Obama’s Nobel Prize

The decision of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to grant the American president the Nobel Peace Prize is undeniably a silly joke! And this in fact brings up concern, wonder and even anger about the credibility of this important humanitarian prize, because the awarded president has spent less than ten months in office, if we calculate the days and months since his inauguration this past January.

This short time would simply not allow Obama time to do anything other than express intentions as well as put forth ideas and attitudes in order to govern the policies of his administration. However, such bold (yet un-detailed) declarations will be liable to additions, changes or even replacements resulting from the course of matters and the consideration of interests.

In this sense, Obama was not the first president to put forth perspectives on some volatile issues that include weapons of mass destruction and the Middle East peace process in addition to environmental and universal stability. There is no denying that the world has become preoccupied with these perspectives. However, Obama’s intentions became another story when he encountered heavy pressure and calculated interests. This means that Obama was not given sufficient time to transform his words into effective deeds, which will be later appraised either positively or negatively.

Up to this point, President Obama has not forwarded any transformational or exceptional efforts to bring about universal cooperation and peace. He has yet to reduce the terrors of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons. He has not taken any steps to further dialogue on some thorny issues. Obama has exerted no bionic efforts to better global climate change. Yet, all these things were attributed to the American head of state by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences when he was declared the Nobel winner!

Obama’s troops are still entangled in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama did not close the Guantanamo detention camp. He so far has not taken steps in the vein of the historical speech he gave at Cairo University, addressing Muslims and Arabs. He has not even made any contributions to the Middle Eastern peace process. Obama himself was stunned because he has done nothing so far but make promises!