I Like a Noble Peace Prize to Go Please
I was waiting in line at the McDonalds waiting to order my favorite breakfast meal when the newscasters started talking about the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to President Barak Obama. I saw an opportunity. I am unemployed (thanks to the economy that has tanked under the leadership of Nobel peace prize winner Barak Obama and George Bush). I am trying to make money by blogging (good luck said my ever pessimistic friend). But at the same time I am a peace loving person. I have not killed a fly in my life (I could not sleep for a week after I accidentally ran over a squirrel on my way for a haircut a few months ago). I have contributed money to many worthwhile charities in my life. I support the Dalai Lama, I tip very well (I know what kitchen and serving staff go through. Nobody has worked more hours than me in a cafeteria). I have read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
I called the Nobel Peace Prize institute and asked to talk to someone who can help me apply for this peace price (the winner of this lottery gets about $1.4 million). Good mor’gon the lady at the other end said. I said that I may be a moron but I am also an American trying to follow the footsteps of our President and win the Nobel Peace prize. She clarified that Good Morgon means good morning in Swedish. Phew!!! For a second I thought she knew about my high school grades. She said that I do not qualify. She said that the peace prize is only awarded “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”. I said “tack” and hung up the phone (tack means thank you in Swedish. I learnt this term from the Swedish women’s synchronized swimming teams that won medal after medal in the Olympics).
Now I was really upset. How come my President is eligible when I am not? I am not the commander in chief of the mightiest armed forces the world has ever seen? I do not preside over a defense budget that is larger than the defense budgets of the top ten countries in the world combined. I am not at war with two countries (Iraq and Afghanistan) at the same time. Then I said to myself to stop this cynicism. The Buddhist saying came to my mind “Pay no attention to the faults of others, things done or left undone by others. Consider only what by oneself is done or left undone”.
Then the truth dawned upon me. It is not about Barak Obama or the Nobel Peace Prize. It is about me and us. Are we doing out best to promote peace or are we war mongering? Do we understand that there are no winners in any war? There is only death, destruction and misery in war. I am also reminded of a saying by India’s Mahatma Gandhi “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always”. There is another thing that I and most of us have in common with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He did not win the Nobel Peace Prize either.
Related posts:
- Nobel Prize for Liu Xiaobo and Lessons For India
- Global Peace Index: Is this a True Measure of Peace?
- Barack Obama: Inspiration From Mahatma Gandhi?
Category: News & Government
the peace price should have been given to someone who has made a huge impact on humanity and they should try to avoid giving it to politicians. I am a big fan of Obama but I am sure he will be like most American presidents who prefer peace only if it suits American interests. They should have given the price to that lady who sits with the chimps all day or one of the many who are trying to save Africa, maybe even George Clooney! in the good old days they would have given it to Kasparov or any one who speaks against a communist regime.
Obama mania is now Obama mythology (the things that he supposedly did and got credit for but never really happened !!).