Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Pole in running for Nobel Peace Prize


And looking at some of the competition, if she doesn’t win, then it’s time to bury this dumb, sad, annual ritual.

Twenty four years after Lech Walesa won it, 97 year-old Irena Sendlerowa – who is famous in Poland for protecting many, many Jewish children during the Nazi occupation of WW II - is on the long list of candidates this year for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The decision has been made today as to who the winner is, though the annoucment will be made Friday.

I don’t know whether this is just the Polish press bigging the story up, but Irena is one of the favourites this year.

So, who are her main rivals?

Well, one of the top tips is Al Gore. Remember him when he was the very dull candidate for President of the United States?

Since then he has gone from ‘Boring Al’ to ‘Extremely Interesting Al’ by way of a power point presentation he cooked up on his lap top, no doubt, about how we are all doomed unless we cut down our ‘carbon foot print’ and start knitting our own jumpers from rape seed and hemp.

But does he deserve a peace prize? Isn’t the Oscar he won more appropriate?

Another name on the list is …Bono.

Bono has been entered, one presumes, for his contribution to….world….um….use of wearing dark glasses in the evening? Or, maybe for wearing sun glasses at press conferences to push his latest/record/’I represent Africans’, pose?

So which one would you chose for a peace prize? Someone who had protected Jewish kids even under the penalty of death if found out by the Nazis? Or Al Gore or Bono?

It’s a no brainer.

26 comments:

Brad Zimmerman said...

Tough choice. Al Gore has appeared in Futurama several times... and those other people haven't.

Still, I guess saving Jewish kids is the more peaceful of the three options.

varus said...

Although i obviously commend the lady's actions. How can the 2007 Peace Prize go to someone for an action carried out over sixty years ago? Is there not a stipulation that there has to be some relavance to modern problems in the judges criteria? She should get some recognition, but the Peace Prize?

That said, she is still number one out of that short list.

Damien Moran said...

The relevance is that she represents the inherent good side of humanity.

Isn't the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change also short-listed.

My feeling is that it may be a global-cooler who wins, but not Al.

'Experts' who predict the winners say he is too well-known. Although that's kinda bullshit - many well-known people, some of them asswipes, win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Bono should win the Nobel stinginess prize for suing his former wardrobe woman for putting his trousers, shades and gammy stetson hat up for auction. The stylist alleged she had received them as a gift when on tour with the band.
http://www.courttv.com/people/2005/0628/u2lawsuit_ap.html

Irish Senior Barrister Hugh Hartnett, who I had the honour of being defended by in the past, in cross-examination of Bono, suggested that 'U2-related items wouldn't have been considered iconic in the late 1980s.'

Bono responded: "Oh no, we had delusions of grandeur from the very beginning."

How humble of him!

Al - well poor Al's film is fairly educative alright, and more power to him for dedicating the last few years to spreading the bad word on forthcoming climate disasters and species destruction. But he comes from a big tobacco plantation farming background (not good for the land let me tell ya) so my anti-smoking position struggles with his nomination.

Jokes aside, he doesn't need it.

Last year's winner the Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered the Grameen project for poor people to attain credit and set up small businesses, was a good example of where the prize should go.

Kenyan environmentalist NPP laureate Wangari Maathai is another good example of what type of person should get such a prize.

Full list of laureates is here:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/

Past nominees for the prize include Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Benito Mussolini and Fidel Castro. They all got tipped to the post though.

The five-member Nobel committee never reveals the names of the nominees. It's list remains covert for 50 years. Those who are entitled to submit nominations are free to reveal their choices though, and therefore we know that Al, Bono, and Irena are candidates.

The EU are also reportedly on the short list. The whah? Yes, the EU! But supposedly the constitution problems may rule it out from being awarded this year.

My feeling is that it will be an organisation and it's head, rather than just one individual.

Wanna start cyber-bets here?
I'll put 50 zl. on the IGPCC

And a question - can dead people be awarded? For example, Anna Politkovskaya would be well-deserving of a nomination/prize for her work exposing Russian war crimes in Chechnya

varus said...

Damien wrote: The relevance is that she represents the inherent good side of humanity.
Granted - but does this mean we can not muster any current contenders fro representing the goodness of humanity and therefore have to dig into the history books. She should have medal for bravery and all the trimmimgs, but did she actually promote peace? I think not. The Peace Prize should surely go to someone who has made the world (or at least worked for making it) a safer and more peacefull place. If we continue to use histical examples to justify our presence, then we are in danger of not recognising the work and achivements of the 21st Century.

Damien Moran said...

That's why my vote goes to the IPGCC.

If there was a Golden Oldies Nobel Peace Prize Irena should win.

beatroot said...

Is there not a stipulation that there has to be some relavance to modern problems

Do you not think that honouring someone for risking her life in the cause of human solidarity is something that today really needs to be reminded of? That girl is an example to those who ignore others suffering and do nothing to help.

Give her the prize...and if Gore gets it I am gonna throw up.

Damien Moran said...

And I'll throw up on your throw up contents as a form of solidarity.

varus said...

BR - Granted, we do need more examples of selfless acts. My point was not whether to acknowledge here actions, but bore about whether this is the appropriate form and place. I still think that more contemporary issues should be dealt with. If this means that no one fits the bill in the present era, then we are really up **** creak without a paddle!!

beatroot said...

In all the British papers today there is the court ruling about Gore's film - the judge called it a 'political' not scientific film. Right on, M'lud...

Anonymous said...

Yea, thank God that scientists are all politrix free.

And the religious, too.

BTW, there are close to 200 nominees for the Nobel Prize.

Damien Moran said...

So we have about 30 mins. to go before the announcement. Final bets via Paddy Power, please dish out your money:

Al Gore, Global Cooler: 5/2

Irena Sendlerowa, Anti-Holocaust Heroine: 4/1

Martti Ahtisaari, Indonesia/Aceh Peace Broker: 4/1

Sheila Watt-Cloutier,
Canadian Inuit campaigner: 4/1

Bono, Irish, aah...singer: 10/1

Bob Geldof, Irish, aah...uum...err: 20/1

George Bush, Texan rancher: 250/1

Tony Blair, former Protestant: 100/1

Jade Goody, Big brother star: 500/1

http://www.online-betting-guide.co.uk/Nobel-Peace-Prize!1.htm#news

Damien Moran said...

The winner is Al Gore

Damien Moran said...

He shares the prize with IPCC - so I was right, kind of.

michael farris said...

"if Gore gets it I am gonna throw up"

have you considered vlogging this event? or is it too late?

beatroot said...

He won it....bucket, get me a bucket...

Anonymous said...

At least it wasn't Bush or Blair.

Anonymous said...

Political correctness prevailed, as one would expect, Irena Sendler was not the flavour of the month. Al Gore has made a desperate bid to jump onto any bandwagon that would delay his drift into political obscurity or the status befitting a failed silver spoon liberal. According to Al Gore he “invented the internet” only to be endlessly ridiculed by the public for his comment. The climate-change debate is his new vehicle for taking him from talk show to talk show. A court has just recently ruled his climate-change film was political propaganda and not unbiased science. Al Gore’s career can be summed up as a pathetic attempt to escape irrelevance.

Poor Irena had only courage, righteousness and great deeds to her credit.

How foolishly we believed she had a chance.

michael farris said...

I too wish that they had chosen someone else.

But it's time to put a particular urban legend down. Here are Al's words himself:

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system."

Badly phrased, yes. And very self-serving. But only someone with entrenched ill will, a wreckless disregard for truth (or who's just plain dumb as a post) could say that he's claiming to "invent" (a word he doesn't use) the internet. In context, the meaning is pretty clear: he's trying to take credit for creating a legislative climate that made the development of the internet possible.

michael farris said...

"How foolishly we believed she had a chance."

Did we? I assumed she wouldn't get it as soon as the literature prize was announced. Political correctness aside, I can't imagine the nobel committees honoring two very elderly women in the same year.

Anonymous said...

Political correctness = political hegemony.

Bush is in the White House.

Anonymous said...

Forgive my cynicism but one might observe that "creating the Internet" and "inventing the Internet" are tantamount to the same exaggeration. Al Gore has a long history of this kind of thing, apparently Gore told reporters that he and his wife, Tipper, at the time when they were college sweethearts, were the inspiration for the novel "Love Story." That came as news to the befuddled author, Erich Segal.

Here’s a title for a new Al Gore movie “ Inconvenient Facts”. So long as his nose doesn’t grow uncontrollably I guess it’s ok.

michael farris said...

If 'create' and 'invent' mean the same thing then why do Gore bashers _always_ use the latter? Answer: they don't mean the same thing.

Again, in context it doesn't mean at all what the ditto-heads of the world claim it does.

I stand by my last paragraph in the previous post.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Erich Segal, author of Love Story, has corroborated that Gore and his Harvard roommate, Tommy Lee Jones, were indeed the models for the story's main character.

Anonymous said...

And Gore never said what jannowak claims he did.

Indeed, somebody's nose must be bigger than Jimmy Durante's... ha-cha-cha-cha!

Yea, so I'm badly dated and a dinosaur.

Anonymous said...

ha Poles savig Jews ?
that is not cosher.
'profesor' Gross whot he would say?
all jewish control media:
no one saved Jews.

Anonymous said...

Zionist will say:
yes she saved them for money.
yes that why she is very poor and broke.
O,O SHINDLER SAVED JEWS FOR FREE,THAT WAS NOT HIS BUSINESS, THATS WHY HE HEAD JEWISH MONEY
TO LIVE TO THE END OF HIS LIFE.BUT SOME HAW HE HAD ON HIS LIST ONLY RICHEST PEOPLES!
YAP SHINDLER HE IS A HERO.