A NOBEL PRIZE, INDEED
The brouhaha surrounding the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barrack Obama has been most unseemly and inappropriate.
The Nobel Committee had the wisdom, foresight and intelligence to give this award to Mr Obama because it recognised just how significant an impact he has already had and can still have on world affairs and how much he can be an instrument to bring about peace, harmony and hope to a fractured and tortured world. The reactions and behaviour post-announcement of many Americans, ranged from being quite amazing, to just downright disgusting in some cases. Americans should hang their collective heads in shame that some of their citizens have behaved in such a boorish and uncivilised way in response to the award. Imagine your President’s name up there alongside the likes of greats such as Martin Luther King Jr, Henry Kissinger, Mother Theresa, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Al Gore and the Dali Lama?
What joy and pride you should feel at such an honour, but no, not the right wing facists in America. This brings them no joy or pride. Instead it is an occasion for them to seek to heap scorn, ridicule and derision upon their sitting President and to seek to suggest that he does not deserve it. Had it been George W Bush Jr or George Bush Sr, would they have protested or been so unpatriotic? Had a Nobel been bestowed on Ronald Reagan, would any damn dog dare bark against it? Let’s be honest and call a spade a spade and see this protest for what it is—and what it is, isn’t pretty. It reveals a dark, ugly side of America, where a Senator can feel it okay to insult a sitting President in a manner which he would not have dared do to any of Obama’s predecessors. It is a dark ugly side to America which tells us that no matter how far we’ve come, the journey has not ended and that there must be eternal vigilance against the forces of prejudice, hate and bigotry.
It is a dark, ugly side to America where Kansas legislator Bill Otto can see it fit to post and re-post on YouTube, his racist rap video about President Obama even though Otto’s own daughters seemed to think it made him look racist and sought to take it off the air. This is the stark reality of where America still is in its never ending quest to settle the issue of race relations, where these people can’t or won’t see the tremendous effect that Obama had on world affairs already and his mending of fences and cooling of tensions in many corners of the globe. He single-handedly helped to change the image of America the world over. He put on a more caring, humane and understanding face to America. He helped to reverse some of the enduring damage done during the Bush years, when the successive Bush Presidents just rubbed the world the wrong way. The son was even more offensive, abrasive and clueless than the father, to the point where Americans had become despised and even hated in some places around the world.
President Obama is assiduously working to change this, he has extended an olive branch to the Muslim world because he recognises that this is a more diplomatic and effective way to bring about peace and harmony than to forever be taking out the big stick and beating people over the head. He is the first President in history to officially honour and recognise Divali celebrations by holding them there at the White House and extending greetings to the Hindu community on that auspicious occasion. He is a broker of peace, tolerance and harmony wherever he goes. He recognises the greatness of the role that has been placed upon his shoulders, not just to be a leader in America, but to be a leader of the world and in the process to foster peace, tolerance and harmony. What better credentials can one have for a Nobel Peace Prize? Apart from the facist right wing in America, there have also been some local and regional commentators who, for reasons best known to themselves, seem to have jumped on the anti-Obama bandwagon of criticism of this award of the Nobel Peace Prize.
None of their arguments can bear repeating, nor can they bear scrutiny.
They appear to generate more heat than light in an emotive, knee jerk type of peon protest, totally devoid of logic and reasoning. Some of the other local scribes and pundits who are often so vocal on other issues seem to have gone deaf, dumb and blind on the issue. They stand mute like sheep before the shearer while their heritage is assailed, attacked and assaulted. They just turn away and pretend like it does not involve them, it does not concern them. This award would have been a source of pride, pageantry, pomp and splendour for other group. But as always, we are afraid to claim and affirm our own, afraid to step out of our safe secure zones to be proud to fly the flag of our heritage, preferring instead to stay out of the debate and avoid comment. There are very few strong commentators out there from our community, who can come out, take a stand, be rational, clear, logical and speak about issues concerning their community, its faults, failings, successes, joys and triumphs. This is an occasion of joy and triumph, for the award to be given to a most deserving recipient, as a Noble prize indeed.
Extracted From: Trinidad Guardian Newspaper
By-Line Author: Martin George