An Untimely Gift?

As many students at Urbana High School already know, President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, an award that has brought criticism from the right and even skepticism from his admirers. Some think the award gives Obama an incentive to pursue his agenda with more furor, while others think the award is premature and that his nine months in office has produced little, if any, of the effective change he advocated during his campaign for presidency last year.

The Nobel Peace Prize itself is a mixed bag. It is is by far the most arcane from the rest, which include economics, literature, physics, physiology or medicine and chemistry. Peace can be defined in many different ways, making it so the Nobel Committee — based in Norway and composed of five members elected by the Norwegian Parliament — find themselves in the midst of a political firestorm every October, when the award is announced.

The Nobel Peace Prize, created in 1901 along with the other awards, have at times awarded individuals who haven’t really been on the ‘front lines’ in the war for world peace. Prior to the 1950s, the award usually went to state officials and not to grassroot activists. There have been countless activists who have worked tirelessly without any proper recognition, for example, Mohandas Ghandi.

The committee’s explanation on choosing President Obama? “For his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” While it may sound rosy, one must look at what Obama has actually achieved policy-wise.

On the foreign policy front, American troops are still in Iraq, our commitment to stabilizing Afghanistan remains undetermined, Guantanamo is still illegally imprisoning civilians and America still holds close ties to Saudi Arabia, one of the most oppressive regimes in the world.

Domestically, health care reform still has not been passed, No Child Left Behind (a Bush-era education initiative) is in shambles, climate change remains on the back burner, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (a policy which prevents gays from serving opening in the military) and lobbyists are still buying off critical swing votes in both chambers of congress.

Yet maybe the Nobel Committee gave Obama the award simply because he wasn’t part of the disastrous eight years of Bush; that an America which elected a President who could communicate his thoughts clearly, and a vice-president who didn’t vehemently praise torturing humans, deserves an award.

The award is indeed the most prestigious humanitarian award in the world. Leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Aung San Suu Kyi and the Dalai Lama have won the award. This leaves Obama in a bind: Inspiring as he is, he has done little to carry out his vision to the fullest.

Because in the end, as Ghandi once said, “A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.”