At the start of his first term, Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for not being George Bush (an award previously conferred on Al Gore for the same reason). Unfortunately, no individual has ever received the same Nobel Prize twice. Otherwise, the Norwegian Nobel Committee would surely have bestowed it yet again on Obama and Raúl Castro for the resumption of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba.
Perhaps it was to avoid that possibility that the news was announced a week after the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded. It would certainly have been Obama's just deserts to have had his name coupled forever with Raúl's as Henry Kissinger's is with Le Duc Tho's (even though Tho declined the prize). The only reason that Hitler and Neville Chamberlain were not awarded the Peace Prize in 1939 (though both were nominated) was that the ink was not yet dry on their pact before Hitler broke it. The irony of Castro being awarded the prize when no Cuban dissident ever was would also have been priceless and put into relief yet again the utter moral worthlessness of this political lotto with an 8.0 million kronor prize (about $1.5 million dollars).
Next year, however, the Norwegians can award their blodgeld [what else can you call money (geld) from the estate of the inventor of dynamite?] to Pope Francis, who is credited by both Obama and Castro with this "diplomatic breakthrough" (i.e. moral breakdown). The Peace Prize was never awarded to Pope John Paul II (though Gorbachev got it). Awarding it to Francis would be a "historical reparation" as was the award to the Dalai Lama in 1989,which the then-chairman of the committee said was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi," who was never awarded the prize, either. Or perhaps the award can be bestowed on the Vatican as an organization, thereby honoring the previous three pontiffs, all of whom (including John Paul II) campaigned for the restoration of diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba and condemned the trade embargo, though not the tyrannical rule of the Castro dynasty.
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Was awarded to Obama for not being George Bush: This gave me a chuckle my friend, one badly needed. For indeed what has Obama done to merit such an award-nothing!
Everyone seems to comdemn the "murderous" trade embargo, while giving a pass to the castros, the majority of the world is guilty of this.
I heve always known it, I always say we are alone with our pain, no one understands our plight, our loss our mourning. The world needs to walk a mile in our shoes.
Thanks Manuel.
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