Who are the Nobel committee members?

[rollingrock]

I was under the impression individuals were awarded the prize for doing highly notable, highly recognizable achievements toward the goal of world peace. What highly recognizable things has Obama done, so far, toward that end? I can't even think of anything off the top of my head.

The timing would seem rather strange. Just as the Obama administration is announing an escalation of US forces in Afghanistan, out of the blue he is awarded a Nobel Peace Prize? Is the prize somehow related to Iraq? Because we are nowhere near ending the war over there either. There are still >100,000 US troops and another 100,000 private security contractors (aka mercs), who are still getting blown to bits on a daily basis.

Who judges these things? Why are they all Norwegian? What makes these mysterious, obscure names so qualified to determine who receives the prestigious award? These are all very basic, legitimate questions that deserve answers.









------------------

By WSJ Staff

The choice of Barack Obama for the Nobel Peace Prize was a surprise pick from the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Here’s a list of panel members:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee 2009

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a committee of five, appointed by the Storting (the Norwegain parliament). According to the rules laid down by the Storting, election to the committee is for a six-year term, and members can be re-elected. The committee’s composition reflects the relative strengths of the political parties in the Storting. Although this is not a requirement, all committee members have been Norwegian nationals.

Thorbjørn Jagland (Chairman)
President of the Storting

Geir Lundestad (Secretary)
Professor, Director of the Nobel Institute

Kaci Kullmann Five (Deputy Chairman)
Adviser Public Affairs

Sissel Rønbeck (Member)
Deputy Director, Directorate for Cultural Heritage

Inger-Marie Ytterhorn (Member)
Senior political adviser to the Progress Party’s Parliamentary Group

Ågot Valle (Member)
Member of Parliament


http://blogs.wsj.com/dispatch/2009/10/09/who-chooses-the-norwegian-nobel-committee/

[lamp_shade]

1. Can't think of anything? Really? You really should climb back under your bridge.

[rollingrock]

2. No, I can't

Can you?

Apparently not.

[Hissyspit]

23. You could try reading what the committee said:

Your impression of what the Nobel is the beginning of your problem. Do some research. Jagland even addressed the issue of Afghanistan. Whether you agree or not, the committee explained what they were thinking, and the history of the prize is one of trying to influence efforts in process. Jagland even talked about that. Dr. Martin Luther King received his prize well before his most publically known activities.

Announcement

The Norwegian Nobel Committee

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

Oslo, October 9, 2009

[rollingrock]

42. Thank you for that

please see my reply to a similar post

(post 38)

www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6739466&mesg_id=6740375

[Rude Dog]

3. In other words, you just want to be another blind hater.

Unrec'd and ignored.

[rollingrock]

5. I'm just asking a simple question

that nobody seems to be able to answer.

Ghandi himself never got a Nobel Peace prize, so you have to question the legitimacy of the award itself.

[MineralMan]

8. See my response below.

The information is readily available on the web. Google Nobel Peace Prize and visit its official web site. Everything you asked is answered there. Why not educate yourself? It's so easy to do.

OTOH, if you wish to continue to not know the answers to your questions, you can rant on...it's really up to you, isn't it?

[timeforpeace]

36. It's a valid point as everyone is saying "the world has spoken" when it's just five Norwegians.

[MineralMan]

41. The Nobel Peace Prize is always given by five Norwegians.

It is always the same. For world opinion, see the news.

[MineralMan]

4. They are who they are because Alfred Nobel

wrote his will, dictating how the various Nobel Prizes would be given. All but the Peace Prize are awarded by Swedes. The Norwegians were specifically named by Nobel to give the Peace Prize.

You could Google Nobel Peace Prize and get all the information, if you wanted to, but I doubt you really care.

The Nobel Prizes are what they are. That you do not understand how they are awarded is simply a matter of ignorance on your part. You can correct that with a little research.

That you do not like Obama is clear. We get it.

That is all.

[AllentownJake]

6. Oh Fuck

You had to get all real world about it and explain what the Nobel Peace Prize and shit.

[MineralMan]

9. I guess I'm just tired today of the wilful ignorance...

when all the answers are readily available by searching Google. Heck, the info is even here in threads on DU. But, no...we have to see thread after thread full of ignorance. I have a nasty cold, or I'd go hunt this stuff up for the screeders, but I don't feel well, so I won't.

Let them look it up for themselves or continue in their ignorance.

[Posteritatis]

16. But if we don't look it up for them, then it doesn't exist! (nt)

[MineralMan]

18. No kidding...

I get paid to do that, and I don't see anyone offering to pay me. Let him remain ignorant of the information.

[rollingrock]

7. I like Obama just fine

it is the reason for this award I am asking about.

Obama himself said he doesn't deserve it.

[MineralMan]

11. Then go look it up for Jebus sake.

Don't display your ignorance of the facts and your unwillingness to rid yourself of it here, please.

[lamp_shade]

12. Here are a few of the reasons:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6736177

[rollingrock]

14. I don't see anything there

worthy of a Nobel peace prize.

neither does Obama himself, apparently.

[lamp_shade]

21. You have to click on the link first, then read all the stuff in the thread.

[MineralMan]

28. Awww...that's so much work....I don't wanna...

[rollingrock]

10. So what makes these obscure judges

qualified to judge who gets, and who doesn't get the award?

[MineralMan]

13. What? It is the Nobel Peace Prize. It is awarded by these

people. In Norway, they're not obscure. The USA is not the only place on the planet. This is an award made by a committee of Norwegians. That is how Alfred Nobel set it up when he left his fortune for the Nobel Prize.

It is what it is. Go read something....PLEASE!

[tyedyeto]

24. +1 for you but negative points to the OP

:yourock:


I started a reply that basically said what you'd him but you said it much more eloquently. Tip of the hat to you.

[MineralMan]

25. Thank you kindly.

[rollingrock]

31. If people have to go look it up

because no one can think of a reason off the top of their head, well, that is not a good sign.

that indicates Pres. Obama has done nothing very notable or even recognizable to the average person to have earned it.

[Posteritatis]

32. If "the average person" decided this Bush would have won several. (nt)

[rollingrock]

33. The average person did not vote for Bush

Bush was placed into office by the Supreme Court and Diebold voting machines, not the voters.

[MineralMan]

34. If everyone have to look it up?

If they does look it up they be learning something.

What it indicates is that people aren't paying attention, or they would know what President Obama has already done, and what he plans to do. This prize is often awarded to people for their potential.

Now, had you bothered to read some of the non-ranting threads here on DU, you'd already know that. But, you didn't. You didn't look anything up. The rest of us did. We found out about the Nobel Peace Prize, on places like Wikipedia and on the Nobel Prize official site.

We read some of the accounts of the award, and learned about it. Now we know. You don't want to know. That's your choice.

[rollingrock]

39. I'm not the greatest typist

in the world. sue me.

[Posteritatis]

15. "obscure judges?" At least read their descriptions before going on a ragewank. (nt)

[MineralMan]

17. It's no use. The OP is not going to go learn anything.

It's just another rant from someone with no information.

[Posteritatis]

27. Looks more like an active desire not to have information. (nt)

[MineralMan]

29. Yup. Wilful ignorance...the unforgivable sin in my world...

[lamp_shade]

37. Here's another one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6740208

[rollingrock]

35. Apparently not from you

you haven't listed one accomplishment deserving of this award.

[WI_DEM]

20. So if it was someone you agreed with would you be questioning the participants?

[Hissyspit]

30. That's a valid question. True of any committees and any awards. No surprise there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Nobel_Committee

[WI_DEM]

19. Here is there reason for giving the award to President Obama

and I think it's just fine if they unanimously agreed that he deserves it as most Americans would be:

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

Oslo, October 9, 2009


Just the fact that Obama has changed the tone of our countries foreign policy and how it treats the rest of the world is accomplishment enough.

[rollingrock]

38. Interesting

but I don't know Obama has changed the tone, in some ways yes, but in some important ways the tone remains the same especially in regard to US foreign policy in the ME.

Obama speaks of nuclear arms reduction, which is commendable, but there is no treaty as of yet to show for it. It is just words. If there is a treaty, then fine, give him the award but until then it would seem rather premature to do so.

Changing the tone? Does that include announcing a large scale escalation of forces in Afghanistan?
We still have all our forces in Iraq. If we ever do get out of Iraq, and Obama sees to it, then give him the award then, but to do so now seems premature and highly presumptuous of the panel members. Unless the Nobel committee members are a bunch of psychics and have the ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel of the ME quagmire, we can't predict the future of when it will end if it ever will.

[MichiganVote]

22. He beat McCain and kept Palin out of office- works for me.

[WI_DEM]

26. This explains who makes the awards:

The Nobel Prize Awarders
Who selects the Nobel Laureates? In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry, Karolinska Institute for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and a Committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was given the task to select the Economics Prize Laureates starting in 1969.

http://nobelprize.org/prize_awarders/

[rollingrock]

40. Thanks

but it isn't what I asked.