The EthioRussian

NOTE: Before you jump to conclusions and label me an Obama-hater, please read my earlier post titled “The Day and the Day After.” Thank you.

I’ve been meaning to post these thoughts for a while, but I’ve been busy. Finally decided to let it out, so here it is. We all heard about how controversial the award of the Nobel Peace Prize was for Barack Obama.

Many talking heads on TV said it was good for the administration, while others opposed it saying he did not deserve it because he hasn’t accomplished anything yet. Did Obama rally the world with hope for a new day? Yes. Did he push for a stop on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Yes. Did he sign an order to close Guantanamo Bay? Yes. Are the 2 wars still on-going? Yes, look at the recent military assault by Pakistan into the Taliban stronghold near its borders with Afghanistan. Pakistan is not doing this alone, the Obama administration is helping/pushing them into this large scale “all-out” massive attack. It’s hard to assess the civilian casualties because not many journalists have been given access to witness the situation first-hand. Is Guantanamo open? Yes, and the US government is dragging its feet in trying to accomplish this task. So much so in fact, that REM, Pearl Jam, and Nine Inch Nails, after learning that their music was used to torture Guantanamo prisoners, have joined forces in a campaign pressuring the US government to shut down the prison by January 2010, as originally promised. Is the hope for a new day still there? Yes, but the mission is still unaccomplished! Which is why I fall in the other camp and yell “HE DID NOT DESERVE IT (YET)!” Let’s not even get started with how he was nominated after being 12 days in office. A friend asked if getting an award for something that wasn’t accomplished cheapens the award, and I quite frankly have to agree with him. I get it, it was a popularity contest, and he was the world’s homecoming king at the time.

I’m sorry, this post should not have been about my frustrations with the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decisions. This is a toast to the overshadowed peacemakers that could have, and should have won it. Of course the problem here is the fact that the Nobel Foundation does not disclose all the 205 nominees until 50 years after their nomination. However, that doesn’t mean they can stop you from announcing who you are nominating for a prize, so from the people that were shared to the public by their nominators, we have a list of interesting candidates.

Piedad Cordoba. She is a Colombian Senator, a kidnapping victim by the paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), and a victim of two failed assassination attempts. In 2007, she led the humanitarian exchange negotiations between the Colombian government and the (in)famous Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group, in an attempt to free 50 FARC hostages, and a potential release of 500 guerrilla fighters imprisoned by the Colombian government. Her tireless work led to the release of several hostages that were held in captivity for over 5 years. Her efforts to find a negotiated solution to the conflict led to her being nominated as one of the contenders for the 2009 Nobel Peace Price.

Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad. Aside from his prince duties, he is also a professor in philosophy. His agenda focuses on the improvement of cooperation between cultures and religions. He gave a powerful welcoming address to Pope Benedict the XVI, during the Pope’s pilgrimage to Jordan, in which he pointed out the Pope’s respect for Muslims and the Pope’s appeal for the rights of Muslim minorities. He was nominated for the 2009 Nobel Prize for initiating peaceful dialogue between cultures and religions. Imagine extending this dialogue further to open positive communication channels with conservative Muslims or what we call Muslim extremists. Dialogues within their own societies could convince them to throw down their weapons and see the changing world around them peacefully. Wishful thinking? maybe. Possible action item? I think so.

Sima Samar. She is Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan. She was the first Hazara (central Afghanistan ethnic group) woman to get a medical degree from Kabul University. She treated patients for over a decade in refugee camps and remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, while herself living in refuge from the Afghan communist dictatorship of the 80’s that arrested her husband, and the recent Taliban rule. Her decades-long fight for humanitarian rights, health care, and education for women in regions influenced by conservative Islamic laws made her a nominee for the Nobel prize.

Denis Mukwege. He is a Congolese gynecologist at the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, a city near the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). After witnessing many childbirth complications in Congolese women with poor access to health care, he decided to study gynecology. His recognition comes from what he did for women in war-torn Congo. He treated over 21,000 women who were victims of brutal gang-rapes during the 12-year war. Sometimes performing up to10 surgeries per day, during his 18-hr working days, he has seen first hand one of the brutal sides of the conflict, giving life and hope to many women who were left for dead. His work earned him the label “Angel of Bakavu.”

Hu Jia. A Chinese dissident, human rights, environmental, and HIV/AIDS activist. He was also involved in the protection of endangered animals like the Tibetan antelope. His father and mother were labeled as rightists during the Anti-Rightist Movement under Mao Zedong, and were assigned to work in remote areas separated from each other for almost 20 years. Hu’s all-around activism and fighting for the improvement of human rights in China has made him a strong enemy within the Chinese government, and placing him and his family under house arrest. He continued his activist work by writing articles and blogs on the internet, so much so in fact, that he was able to participate at an European parliamentary hearing in Brussels using a webcam. Hu was arrested and sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. He remains in jail.

All these stories have have one thing in common. These individuals were placed into situations that required them to act on their own, to take on a struggle that is bigger than themselves. They did not have a seat as high as that of the potential president of the strongest country in the world, and that’s what makes their individual sacrifices even more worthy of our attention. Maybe with the exception of the prince, these characters put their lives at risk to stand for rights and services that many of us take fore granted. People say that Nobel Peace prize has always been awarded based on political merit, as a tool to guide the direction of values and principles for the entire world. Any one of these candidates meets that qualification by shedding light on topics like minority rights or interfaith dialogue, things that still need a lot of work. Quite frankly, any president after Bush could have come on stage and said we not doin what he did, n that’s that. That would easily repair the image of America with the rest of the world. But people’s fascination with Barack Obama won him the prize… so if it’s not the hope-based improvement of relations amongst countries (which is what he won it for, and like I said anyone else after Bush could have done that) on what other basis did he win it aside from being popular?

It’s not the first time these awards picked surprising candidates. The entire list includes people that unquestionably deserved it, such as the first recipient, Henry Dunant (formed the Red Cross), and other that came much later after him like Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, and Muhammad Yunus. It also includes questionable characters who might have done some good, but at some point in their lives they kinda contradicted themselves. I guess in the end, the decision-making is done by a small group of people, caught in the “what’s hot” at the time of their decision making, and for what it’s worth, I thank them for their work in recognizing the hope we all have in Barack Obama. Let’s focus our strength into turning that hope into a reality, and then we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor.