Nobel Surprise
[Obama] may have saved the world from a second Great Depression and all that, but the jobless rate keeps on climbing, the planet keeps on heating up, Guantánamo keeps on not getting closed, and roadside bombs keep on exploding. He’s had eight whole months, and he still hasn’t signed a comprehensive health-care bill. Given that his perceived political problem is exaggerated expectations, does he really need a Nobel Peace Prize before he has actually made any peace?
I think its a bit ironic that most Republicans are going on about Obama not being able to accomplish anything. What the hell do they think is preventing him?
This goes for the spineless Dems as well. They lose sight as soon as there seems to be any defeat. The right have tried to push things through and failed miserably (prayer time at school, intelligent design as science…) yet when they get knocked down they only come back hitting harder and stand by their man George Bush even when there are no damn weapons of mass destruction to be found.
Thats my rant.
That mean Nobel Peace Prize is just a piece of garbage. It’s just a joke to me!!
I like Tannie’s insight regarding how the conservatives always “stand by their man”, even when he lied his way to war and up to the moment he enjoyed his favorite snack called Erackie Shew (Iraqi Shoe).
To me the Nobel Prize was given to Obama for his ability to renew hope in a world where hope had almost died. He brought hope to people who felt they had been completely defeated by racism, to people who thought their would be no hope for peace, for people who thought their sexual orientation would never be acknowledged in a presidential accepting speech. Countries and people across Europe and the Middle East who had turned their backs to the US went into the street to celebrate like Obama was their own president. Obama, although has had limited success in his first 9 months in the White House (as Tannie pointed out, who were those who foamed at the mouths at the thought of providing health care to most Americans, the way things have been done for years in “socialist” France, Canada, Sweden, etc?), indeed deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for having renewed hope in the hearts of millions and taken the shame that had been injected into the word “anti-war” and shoved it down the throat of those who created it: the selfish and greedy war mongers.
Obama might and might not succeed in carrying out this agenda, but I salute what he stands for, the way I have admired Martin Luther King and Thich Nhat Hanh. So, sue me :P
I dont know if Obama actually deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, but if comparing to past winners…hes not up to par. You cannot win something when you did not shed any results. Unless the other candidates are worse off.
And to Suavemente, Thich Nhat Hanh is admireable, but then you got to admire those VN commish more since even TNH got tricked by them in the Lang Mai situation.
War is never a good thing, but if it comes to inevitable, then you got to man up to it. Look at what VietNam is doing with China…we are letting take over everything: Pride, integrity, our land, and our sea.
Who need real result when we got hope? :))))
The Nobel Peace Prize, among many other things, have become a modern sensation. Therefore it no longer has any meaning. langtula is correct, comparing to past winner he is definitely not up to par, at least not yet…. However the world is in a state of despair that people just flock to the slightest sight of hope.
Langtu,
I personally, as a non-practicing Buddhist, agree with you that the Vietnamese government should get an award for their deception, not because they are communist which they are not, but because they are devious. However, I don’t think Thich Nhat Hanh and the VN government function with the same mindframe or are racing toward the same goal. As a practicing Zen master, he is not competing with anyone to see who is outwitting whom. TNH was right when he led by example: he did what he thought was right, fully aware of the evil around him. I believe that to a man like TNH, that situation with the Bat Nha Monastery didn’t mean he was tricked, but rather mistreatred and misunderstood. To my limited knowledge in Buddhism, everything in life is impermanent: someone who is honest or friendly today would turn against you in a second; for that reason we have to try our best to lead by example (giving others the benefit of doubts) instead of living in fear and hatred. As he said in a letter to his monks and nuns, he was proud that they (the monks and nuns) remained hatred-free throughout the ordeal and that this situation helped shed light on the many aspects of Vietnamese society. I don’t know how closely you have monitored the situation, but many Communist members have come out against their party, many quiet artists and scholars have spoken up against the government for the first time as a result of the violence in Bat Nha. To me, the climax happened when the Vietnamese spokeswoman for the Foreigh Ministry told the whole world that nothing happened in Bat Nha and that the police went out of their way to protect the Buddhist monks and nuns. I don’t think they realized the whole world is disgusted by this outright lie and in the long run, they will have problem gaining trust from other governments.
But again, I am with you, langtu. As an ordinary person, had I been there in Lam Dong, I would have got into a fist fight with those hooligans, regardless of the consequences.
Hoang,
Here is brief exchange of ideas you might find interesting:
http://meta-vie.blogspot.com/2009/10/thich-nhat-hanh-dharma-talk.html
After all, TNH as simply practicing the Buddhist non-dualistic philosophy by not seeing anything as either good or evil.