Over the past decade or so....the value of the Noble Peace Prize has been to me.....somewhat of a question mark. Some winners....just didn't have the background for the award. Some awards were written in the mentality of a twelve-year-old kid. Some awards just didn't make much sense.
To be honest....I consider the award to be....bogus in nature. Maybe it's got some glimmer of intellectual weight.....a scholarly type prestigious moment.....saying that you evaluated two-hundred-odd characters, and could only arrive at this logical winner.
The crowd who make the decision?
The chairman? A man who has been a labor party member for his entire life....former prime minister of Norway, and a former minister of foreign affairs. Education? Economics....a master's degree. A real job in life? No.....he's been in politics or government his entire life.
The number two? A gal who has a degree in political science, and leans slightly to the right. A cabinet member for a few years, in the area of trade and commerce. Real work? None to speak of.
The number three? A gal who has been on the committee for two decades. She's worked for the government as the minister for environment, and minister for transport. For two decades, she's been a VP for a Norwegian cultural committee. A real job? None to speak of.
The number four? A gal who actually has run her own business. She's been on the committee for fourteen years and her chief occupation background? Linguistics.
The number five? A guy who has been the Bishop of Oslo for a number of years.
What you see from the five is none of them have ever lived in an oppressed land. You don't get the image of these folks traveling to any place for a vacation other than New York City, Paris, London, or Rome.
You don't get the impression that they do much other than read the newspapers, talk with other intellectuals, and attend operas on Friday night.
No, I'm not trying to bad-mouth these individuals....but generally, you have a crowd who don't really see the frustrations of ninety-nine percent of the world. These are people who rarely seen the pains and woes that people have to face in their daily lives. In the end, their estimation of the winner for the Noble Peace Prize.....is who wrote the best submission paperwork, and how often that person appears in the big five papers of the world (that only intellectuals read).
In the end.....a marginal process takes place, and the five meet....I assume in some quiet library, and have an all-out chat for several hours, and then come to some mutual agreement over the crowded field. They vote, and it's done.
Maybe it is like the Baseball Hall of Fame....where it's just luck and fate at work. Maybe it's like the TV management crowd who signal the end of some series, and the beginning of another. Maybe it just doesn't matter, and I shouldn't put much weight into this discussion. Maybe.
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