Regarding the Peace Prize for President Obama

[bigmacbear]

gmjambear and I got to talking about President Obama's award of the Nobel Peace Prize. Gary suggested he received it, in part, because of his address to the Muslim world some months ago. I said he's got a gift for diplomatic public speaking, now let's see him get the opportunity to use it.

Gary reminded me that just as poverty was not wiped out in India when Mother Teresa received her prize, nor was civil rights a done deal in the US when Martin Luther King was awarded his, nor was the eternal conflict over Israel and Palestine settled when Yassir Arafat and Shimon Peres received theirs, so too is there much work yet to be done on the issues for which President Obama spoke so eloquently and thereby made himself a candidate for the prize.

And yes, it certainly helps that Obama is not Bush, as much as he might wish to hold on to the power that Bush left him during his eight disastrous years.

But in a field of endeavour in which progress comes, when it does at all, in painfully small increments over an excruciatingly long time, these awards are not so much for achievement but to promote whatever progress can be made. In other words, these are not laurels to be rested upon.

Comments

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

(Points finger upwards) What bitterlawngnome said.

And what gmjambear brought forth, both make good sense and I recall in a discussion with some suited fellows down in Portland when Brad, a Canadian of Vancouver BC asked why was George Bush so reviled and well, he got his answer and while many dislike Obama for what he is perceived to be or has done to some degree, he's done much to repair the damage to the outside world that Bush created and that's a positive in my book.