I recently wrote a hub about Nelson Mandela and this got me to thinking - this venerable gentleman, who turns 94 on 18 July 2012, was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. The former South African president spent 67 years of his life fighting for the rights of humanity and social justice.
Then in 2009, United States president Barack Obama was awarded the same prize, twelve days after he took office.
Really?!
Asked recently about something he failed to accomplish, Obama pointed to the very subject for which he was awarded the prize... the failure to achieve peace in the Middle East.
I am not anti-Obama, I do not even live in the United States. But the news I read hardly puts him in the same light as Mandela, other than in the eyes of the Nobel Committee.
Hi Grumpi. Thanks for launching this thread.
May I make one correction to your OP statement? The committee announced President Obama would be the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in October 2009, nine months after he took office. Following the announcement, Geir Lundestad, Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, explained why President Obama's creation of a new climate in international politics closely fulfils the statues of Alfred Nobel's will. (1)
.
The prize was awarded to the President in December 2009 "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world free from nuclear weapons."
The President commented that the Nobel Prize had not just been used to honor specific achievements, but also to give momentum to a set of causes. He considered his Prize "a call to action".
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/ … peech.html
Thanks for your further info. I understand the principle of a call to action and the effort to give momentum. My question though: Is that really the way to do it? Does that not detract from the prize given to a man who really deserves it - Mandela?
On a lighter note, and following in the spirit of the Nobel prize given to Obama, I look forward to receiving an Oscar for the momentum we are giving to this thread
Mandela may have been worthy, but Obama? Just a slight rebuttal,
<link snipped>
Enjoyed your hub - and I agree with the sentiment. Seems we're on the same page!
by egiv 15 years ago
I can't wait to read about how big of a joke the (Norwegian) Nobel Prize selecting committee is and that since nazi Germany loved Hitler and so many love Obama, it logically makes Obama Hitler.Can you people be proud for once that we have a great leader? He is not perfect, nobody is, but for god's...
by neonline69 15 years ago
What do you think are the reasons for which the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack Obama?Barack Obama is the fourth President to win the Nobel Peace Prize behind Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter. Tell with us why YOU think President Obama won this prestigious award.Leave...
by Castlepaloma 14 years ago
The greatest threat to mankind is Nuclear war and the lack of protection for our natural environment.I'm happier to see Al Core get a Nobel peace prize, than to watch Obama get one for raising the war budget to the highest level ever. What do you think?
by Brenda Durham 14 years ago
Led by an overwhelming majority of American citizens, with predominantly New Yorkers on the front lines, picketers in front of the White House succeeded in making Mr. Obama vow to return his erroneously-gotten Prize. He said now he understands that it ain't okay to cause chaos WITHIN America...
by quimbicla 15 years ago
President Obama Baback after nine months deserves Nobel Peace Prize?
by Deforest 12 years ago
The EU? IS IT A JOKE?
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |