Nobel Prize 2009: from Oslo, with prejudice

I almost didn't want to mention the president's receiving of the Nobel Peace Prize. I wasn't sure I had anything to add to the embarrassingly universal understanding that the award manifested as a bald political statement this year.

But Maggie's Farm pointed me to a collection of other 2009 nominees, and I hope that maybe I can do just a smidge to help bring attention to people who might have been more deserving by spreading that information.

The partial list is at the Weekly Standard blog. This is only a partial list because the Nobel Foundation does not reveal the nominee list for 50 years. They have revealed that they received 205 nominees, 33 of which were organizations. Some nominees were made public in other ways, however.

Some of the nominations appear to be merely symbolic. (They're all symbols, it's just that some are only symbols.) A couple, notably Dr. Denis Mukwege, are doing good, hard work in the world, and could probably get a lot done with a cool $1.4MM.

However, even the revealed nominees deserving of honor do not seem to meet the criteria set forth in Alfred Nobel’s will, that the prize be be given, “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Despite the roused rabble, President Obama seems to have made strides in that direction. His administration has made unambiguous noises toward nuclear disarmament, Middle East peace, and diplomacy with pugnacious nations. But those strides are not fraternity or abolition. They are just overtures. Nobel's original goals appear lost and irrelevant to the considerations of the recent Prize Committee.

Despite his original misgivings, maybe this year we can all agree to remember that Mr. Nobel invented dynamite instead. At least its constructive potential is clearer than what the Prize has become.