OBAMA & NOBEL PRIZE; A CASE OF HOW CAN ONE GETS FIXED

When the news broke out about three days back about the President Barack Obama being chosen as the winner for Nobel Prize for Peace for this year, the first reaction was that of disbelief. It looked like too much too soon. My wife Shali commented; ‘yes, that fixes him’. It was then I ever thought of that perspective.

I had read many books and write ups in the past on how the Nobel committees function. What level of aspirations does it has and how it lets its awards move world opinions and how the award positions people and countries. While from outside it could look like a plain and simple merit based award deliberation, it has to be understood that there is much more to it than that.

Let us come back to Barack Obama. Does he deserve a Nobel Prize for peace? Many comments are still reserved. However suffice to stay that he indeed has the potential of a Nobel Prize winner. His views on peace, liberalism, gender, colour, equity, inclusivity etc are very laudable. After about 8 years of the rule of the Bush Junior, USA had really been tottering on many areas. To add to the agony, there is also the global meltdown that had vanished financial empires and brought the country and its citizens to pits. Most of the above were the result of actions by the yester year’s Republican presidents, beginning with Ronald Reagan. Yes, Obama had indeed brought the change initiative and thereby boosting the hope of US citizens.

In the last 9 months of his Presidency in the US, had Obama done all those actions that had resulted in global peace? Say, had he withdrawn the US military from Iraq & Afghanistan and brought peace there? Had he brought permanent truce between Israel and Palestine? Or because of his efforts and pleading, had Al Qaeda and other major guerilla fronts put down its arms? Had he mobilized the war torn refugees of Africa to a better future? Had he made countries including Iran stop its atomic energy/bomb quest? What had he done so as to receive this coveted accolade?

In fact, the current situation is not that rosy for President Obama. Public support for him is dwindling rapidly. From a popularity rating of more than eighty per cent, it is now hovering around the fifties. He still has not been able to address the American health policy and set it right. The American economy has not come back to its original self –in fact it continues to be far from it-

If you had seen him on the TV on the day of him hearing of receiving the Nobel Prize, he himself was shocked. His eyes said that he never expected it. His reactions were that of the same disbelief that you and I had, when we heard the news first!

Unlike other US Presidents and some world leaders of the past, Obama may not have done the behind the scene activities to get the Nobel Prize for Peace. He truly may not have any expectation of the same and was in the midst of the challenges of managing American economy and health policy. His biggest worries would then have been regaining the popularity rating that he had lost. Lo & behold, there falls the Nobel Peace Prize into his hands!

So now let us revert to the intricacies behind the Nobel Prizes. Why had the committee decided to give it way to Obama? Of course it knew that if there is one world leader who can achieve something on the peace front, it is Barack Obama. Though he had not achieved any of the things that he has set forth to achieve in the peace front, the committee would have felt him slowly slipping away from his dreams and commitments towards the same. And when there is nobody around to take the mantle, it would have felt the necessity to bring him back to his commitments in a manner that he cannot escape from it. Yes, the Nobel Committee had fixed Obama with the Nobel Prize. Does he have any option now? He has been set up for good.

Let us watch for the developments to evolve. And let us also see how the Nobel Peace Prize sits on his head. Amen!