Acts in Intentions: Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize

There’s no doubt that the entire world (including Obama himself) was surprised when U.S. President Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. As an American citizen backing up Obama’s policy, I was surprised and glad to hear this news. I voted for him in the last elections despite being a member in the Republican Party, which is opposed to Obama. I think that Obama didn’t do anything up until now to deserve the prize. However, I think that there may be many serious or comical reasons to award him the prize:

I. It seems that the Nobel Prize commission members capitulated and started to believe that “yet the acts are in the intentions and you get awarded according to what you have in mind.” It seems that they really believed in his good intentions and they started to reject and deny the Western aphorism, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

II. It seems that President Obama needs some money, especially since he has two daughters in school and you know very well the costs of private education; and especially since some private teachers may take advantage of the situation involving his daughters. Thus, they raise and exaggerate the prices, arguing that the security measures taken at the door of the White House waste their time before going in to give the lessons.

III. It seems that the Nobel Prize commission tried to lessen the failure that Obama suffered when he went to Copenhagen in Denmark with his wife Michelle to help Chicago obtain the honor of hosting the Olympics in 2016. Everybody was surprised when the international Olympic committee awarded this honor to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Of course, we all know that the Nobel Peace Prize commission is in Oslo, Norway, and it neighbors Denmark. Both of them are Scandinavian countries so I think that there was a discussion between Denmark and Norway in the vein that “this can’t work; let us make it this time because two blows to the head can hurt.”

IV. It seems that the Nobel Prize commission decided to put Obama in the square because having won the prize is a big deal. In fact, he didn’t do anything to deserve it.

V. It’s well known that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded sometimes for tangible political achievements as it was awarded to the Presidents Sadat, Begin, Yasser Arafat, Perez and Rabin, in addition to the leaders Nelson Mandela and De Clarke. Furthermore, this prize has been awarded to public figures like Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama and the Bangladeshi Mohammad, founder of Grameen bank for the poor. Nevertheless, this is the first time that the prize has been awarded to a U.S. president who has been holding the reins of government for less than 10 months. The truth is that Obama didn’t accomplish any tangible achievement. Yet, he gave hope to many people all over the world. He gave hope to millions of destitute and poor that life is still okay. Moreover, the mere presence of a black person from an African Muslim father serving in the most important position in the world can give hope not just for those greedy for political positions, but for those who dream of it. I remember that my eldest daughter called me after the awarding of the prize to Obama and said: ”Now I don’t have any excuse not to succeed in achieving my goals in the future, even if it was impossible.” This is in itself the greatest achievement for Obama up until now, even if he didn’t accomplish anything more than this. Although he doesn’t deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, he may deserve the Nobel Oratory Prize!

VI. Obama accomplished a great achievement when he signed a convention with the Russian president to eradicate nuclear weapons. Furthermore, he went to the United Nations and reiterated putting an end to these weapons. Then he adopted the call for protecting the environment from the United Nation’s rostrum. He also backed up the signature of USA on the Kyoto treaty in order to protect the environment, after the administrations of Bush and Clinton had both rejected it.