Surprising Prize

If they called me today with the news that I turned out to be the winner of the National Prize of Literature, above all, I would not believe it. But if at any rate the news is confirmed, I would understand that a mistake was made. If it is still reconfirmed, I would direct the jury to decline it, because I have no merits to receive this distinction today.

Barack Obama, whom I admire and from whom much hope is expected, promised to close Guantanamo, but it remains open. He promised to pull troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, but on the contrary continues to send young American fresh meat to the bombs and shrapnel of the Taliban.

Therefore, the analytic world is still wondering what motivated them to assign him the Nobel Peace Prize. Was it his attitude with Chavez at the meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, which had a fairly high political cost for Obama in the U.S. Congress? Because if that was the reason, then a piece of the prize should go to Leonel Fernandez, for what he did here in the Foreign Ministry with Correa and Uribe, which emphasized achievement and was praised worldwide.

Obama, at first surprised by the prize, looks to be a balanced and honest man, but will not send a letter to the Nobel Prize Committee declining the distinction by saying that, considering his short amount of time of his presidency, he has not done or achieved enough goals to deserve it.

Do you know why he won’t decline? Because after the “Olympic defeat” (meaning after not winning the seat of the 2016 Olympic Games for the United States – it was instead awarded to Brazil) he needs this present to elevate his ego and his beaten-down pride.

The truth is, to deserve it, Obama has much yet to prove. And the strange public support from Fidel must be accompanied by a factual documentary lift. We have no doubt that tomorrow, Obama might be worthy of that and many other honors. But meanwhile, it would have been preferable for the Nobel Committee to have declared void the category of Nobel Peace Prize, or what had been specified as “the expectation of an action.”