing about this prize is that it's given too someone ... who has the power to contribute to peace," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said.


Nominators include former laureates; current and former members of the committee and their staff; members of national governments and legislatures; university professors of law, theology, social sciences, history and philosophy; leaders of peace research and foreign affairs institutes; and members of international courts of law.


The Nelson Mandela Foundation welcomed the award on behalf of its founder Nelson Mandela, who shared the 1993 Peace Prize with then-South African President F.W. DeKlerk for their efforts at ending years of apartheid and laying the groundwork for a democratic country.


"We trust that this award will strengthen his commitment, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, to continue promoting peace and the eradication of poverty," the foundation said.


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."


Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, he said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Sweden and Norway were united under the same crown at the time of Nobel's death.


The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Fri, 10-09-2009 - 12:50pm

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee said. "In the past year Obama has been a key person for important initiatives in the U.N. for nuclear disarmament and to set a completely new agenda for the Muslim world and East-West relations."


He added that the committee endorsed "Obama's appeal that 'Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.'"


It's so nice to have a President that not only understands this but is willing to forge forward with it.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 10-09-2009 - 2:07pm

>""He has shown an unshakable commitment to diplomacy, mutual respect and dialogue as the best means of resolving conflicts," ElBaradei said."<


 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sat, 10-10-2009 - 10:53am

Op-ed: Why No Kudos for Obama?


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/10/why_no_kudos_for_obama.html?hpid=opinionsbox1


Response to President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize seems to be falling into two broad categories: the overwrought and the overthought. Why not a simple note of congratulations?


The right-wing blowhards, of course, are braying that this is some kind of surrender to the wooly-headed, socialistic, One World ideology of cheese-eating (or herring-chomping) Eurocrats. These same bags of wind were delirious with joy when the sports division of the One World conspiracy, the International Olympic Committee, turned down Obama’s personal appeal in Copenhagen. If someone else had won the Nobel, they’d be cackling that the president had been given another comeuppance. All this just proves that if Obama were to cure cancer, the blowhards would complain that he’s put thousands of hard-working, red-blooded American oncologists out of work.


Others say the award is “premature.” Okay, I can see that argument, but the Nobel committee apparently considered Obama’s redirection of American foreign policy toward multilateralism a groundbreaking accomplishment. The committee, it seems, thought that for the most powerful national leader in the world to embrace international cooperation and envision a world no longer menaced by nuclear weapons was a giant step forward. I can see that argument, too. In fact, I think I agree with it.


Still others, claiming to have Obama’s best interests at heart, say the award is an unfortunate blow because it “creates expectations.” Excuse me? When you’re president of the United States, aren’t great expectations – even unrealistic expectations – pretty much part of the deal? You think they haven’t figured that out at the White House by now?


Maybe I’m insufficiently cynical, but I never thought of the Nobel Peace Prize as having such a tremendous downside.

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Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sat, 10-10-2009 - 1:59pm

Exactly!


Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Sat, 10-10-2009 - 3:57pm

Applause for the classy response from McCain and Pawlenty. I wouldn't expect any more from Rush and his crowd but am disappointed that Michael Steele couldn't be happier for an American president. He's been burnt about turning off Rush supporters and now has become a dittohead.

There was a funny comic strip in the Washington Post that had Obama on TV saying "We tried as hard as we could but we couldn't prevent the meteors from penetrating our shield and the earth will be destroyed." There's a right winger gloating, "Yeah, another failure!!!"











iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Sun, 10-11-2009 - 6:55pm

I just want to throw up.


My 20 y.o. son came to meet me and dh at a bbq today.


And he says to me,

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Sun, 10-11-2009 - 7:15pm

You know... I came back to this post to edit out that word.


But I decided not to.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Sun, 10-11-2009 - 8:46pm

I'm so sorry you are going through this.



iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Sun, 10-11-2009 - 11:46pm

Thank you.


The worst part (maybe), is that he works for family.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 10-13-2009 - 6:51pm

I feel badly for your son having to listen to this form of racist speech.


When I hear

 


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