U.S. President Barack Obama says he is deeply humbled by the Norwegian Nobel committee for selecting him as the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize and will accept it as a "call to action."
Now I am a supporter of President Obama. I share many of his ideals. If I were a USan I a 99.9% sure I would have voted for him last year. But I have to think that this prize is inappropriate. REally he has given people hope for change but what exactly has he made happen? (And to be fair how much should we expect him to have accomplished given that he was only sworn in 9 months ago and given the nature of politics as the art of the possible and the US balance of powers).
It is too early. A great honour, a vote of confidence but too early. It is almost as if the Nobel committee go caught up in Obama-mania. At least IMO. (and in the opinion of others as I read this story)
I think the committee is made up of Norwegians and Swedes, not known for their excitability (at least in the area I grew up in where there were quite a few - one of my great-grandfathers was Omar Nicholson and his brother was Olaf) so I had to laugh about Obama-mania!!
ReplyDeleteDon't know if President Obama would have picked himself either, but the recipient doesn't have a say except to refuse it or accept it.
Hmm. I was once at a workshop where Prof. Gracia Grindal (http://hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/
ReplyDeleteHymns_and_Carols/Biographies/gracia_grindal.htm) quipped about the emotionality of Scandinavians: On a desert island, the Norwegians are fighting, the Danes are cooking and the Swedes are standing around, waiting to be introduced.
She added that the Norwegians are "the Latins of the Scandinavian world".
FWIW, I am married to a Finn, or Scandinavians by means of a wrong turn at Germany a couple of millenia ago, whose people are responsible for the shortest book on the planet: Overt Finnish
Emotional Expressions.