The October 9 award of the Nobel Peace prize certainly reminds me of the time following the Oscar awards, when everyone has their say about who should have won instead of congratulating who did win.
The critics are voicing their petty jealousy. People like that can generally be heard issuing negative comments any time someone else gets rewarded. They deserve our pity.
Perhaps it is really not jealousy. There is a fine line between jealousy and envy. Jealousy and envy both are emotions that refer to negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity. Jealousy involves fear of loss to another of something valuable. Envy involves resentment of something valuable given to another, especially if they feel the receiving person did not deserve it.
Whether jealousy or envy, it is a negative emotion that paints the critic an ugly shade of green.
The Critics
Google “Obama Nobel peace prize” and read the nearly 20 million articles pro and con as to whether our president should have received the award.
The best thing about this country is everyone’s Constitutional right to offer an opinion, no matter the viewpoint. It is one of our national entertainments.
Culling out the harshly negative comments from the Arab world like the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other Obama-haters like Republican party leader Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives (big surprise), reactions are mixed between “too early” and congratulations.
As a side note, it is encouraging that American conservatives and the Taliban have finally found something to agree on.
Breaking with his conservative colleagues, Arizona Senator John McCain congratulated the president and said Americans should be pleased with the award.
The Nobel Committee
Thorbjorn Jagland, chair of the committee and a former Norwegian prime minister, rejected critics underestimating the definite changes Obama has already made in U.S. policy.
During the announcement press conference in Oslo, Jagland declared that the Committee wanted to demonstrate support for the approaches Obama is taking toward global problems. ”We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what [Obama] has done in the previous year.”
Jagland ”stressed that it [the Committee] made its decision based on Mr. Obama’s actual efforts toward nuclear disarmament as well as American engagement with the world relying more on diplomacy and dialogue.”
Norwegians have been entrusted with choosing the Nobel Peace prizewinner because of their track record as objective arbitrators. Obama was selected from a record 205 nominations.
Many critics offer their opinions due to political party affiliation or to get attention through negative reviews. The critics may think they are doing a service by pointing out a truth, but the ugliness of envy they hold inside always shows through.
There is many times a tinge of envy when some else wins a prize that we fantasize should go to someone else (perhaps even us). In the case of the Peace prize, we should avoid speaking out critically and showing our green envy because, after all, it is the Nobel committee’s prize to give.
The Peace prize is an award to our entire nation, given to our president as the leader. According to the Nation Brand Index, the USA jumped from 7th to 1st of the most admired countries list (never before achieved) because all Americans elected Obama. The list shows that the world sees the USA with a new respect.
Obama in his 9 months in office, has completely changed America’s foreign policy, is making us reengage and lead on major global challenges and has done more to promote peace and stability than anyone else in recent times. The prize rewards our nation where something profound is happening.
This is a time to be proud of this country and of America’s renewed status as leader of the free world.
We all know the President has a lot more work to do. Let us all congratulate him as well as ourselves for the award and leave the jealousy and negative rhetoric to those petty others who look to tear down anything good that happens to anyone else.
The Nobel Prize
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honoring men and women without regard to nationality for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for effective work in furthering peace.
The foundation for the award was when Alfred Nobel (scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, author and pacifist) wrote his last will in 1895, leaving roughly the equivalent of 250 million dollars U.S. for the establishment of the Nobel Prize from the interest gathered.
Nobel owned a major armaments factory and was the inventor of dynamite. He found a safe method to manufacture and use nitroglycerin by blending it with absorbent diatomaceous earth (cat litter).
He was condemned by many as the “merchant of death” who “became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before” and this opinion is said to have influenced his decision to leave himself a better legacy after his death.
To achieve that legacy, he provided in his will 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.”
The Nobel Committee’s interpretation of his guidelines has broadened over the years. The prize is now awarded not only for concentrated efforts to bring peace between nations, but also to combat poverty, disease and recently, climate change.
The Peace prize is not a lifetime achievement award. It doesn’t require recipients to completely succeed in their efforts. Many have received the prize without solving the problem they had worked toward ending. There were also years the Nobel Peace prize was not awarded.
Recipients
There are many Nobel Peace Prize Recipients who have been received the award for their work in improving our world, including using nuclear energy for peaceful instead of military purposes, and awareness of man-made climate change. Those issues as well as others are still incomplete, yet the prize was awarded.
President Theodore Roosevelt won it in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson was given the prize in 1919. Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace prize.
Jimmy Carter won it 2002, but was not in office at the time. Former Vice-President Al Gore was awarded the prize in 2007 for his efforts to raise awareness about global warming.
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