“Waking up a president in the middle of the night. This isn’t really something you do.”
- Thorbjorn Jagland, Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Oslo, Norway
The president of the United States of America was sleeping – probably a restless, fitful sleep, when he was awoken by Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary, to inform him that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
This decision has been met with applause, but also with harsh criticism and snorts of derision, from both liberals and neoliberals alike.
According to the New York Times: "Normally the prize has been presented, even controversially, for accomplishment. This prize, to a 48-year-old freshman president, for 'extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,' seemed a kind of prayer and encouragement by the Nobel commitee for future endeavor and more consensual leadership."
“The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world,” the Nobel committee chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, said. “And who has done more than Barack Obama?”
I understand where the selection committee is coming from. Obama has, in his first year, taken steps to change the trajectory of US politics in a way that was unimaginable in the height of the Bush years. He is pressing Congress for a new, more egalitarian health care system. He wants to build a strong state in Afghanistan, free of the Taliban and he is willing to negotiate with Iran and the DPRK, instead of dismissing them as rogue states. He is adamant that he wants a nuclear free world, and he is even beginning peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
Yes, he is being rewarded for his intentions and not his actions. But his intentions have had severe consequences on the entire state of world. Let’s not kid ourselves. The United States, despite crippling deficit, economic recession and paws in two wars, is still the world’s only superpower. No country rivals the United States. China is a very, very distant second. While the capital is wealthy, there are still large pockets of rural China that do not match the level of development on the other side of the globe. As well, the moral authority and the diplomatic clout that the United States has held since the end of World War II is unarguable. Realists alike will tell you that Russia, China and India are up-and-coming powers; but the US is still going to be the only superpower for a long time.
But this moral authority was on severely thin ice during the Bush regime. The damage Bush did to US international reputation and US legitimacy was devastating. And if anything, Obama has played a hand in helping to restore this legitimacy, brick-by-brick.
- Thorbjorn Jagland, Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, Oslo, Norway
The president of the United States of America was sleeping – probably a restless, fitful sleep, when he was awoken by Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary, to inform him that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
This decision has been met with applause, but also with harsh criticism and snorts of derision, from both liberals and neoliberals alike.
According to the New York Times: "Normally the prize has been presented, even controversially, for accomplishment. This prize, to a 48-year-old freshman president, for 'extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,' seemed a kind of prayer and encouragement by the Nobel commitee for future endeavor and more consensual leadership."
“The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world,” the Nobel committee chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, said. “And who has done more than Barack Obama?”
I understand where the selection committee is coming from. Obama has, in his first year, taken steps to change the trajectory of US politics in a way that was unimaginable in the height of the Bush years. He is pressing Congress for a new, more egalitarian health care system. He wants to build a strong state in Afghanistan, free of the Taliban and he is willing to negotiate with Iran and the DPRK, instead of dismissing them as rogue states. He is adamant that he wants a nuclear free world, and he is even beginning peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
Yes, he is being rewarded for his intentions and not his actions. But his intentions have had severe consequences on the entire state of world. Let’s not kid ourselves. The United States, despite crippling deficit, economic recession and paws in two wars, is still the world’s only superpower. No country rivals the United States. China is a very, very distant second. While the capital is wealthy, there are still large pockets of rural China that do not match the level of development on the other side of the globe. As well, the moral authority and the diplomatic clout that the United States has held since the end of World War II is unarguable. Realists alike will tell you that Russia, China and India are up-and-coming powers; but the US is still going to be the only superpower for a long time.
But this moral authority was on severely thin ice during the Bush regime. The damage Bush did to US international reputation and US legitimacy was devastating. And if anything, Obama has played a hand in helping to restore this legitimacy, brick-by-brick.
The neoliberal movement of the last thirty-ish years, which has stressed market dominance and small government, has played cruel tricks with our minds. Health reform in Canada seems to be moving towards some vision of privatization and Obama’s health plan is met with cries of fear; people claiming that they are going to lose “consumer choice” in their health care.
In Canada, we had always known that health care was a right. It used to be something untouchable by even the most conservative of Conservatives. It’s not a consumer choice, like handbags or shoes. It’s a right. As it should be. Keep in mind that one month in American ICU will probably cost you up to a million dollars. Be prepared to declare bankruptcy if you’re and uninsured sick person in the United States.
Obama’s desires to make these domestic reforms have reminded us Canadians how envious our neighbours to the South are of our lifestyle. Sure, we pay higher taxes, but we used to know that it was for something good. With the neoliberal drive to cut taxes and be more competitive, our politicians made drastic reforms in health care that have left us with long lines and long wait times.
On the international front, there was a kind of Cold War building between Bush and the Islamic world. And Obama was the Gorbachev figure in that scenario; he came in, waved the white towel of defeat, accepted US mistakes and extended a hand of reconciliation.
Even Ahmed Youssef, a Hamas spokesman, congratulated Obama. Though he did add the caveat that Obama still has to actually accomplish the goals he set out to achieve.
And really, only time will tell what Obama actually accomplishes in the long run. The Republicans may be right: he may be all style and no substance. I am forced to admit then, that all style and no substance is what made me cry on Inauguration Day. I admit that all style and no substance is what made me hopeful that maybe the welfare state that existed in a ghost of Canada past is not totally dead.
The other matter at hand is the competency of the Nobel Peace Prize body. Even if Obama deserves it, there is suspicion that the Norwegian body is implicitly anti-Bush. Al Gore won in 2007, for his work on climate change (which Bush saw as a liberal myth), and Jimmy Carter won in 2002 for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to international problems, in an era when the Bush administration was out for blood.
It doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to see that the tactics of the last eight years (and even beyond that) did not do much to extend peace and security on a global level. But there is still evident prejudice on the part of the selection committee. Though Obama has helped to shift global opinions and usher in an era of optimism, he has not actually done anything substantial yet, to prove that he is really substantially different than the last decade. Is he moving forward on Darfur? Will the US policy on genocide intervention ever change? Probably not. He’s still a realistic politician, looking out for re-election. He’s just a better looking politician than the last few North America has seen. A veritable black Kennedy.
Essentially my point is this: Obama is deserving of recognition. But the Nobel Peace Prize? Once awarded to the likes of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela? Not just yet. And if Obama fails to follow through on this word, this prize will only serve to increase international disappointment and mistrust of politics.
German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy have both congratulated Obama on winning the award. He certainly did not expect to do so. In his acceptance speech, he said: ““To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honoured by this prize, men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.”
But he added this: “...I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.”
Let’s hope so.
In Canada, we had always known that health care was a right. It used to be something untouchable by even the most conservative of Conservatives. It’s not a consumer choice, like handbags or shoes. It’s a right. As it should be. Keep in mind that one month in American ICU will probably cost you up to a million dollars. Be prepared to declare bankruptcy if you’re and uninsured sick person in the United States.
Obama’s desires to make these domestic reforms have reminded us Canadians how envious our neighbours to the South are of our lifestyle. Sure, we pay higher taxes, but we used to know that it was for something good. With the neoliberal drive to cut taxes and be more competitive, our politicians made drastic reforms in health care that have left us with long lines and long wait times.
On the international front, there was a kind of Cold War building between Bush and the Islamic world. And Obama was the Gorbachev figure in that scenario; he came in, waved the white towel of defeat, accepted US mistakes and extended a hand of reconciliation.
Even Ahmed Youssef, a Hamas spokesman, congratulated Obama. Though he did add the caveat that Obama still has to actually accomplish the goals he set out to achieve.
And really, only time will tell what Obama actually accomplishes in the long run. The Republicans may be right: he may be all style and no substance. I am forced to admit then, that all style and no substance is what made me cry on Inauguration Day. I admit that all style and no substance is what made me hopeful that maybe the welfare state that existed in a ghost of Canada past is not totally dead.
The other matter at hand is the competency of the Nobel Peace Prize body. Even if Obama deserves it, there is suspicion that the Norwegian body is implicitly anti-Bush. Al Gore won in 2007, for his work on climate change (which Bush saw as a liberal myth), and Jimmy Carter won in 2002 for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to international problems, in an era when the Bush administration was out for blood.
It doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to see that the tactics of the last eight years (and even beyond that) did not do much to extend peace and security on a global level. But there is still evident prejudice on the part of the selection committee. Though Obama has helped to shift global opinions and usher in an era of optimism, he has not actually done anything substantial yet, to prove that he is really substantially different than the last decade. Is he moving forward on Darfur? Will the US policy on genocide intervention ever change? Probably not. He’s still a realistic politician, looking out for re-election. He’s just a better looking politician than the last few North America has seen. A veritable black Kennedy.
Essentially my point is this: Obama is deserving of recognition. But the Nobel Peace Prize? Once awarded to the likes of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela? Not just yet. And if Obama fails to follow through on this word, this prize will only serve to increase international disappointment and mistrust of politics.
German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy have both congratulated Obama on winning the award. He certainly did not expect to do so. In his acceptance speech, he said: ““To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honoured by this prize, men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.”
But he added this: “...I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.”
Let’s hope so.
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