the Dali Llama
Playmobil figure pliz!
Julian Assange could find just himself in the company of Barack Obama, the Dali Llama and Aung San Suu Kyi, after a Norwegian politician nominated Wikileaks for the Nobel Peace Prize. However, the hacker turned world's favourite leaker-in-chief will no doubt be rather conscious of what happened to the likes of Martin Luther …
Given that Yassar Arafat, leader of the PLO (terrorist organisation) was a winner of this prize, as was the IPCC with Al Gore, whose predictions of doom and desolation are looking questionable and the unlucky Barack Obama barely a mointh in to his first term as president. If Assange gets this award it will demonstrate the growing irrelevance of these awards. I think the people of Southern Sudan should get the award having conducted a seperatist referendum in a seemingly bloodless manner. Assange is just and egotistical grand stander who cannot take his own medicine, not a crusader of truth or peace.
but given that Den Norske Nobelkomite is safely in the hands of people like Thorbjørn Jagland, whose primary concern is Norway's relation to the USA, the chances that WikiLeaks or Bradley Manning will be awarded the prize are minimal. And given that people like Heinz Alfred Kissinger, Barack Hussein Obama, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Joseph Austen Chamberlain, Theodore Roosevelt, who have not always been known for their contributions to peace (unless, of course, the definition placed in the mouth of Calgacus by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus - «ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant» - is generally accepted) have been awarded the prize, perhaps WikiLeaks and Manning would prefer other company. Still, there have been worthy laureates, like Linus Carl Pauling, Martin Luther King Jr, Willy Brandt, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Kim Dae Jung, et al, so our prospective laureates could stand on that side of the room (to the degree that they haven't been placed in solitary confinement). But as I said, with Thorbjørn running the show, it will never happen....
Hope I'm proved wrong !...
Henri