Barack Obama and The Nobel Peace Prize

The moment the Nobel Peace Prize was announced, I knew  the airwaves would be filled with attack.  Most of the attack would be specific to Obama; Black man, American, President, while others would be more generic.

The first slurry of attacks would be specific; it is no secret that many people have a problem with Barack Obama because he is not a White Anglo Saxon Prostestant with an ‘American’ name.

The second slurry would be; “But he’s only been in office for Nine Months, he hasn’t Done anything!”

The rules of the Nobel Committee is that the Peace Prize is given:

“To the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Barack Obama ran an unusual campaign for President, in that his basic, no hype, no nonsense approach was based on ‘talking to others and listening to them’.

Now this might sound  simplistic, but in a world which has known America as the Big Stick Guy; as a nation that has no problem interferring in other nations and telling everyone else how they are to live, while listening to no one, it was an incredible change.

Perhaps the Bush pendulum swung America too far to one side; the ‘Axis of Evil’  the existence of Camp Delta, the unprovoked war with Iraq ,  the creation of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act; the environment of fear created along with unconcern about the Environment, all pushed the world into a sense of fearful expectation.

The arrival of Barack Obama was hailed by the world.  No American election has ever been followed with as much anticipation and excitement as the 2008 election.  People all over the world wanted Barack Obama to win. 

They wanted him to win to turn down the temperature of fear that Bush had put on high.

Barack Obama has shown himself to be calm, responsible, open to the ideas of others, willing to work with others; “We will put out the hand of friendship if you will unclench your fist” was a message that resonanted from Pyongyang to Tehran to Harare. 

The world trusts Barack Obama; and by the world I do not confine myself to the G8 or Europe but to people in every corner of the globe.  People who live on this planet and are concerned about the future.

Maybe the existence of the cane cutter in Barbados, the teacher in Paraguay, the taxi driver in Kenya, or the fisherman in the Maldives doesn’t mean much in the Boardrooms of Wall Street, or Downing Street, or the Pentagon or the Kremlin, but it means a lot to those people. And those people make up most of the world.

Barack Obama has given the world the ‘Audacity of Hope’, and for that he has fulfilled the criterion and does deserve the Award.