A Risky Bet?

President Obama has the gift of making people feel that everything will be alright. However, I would never have thought that the Nobel Prize Committee would believe in it so whole heartedly.

I have to confess, my initial reaction to having heard that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize was one of disdain. Not particularly towards Obama but towards the decision of the Nobel committee.

Indeed, Obama seems to be a bright ray of hope in these dark times. But have they now started giving out prizes to anyone with some ideals and a shot of optimism? Ah well, I do wish him the very best. With this prize his cross became just a little bit heavier: he will, undoubtedly, be judged even more severely than he already is.

The media is rife with conjecture on why he won. Of the many reactions the most surprising was in the NYT - The New York Time’s Editorial reads that this prize is a thinly veiled condemnation of Mr Bush. I find it hard to believe that anyone would be awarded a prize for simply not being someone.

The responses from the committee to these assumptions have been unsatisfactory. One quote from the committee in The Guardian stated that President Obama has already made some outstanding contributions to international relations. It is true his speech on nuclear disarmament and his rhetoric on the subject really do inspire hope towards a nuclear weapon free world. But, at the risk of sounding clichéd – he has yet to walk the talk.

So, if the Nobel Prize Committee was thinking that this prize might be an incentive for the President to accomplish everything he claimed he would -then - I reckon, it is money well spent.

However, it is another big bet that has been made on a horse that hasn’t yet won a race. In Buddhist texts there is a teaching that says that a blue fly if attached to a thoroughbred can travel distances unimagined by the fly. It would seem that, like the rest of the world the Nobel Committee is just another fly that has attached itself to this untested steed.