2009-10-11 There Is No Hope

Obama gets the Peace Nobel Prize? What’s wrong with these people?

Am I so misinformed?

No progress in Palestine.
No progress in Iraq.
No progress in Iran.
No progress in Afghanistan.
No progress regarding health care.
No progress in secret prisons.
No progress in Guantánamo.
No progress regarding torture.
No progress regarding war criminals.
No progress regarding global warming.

I’ve heard people say that he’s giving *hope* to those who had none. Well, let me tell you: I still have none!

The United States of America is blessed with two conservatives parties. While they sure sound different, *talk is cheap*.

Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap.

Hope is not a plan*.

People claim that he was nominated for the prize after twelve days in office! “The deadline for submitting candidates had come just 12 days after he entered the White House.” ¹ I find that disgusting.

Some people say that “The award is also an example of what Nobel scholars call the growing aspirational trend of Nobel committees over the past three decades, by which awards are given not for what has been achieved but in support of the cause being fought for.” ²

Reminds me of certain three individuals in 1994:

Yasser Arafat, leading a corrupt cabinet, robbing the Palestinians of millions of dollars – France investigating “money transfers totalling 9 million euros ($11.5 million) from Swiss banks to private accounts owned by Suha Arafat, the wife of the Palestinian leader” – and remember the Palestinian State Controller’s report that “nearly half of the authority’s $326 million 1997 budget had been lost through corruption or financial mismanagement.” ³
Shimon Peres, a war criminal who launched “Operation Grapes of Wrath” causing 400,000 Lebanese to flee their homes, with almost 800 of them fleeing to a UN base in Qana, South Lebanon. On 18 April the Israeli army shelled the UN shelter in Qana, killing 102 civilians, mainly women, children and the elderly. Many more were injured.” ⁴
Yitzhak Rabin, a war criminal who “oversaw the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian cities like Lid in 1948; he ordered tanks into Arab villages inside Israel during the Land Day protests of 1976, leading to the deaths of half a dozen unarmed Palestinian citizens; and in 1988 he ordered his army to crush the first intifada by “breaking the bones” of Palestinians, including women and children, who threw stones at the occupying troops.” ⁵

⁴

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You can hope for the best, but you should *only reward people with 10 million Swedish crowns having a proven track record for peace*. We all hoped that Oslo would lead to peace. But it went nowhere. ⁶

⁶

These three people were honored for the hope they inspired in 1994.

But Hope is not a plan.

#USA #Israel #Palestine

Comments

(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)

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Agreed.

– greywulf 2009-10-11 12:50 UTC

greywulf

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Some ranting inspired by The Godless Paladin. 😄

The Godless Paladin

– Alex Schroeder 2009-10-11 23:19 UTC

Alex Schroeder

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you forgot to mention, that there is still NO eqal rights for gay people as well..

– dein cousinchen 2009-10-12 11:28 UTC

dein cousinchen

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Du meinst Proposition 8 und ähnlichen Hirnriss? Auch da sehe ich wenig Fortschritte.

Proposition 8

– Alex Schroeder 2009-10-12 11:47 UTC

Alex Schroeder

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Why are you surprised? Most (if not all) of the glamorous awards in most fields are expedient and marketing gimmicks. This is just another facet of Brand Obama.

– NoufalIbrahim 2009-10-12 12:22 UTC

NoufalIbrahim

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Maybe I’m not yet as cynic as that. 😄

I liked half the prize for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007. I don’t think Al Gore really deserved it. Muhammad Yunus in 2006 was ok for micro finance. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Mohammed el-Baradei in 2005 was ok for struggling against Bush in Iraq, even thought it ended up being to no avail. Wangari Maathai in 2004 seemed to be ok as well. I know very little about her. Shirin Ebadi in 2003 seemed to be well deserved. Médecins sans frontières in 1999 was deserved. My personal highlight of recent years remains the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and Jody Williams in 1997.

– Alex Schroeder 2009-10-12 13:44 UTC

Alex Schroeder

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You’ve got a brighter heart than me then. I consider all the genuine winners of (atleast) the Nobel peace prize as exceptions.

– NoufalIbrahim 2009-10-12 17:25 UTC

NoufalIbrahim

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Hm, I found a link to Rachel Maddow: The Nobel Prize & Obama Derangement Syndrome via Twitter via @seankreynolds. Hm, interesting.

Rachel Maddow: The Nobel Prize & Obama Derangement Syndrome

– Alex Schroeder 2009-10-13 01:41 UTC

Alex Schroeder

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Obama, years later. Sing with me and Johnny Cash: “What have you become?”

Obama, years later

– Alex Schroeder 2013-05-18 11:50 UTC

Alex Schroeder

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*2024-09-1**. Fifteen years later. Israel has been bombing and invading Gaza for weeks. Now there are signs of starvation, too. The US still sponsors them with utmost loyalty.