Nobel Peace Prize would give impetus to shared aspirations: Obama (Lead)
October 10th, 2009 - 12:53 am ICT by IANS
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By Arun Kumar
Washington, Oct 9 (IANS) A “surprised and deeply humbled” President Barack Obama said Friday he viewed the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize as a way to give impetus to broadly shared aspirations.
“To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honoured by this prize,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden hours after winning the award for his work to improve international diplomacy and rid the world of nuclear weapons.
He did not view it as a “recognition of my own accomplishments”, but he said the peace prize has often been used “to give momentum to a set of causes.”
Therefore, he said, he would accept the prize “as a call to action” to confront the challenges of the 21st century, including nuclear non-proliferation, climate change and racial and religious discord.
Obama is the third sitting US president - and the first in 90 years - to win the coveted peace prize.
“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,” Obama said of the peace prize.
Throughout history, the prize “has not just been used to honour specific achievement,” he said.
“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.”
He said the world cannot accept “the terror of a nuclear holocaust” or “the growing threat posed by climate change.” And he called for pursuing “a new beginning among people of different faiths and races and religions, one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.”
Obama urged renewed effort to “resolve those conflicts that have caused so much pain and hardship” over the years, notably the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But he also stressed that “we have to confront the world as we know it today,” indicating that he must continue to manage US involvement in the wars in Iran and Afghanistan.
He noted that he is “the commander-in-chief of a country that’s responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies.”
Obama cautioned: “Some of the work confronting us will not be completed during my presidency. Some, like the elimination of nuclear weapons, may not be completed in my lifetime.”
The peace prize “is not simply about the efforts of my administration - it’s about the courageous efforts of people around the world,” Obama said.
“And that’s why this award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity.”
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Posted in World, |
October 10th, 2009 at 1:12 am
There is no doubt in my mind that President Obama is a very good man indeed, but the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him is too early in my mind. In this respect the wider world was not even aware of him just a mere three years ago. I am not saying that he was not a worthy candidate, but where there are more worthy people in this life who indirectly save millions of lives, are completely unknown for their effects on global peace work and are therefore never considered for the Nobel Award. This is the dilemma hovering over the Nobel Peace Prize. Have those who have won the Prize saved more lives that anyone else through their actions? Unfortunately I have to say that at this point in time I doubt that Obama can enter into such an illustrious group of people who have literally saved more lives than any others in our world history.
I had the privilege to work with two of the world’s most unknown celebrities who did indeed save millions of lives through their incredible work and where this work still saves millions every year all over the world. The first is the late Glenn Seaborg, the ‘father’ of the chemistry of Chemotherapy and initiator of the ‘Test Ban Treaty’ for Nuclear weapons. It is estimated that Seaborg through his chemistry and his creation of many of the chemical isotopes used in chemotherapy, has saved literally over 100 million human lives to date over the past 50-years alone. This has been through a cure or an extension of human life and where their loved ones have benefited through having these loved ones with them far longer than would have been the case without Seaborg’s incredible creativity. Many more millions of human lives ravaged by Cancer will be saved in the future and today. Indeed the number of people saved by the nuclear test ban initiation is incalculable, but one has to only think, where the world might be today without Seaborg’s initiative. Indeed, Nuclear war might well have happened already in our own lifetime.
The second person that I worked with was the late John Argyris, the modern-day inventor of the ‘Finite Element Method’. To put this great engineering achievement into perspective is hard to do for the layman, but where it has revolutionised global engineering design so much that we now have far safer cars, buildings, bridges, aeroplanes, dams, trains, and the list goes on. Indeed, without Argyris’s input for NASA’s pre-runner, the 1969 moon landing would never have happened and the space-shuttle may never have removed itself from planet Earth..
Adding to this today through Argyris’s revolutionary engineering work we live in a completely safer world and where his work has even spread into all the sciences, including physiology, where the minutest of stress in the human body can be detected and a patient’s life saved. Indeed, it is estimated again that Argyris has saved hundreds of millions through this far greater safety in structural design throughout the world, through buildings and dams et al not collapsing. But were these two great men of science and engineering who have saved literally millions and millions of lives ever considered by the Nobel Foundation for their Peace Prize by saving all these millions? No.
I therefore feel that the Nobel Prize as today belittles itself again, its real value and against those humanitarians who do truly deserve it. But there again it has to be said that Gandhi never received it, even though he was nominated five-times. In the year of his death, the Nobel Foundation said that there were no candidates worthy enough and did not award the Prize that year.
Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation
Bern, Switzerland