I'm going to go ahead and go on the record right now. I want everyone to know that I absolutely and wholly intend on permanently ridding the world of poverty, genocide, war and any other possible negative affliction. The details are unimportant - just mark that this is my will and it shall be done.
The goal, of course, is to win a Nobel Peace Prize. With the recent announcement that President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons," it is only logical for me to jump-start my future career with a nice little resume boost that a Nobel Peace Prize would provide.
When it comes down to it, awarding President Obama the peace prize is at best preemptive but at worst dirty politics. I am certainly no conservative as both my writing and friends will reveal, but it is absurd to award what was once one of the world's foremost awards for intentions.
Sure, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed this summer to reduce nuclear weapons "someday" by 1,000 to 2,000 warheads. But this is not a concrete treaty with an actual time frame, and it would leave in place enough nuclear warheads to drop seven on each major city in the world. Sounds to me like there are still plenty of nukes to go around, and then some. And why not award the peace prize to Medvedev since he also worked to negotiate the treaty?
The answer lies within the makeup of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Contrary to what most people believe, the Nobel Peace Prize is not awarded by former winners, unbiased social activists or even the world. True, the nominations can come from any of the above groups of people, but the actual decision on who wins the award is made by the five-man Norwegian Nobel Committee. The committee is appointed by Stortinget, which is the Norwegian Parliament, and as such roughly shares its political composition. What this boils down to is that three of the votes on the committee are from current or former members of the Norwegian Labour Party and Socialist Left Party. The other two members hail from Norway's right-wing political parties.
What does this all mean?
It would seem that the Norwegian Nobel Committee was unable to mask its political motivations when awarding the peace prize this year. It isn't awarded in an unbiased, fair manner as several members of the Norwegian Labour Party (again the majority on the committee) has made public its infatuation with our president.
Maybe seven years from now, President Obama will have accomplished his platform points, including ridding the world of nuclear weapons. But until that day, President Obama should have done the wise and mature thing and declined the award. Not only does it dilute the weight of the Nobel Peace Prize, it weakens the legitimacy of his platform and intentions. If America and the world are already happy with Obama as is, then why try any harder? Then again, I really could use that resume booster.
Kyle Robisch is a political science and economics junior. His column appears on Fridays.
