5:48 PM
by Candy Yorke
While Obama's victory into the Whitehouse was unanimously celebrated, his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize has not been met with as convincing a response. After reading a few articles on the internet it is clear that this is an issue of great debate.
Obama - Nobel War Prize, an article posted on AllAfrica.com discredits President Obama and the whole Nobel Peacde Prize system. In the opening line, writer Adamu Adamu states that "Obama is just a lucky guy - always getting his way against every odd." Adamu continues by saying that by giving the prize to Barack Obama, the president of a country that is still involved in wars in Iraq, Afganistan, Pakistan and Somalia (via Ethiopia), it makes a mockery of the prize.
On the 15th of October, the United Kingdom Press Association wrote Nobel Judges Defend Obama Decision in retaliations to such claims. Quoting the Nobel committee chairperson, Thorbjorn Jagland, the article argues that Obama was selected for the award because of his efforts to lesson the divide between the Western and Muslim world and reduce Bush's proposal to create an anti- missile shield for Europe. Jagland states that "all these things have contributed to - [what he] wouldn't say a safer world- but a world with less tension".
Both articles contain valid points; which makes taking a side in this debate not easy. Most of us hold Obama in high esteem and wish him success; yet one cannot help wonder if all of this is too much too soon. Was the Nobel committee not just swept up by the Obama craze? I believe that this award will only place greater pressure on Obama to bring about peace. Has this prize not created a mould which Obama will have to fill?
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