Two weeks work
Isn’t that nice that Obama won the Noble Peace Prize for his first two weeks in office.
Imagine what they will give him for his first entire month?
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Two weeks work
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October 10th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
what a farce .. I’m sure he is a great guy but goodness me
October 10th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
You wonder the political motives behind this farcical decision, which devalues the Nobel Peace prize even more.
On second thoughts, when you consider a terrorist and murderer like Yasser Arafat also won it ….
October 10th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
…and Al Gore
October 10th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
When people write that the award was premature, I can’t help inserting ejaculation immediately after
October 10th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
They’re going to regret this well before his term is up.
October 10th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
How can you give a peace prize to someone who started a trade war with China?
Greater economic integration such as the formation of the common market in Europe, have been central to peace in Europe. Peace with China and Russia is built on their rapidly growing economic integration with the rest of the world.
Peace is sustained through slowing building cooperation based on mutual self-interest. This requires the patience to slowly build the cooperation through repeated interactions which are backed by a willingness to walk away. Negotiating for peace is a bit like bargaining in a medieval bazaar.
Obama is too keen. Obama must deemphasise the ‘now’ for the sake of the ‘later’. Simplistic peacemaking can cause war, while arms race, credible war threats and mutually assured destruction can reliably prevent war.
In 1962 Thomas Schelling pointed to a sharp distinction between arms control and disarmament. The former seeks to reshape military incentives and capabilities; the latter, it is alleged, eliminates them. The success of either must depend on mutual deterrence.
Short of universal brain surgery, as Thomas Schelling pointed out, nothing can erase the memory of nuclear weapons and how to build them. The most primitive war can be modernised by rearmament as it goes along. The USA started World War 2 in a state of near disarmament and ended as the sole nuclear power.
The Roman maxim if you want peace, you must prepare for war still rings true.
October 10th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
as someone else said..
‘it’s the ‘thank god you aren’t george bush!!-award’
phil(whoar.co.nz)
October 10th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
The Nobel Peace Prize is 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.”
Discuss
October 10th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
After Arafat and Gore, this is pretty much just stabbing a corpse. Though it’s clear that this is a political act to make Omoron stay soft on Afghanistan and Iran. The Norwegians will have a lot to answer for, and this decision will come back to haunt a lot of people.
October 10th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I want to eliminate all global naughtiness, disharmony and bad people who just won’t get along, despite being repeatedly told to. What’s more, I have been saying so for years. So there! Where do I apply for my global award?
October 10th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
http://whoar.co.nz/2009/obamas-nobel-prize-win-audience-in-oslo-shocked-at-the-news-video/
“..Barack Obama was far from the only one surprised by his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize Friday morning.
This evening ABC News aired a short video clip of the reaction in Oslo as the president’s name was read ..
.. in which you can hear the audience erupt loudly in shock at the news.
The crowd is clearly a little stunned..”
phil(whoar.co.nz)
October 10th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
DPF said “Imagine what they will give him for his first entire month?”
Indeed DPF – Pope maybe?
October 10th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I’m not one of the left leaning commentators… but..
GW Bush was a dick easily manipulated by others with nefarious intentions.
Obama looks good by comparison. Ergo awards come easily.
October 10th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
metcalph .. I hate that term, as long as we make an effort aye.
re Obama .. he even looked surprised himself BUT accepted the honor.
oh oh Bathurst shootout about to start .. beer cool so I’m ready
October 10th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I hear it was a close fought race for the gong with three other contestants pipped at the post. They were Chavez, Admadinejad and coming a close second Kim Il Jong. Oh well there is always next year.
October 10th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
… I guess they had to give him something after his unsuccessful bid to secure Chicago for the next olympics.
Nothing worse than a sociopath with a bruised ego.
October 10th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
shit jabba..!
you sit and watch television coverage for hours on end..?
of a bunch of saloon cars driving around a track..?
in australia..?
fuck..!..i would need much stronger drugs that alcohol..
to be able to sit through that exercise in terminal boredom..
(preferably ones that knocked me right out..)
oh..!..joy..!..joy..!..eh..?..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
October 10th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
It must have been the beer summit. That’s how you do it, start a war and then broker the peace.
October 10th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
How can they give a Nobel peace prize to a man who has just bombed the moon FFS.?
October 10th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
The Nobel Committee have done to the Nobel Peace Prize what Labour did to New Zealand’s education system.
It is now enough to just show up to receive a prize – actual effort and achievement is inconsequential.
In terms of NCEA assessment – Obama has yet to manage an “Achieved” far less “An Achieved with Excellence”
October 10th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Hi Jabba having a rough red, to cold for beer, should be good shootout. Phil, just seen a new add on the tele, right up your alley, Paw justice.
October 10th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Obama has united the World…
…But only because EVERYONE is laughing at the Nobel Prize Committee.
October 10th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Bob @4.07
“I hear it was a close fought race for the gong with three other contestants pipped at the post. They were Chavez, Admadinejad and coming a close second Kim Il Jong. Oh well there is always next year.”
Hey Bob, you forgot Khaled Mishal. He must have gone close. As head of the most powerful and most domonised “terrorist” organisation in the world, when confronted with that massive onslaught in the Gaza prison he held back his troops in the most inspiring demonstration of passive resistance since Ghandi walked the earth!
How’s that?
October 10th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
You know things are getting strange when “film maker” Anna Wilding can attack an innocent charity worker via the internet and phone, have her reputation torn to threads on Twitter, and have her moonbattery exposed on Kiwiblog so that EVERYONE knows just what a deranged fantacist and generally unpleasant woman she is…
…and her reputation still ends the week in better shape than the Nobel Prize Committee’s.
October 10th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Shock horror: Hansen compares Hamas to Gandhi. Does anyone know if Gandhi did any kneecapping?
October 10th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
sorry to upset you philu but I love motor-racing (I live near Puke, and go Scott Dixon tomorrow) and used to live in Wanganui (no H) and loved the bikes on the cemetry circuit .. I have also played rugby and soccer (I mean football) and I’m also a piss head, always have been, always will be. Oh, and I don’t mind a rooty tooty either. Not sure what rocks your boat son.
Side Show .. true, I’m having a whisky at the moment (hic) but the beer will be out, maybe 2morrow when my kids come home for the race/soccer replay before our Sunday roast … yehaaaaa
October 10th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
I suspect Luc there are many more worthy recipients but this isn’t about world peace as well you know. For fucks sake they had given Mac daddy the award two weeks into his presidency. No it’s not about peace it’s about liberals sticking it into the faces of the unbelieving, the unwashed and the unanointed. I guess they think they are been clever, fools the world is laughing at them.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I can imagine the right in Norway’s parliament pushing forward legislation to make sure that future Nobel picks aren’t so politically motivated. At least Obama can credit changing something then.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Have a one for me Jabba, yeah big party tomorrow, always have my mates around for Bathurst. Hopefully will stay awake this year. We have to have a compulsory glass of port every time a Holden crashes and burns. Ended up asleep on the front lawn and to make matters worst the bastards burnt my ford flag, oh well never mind.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
A really stupid decision, these awards always grow the ego of the recipient and Obama has already had enough people fawning at his feet. Politicians who think they’re deities are always bad news and his ego was already impressive.
Now they’ll have to widen all the doors at the White House.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I believe Alfred Nobel was Swedish, not Norwegian, but same diff, still a completely baffling decision.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
If all it takes to get a Nobel Peace Prize is to wish for world peace, every single beauty pageant contestest is now in the running.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
For a moment I thought the award was serious, but then I realise that my computer (like so many others) has been infiltrated by a new virus that resets the date – mine now shows October 9th, whereas it is actually 1 April.
More seriously, what a mockery the Nobel Peace Prize has become. This continues the trend of recent years of awarding it, not for achievement, but for underlying political reasons.
If you’re interested in reading what the Nobel committee’s justification for the award was, read this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/nobel-prize-to-obama-defe_n_316098.html. In essence, “the judges found his promise of disarmament and diplomacy too good to ignore.”
It’s also been called the “Thank-God-You’re-Not-Bush” Prize.
From what I’ve seen, reaction is well summed up here (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-berney/he-should-have-turned-it_b_315691.html)
including the comment “The Peace Prize should be more than simply a symbolic gesture of hope for the future. It should be a reward for extraordinary accomplishment and real-world results. It should be the culmination of a career devoted to the cause of building a better world.”
October 10th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
“The Peace Prize should be more than simply a symbolic gesture of hope for the future. It should be a reward for extraordinary accomplishment and real-world results. It should be the culmination of a career devoted to the cause of building a better world.”
I hope Aunty never read that bit or she will be really miffed that they gave it to the yankee upstart instead of her.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
I have nominated him for a Halberg Award for NZ Sportsman on the Year. That can go with his ranking by Men’s Fitness Mag as one of the top ten fittest men of 2008.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Yo Bama
Imme gonna let you finish but Morgan Tsvangarai has had the been falsely accused of treason, arrested, beaten and possibly even had a murder attempt on his life and his wife killed trying to secure a peaceful solution for his country
October 10th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
shit Murphy’s time in the shootout has been cancelled .. fkg Aussies
October 10th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
BrianS>I have nominated him for a Halberg Award for NZ Sportsman on the Year.
I’ve heard that the Academy Awards people have just announced that he has won an Oscar, because he might act in or direct a film some time in the future. And that the International Olympic Committee have just awarded him the gold medal for pole vaulting for the Rio Olympics, just in case he turned out to be a good pole vaulter if he ever tried the sport.
October 10th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
I heard him dscribed as the first post-racial president. Now I read he is the first post-accomplishment president as well
October 10th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I don’t know why everyone is so excited about America’s first black President. I mean, Zimbabwe have had one for years and look at how shit that country is.
October 10th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I wouldn’t have given it to Obama. But I don’t know who I would have given it to.
So, this is a serious question: who should have got it?
October 10th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
>>So, this is a serious question: who should have got it?
Of the people in the running
Morgan Tsvangarai
Of those they would never consider
David Petraeus
October 10th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
This means he’s Norwegian! He can’t be president!
October 10th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
This is absolutely absurd. Not only is this someone who has proposed using military force against Pakistan, regardless of their consent, but has also escalated the war in Afghanistan (which I’m not against, but still, it’s hardly ‘peace’). So not only have they devalued an already almost creditless award (they did, afterall, give it to Nelson Mandella after years of terrorism), but given an award to someone who has done almost nothing, as yet, of any real accomplishment. Maybe they should split the award in two: a ‘we hope will do great things’ award and a ‘has actually done something’ award. This is just another blip on a sad record.
October 10th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Bammy can stick this award next to his school attendance certificates, Grammy, NME “Hero of the Year” and Miss North America 2008 trophies.
October 10th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.
You can tell when he’s lying when he says “let me be clear.” Especially when you consider that he doesn’t acknowledge he hasn’t accomplished anything.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
An interesting view on it from the Wapo editors:
October 10th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
0Bama got the award for not being George Bush.
cheers
David Prosser
October 10th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Is it even possible for a narcissist to be humbled?
October 10th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
I can just see this being played out in Socialist Norway, the country that lets rapists and child sex offenders home for weekend leave.
Nobel fool 1: “Who are we going to give the peace award to this year?”
Nobel fool 2: “Well, it cannot be anybody from the right can it”
Nobel fool 1: “That is very true, does anybody have a suggestion?”
Nobel fool 3: “Somebody mentioned that dark chap from Africa, his name escapes me at the moment”
Nobel fool 1: “Mugabe?”
Nobel fool 3: “Not him, we did briefly consider him a couple of years ago but in the end we gave it to Al Gore, I am thinking of the other dark chap”
Nobel fool 2: “Do you mean Morgan Tsvangarai?”
Nobel fool 3: “Yes, that’s the one, he might be a good choice”
Nobel fool 1: “It cannot be him, he asked Bush for help a few years back, plus he has some silly ideas about how to run a government”
Nobel fool 3: “Really?, he is a capitalist?”
Nobel fool 1: “I am afraid so, for obvious reasons that rules him out, anyone got another name we could consider?”
Nobel fool 2: ” It is a pity about his politics, I quite like the idea of a black man winning the award, are there any other black leaders we can nominate?”
Nobel fool 3:” Mandela?”
Nobel fool 1: “Nope, we gave it to him a few years back, there must be somebody else we can pick”
Nobel fool 2: “I got it!, what about Obama?”
Nobel fool 3: “Perfect!, he needs all the help he can get right now”
Nobel fool 1: “Might somebody ask or point out that he has done nothing as yet to further world peace?”
Nobel fool 3: “What the hell has that got to do with anything?, he is perfect, he has the right political ideals, he is a socialist, and he is black, it’s a win win for us, and hell, given time I am sure he will at least try and make good all the promises he made during the election campaign.
October 10th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
If there was a nobel prize in printing money, Obama would be a shoo-in.
October 10th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
You guys who aren’t happy with the award, and you are not alone! should go to http://www.democracynow.com to watch a real put down of the award!
Easy to go to itunes too.
But stay watching after the Obama segment to see the treatment of the “land of the free”and the “leader of the free world” of the indigenous populations of Diego Garcia (nominally a British colony – yes, they still have ‘em!) and Guam. Fascinating stuff. Puts Iran in perspective.
October 10th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHIUdMVN_V0
Lol. Nobel prize in FAIL
October 10th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
It would have been more appropriate for him to get the Literature prize for his crap autobiographies.
In fact, I’m surprised they didn’t give that to him too. And physics.
Also, no one except for anti-Western hand wringers care about Diego Garcia.
October 11th, 2009 at 3:18 am
The problem with the whole anti-nuke crusade is that it fails to take into account the sheer number of massive, destructive wars that took place without nuclear weapons (the Napoleonic Wars, the two World Wars, every rebellion in monarchical China) and the sheer amount of technological progress and prosperity that has exploded in the last sixty years – secured thanks to nuclear weapons backing diplomacy and free trade.
But no, no, let’s carry on under the ignorant assumption that no nuclear weapons = instant world peace and eternal brotherhood. Let’s continue to harbour the foolish idea that no nuclear weapons even means that medium and massive wars are less likely to happen. Ludditry and wishful thinking is all I need to function semi-competently!
October 11th, 2009 at 4:07 am
I’m going to invent time travel… Now where’s my Nobel Prize for Physics?
October 11th, 2009 at 7:28 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8299079.stm
More information to fuel the debate. It will drive crazy the climate change fundamentalists and greenies who claim the sky is falling.
October 11th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
man, when did they phase out lead-based paints for childrens’ toys in Norway… not long enough ago obviously…