Mereja Forum

[Revelations]

[Revelations]

[Deqi-Arawit]

Weizero Aslequ is mad because the King won a nobel prize.

Weizero Aslequ, resistance is futile Babe. Embrace the change

[Revelations]

[DefendTheTruth]

You know what? Social media is just a new version of what people used to call a coffee shop chatter. There is no clear differentiation of the source and target of the flowing information. Anybody can get up and claim something and the rest in the circle add to or refute what has been said, just like what used to be done in a coffee shop, in the case of social media it is being said on a plattform of global reach compared to a chatter confined to the premise of a room in the case of coffee shop chatter. In nature and effect both remain the same, so why should someone really need to pay that much attention to a simple chatter of individuals, specially when peole have got much more important tasks to do?

[Dawi]

You know what? Social media is just a new version of what people used to call a coffee shop chatter. There is no clear differentiation of the source and target of the flowing information. Anybody can get up and claim something and the rest in the circle add to or refute what has been said, just like what used to be done in a coffee shop, in the case of social media it is being said on a plattform of global reach compared to a chatter confined to the premise of a room in the case of coffee shop chatter. In nature and effect both remain the same, so why should someone really need to pay that much attention to a simple chatter of individuals, specially when peole have got much more important tasks to do?

Defend,

I on the other hand, can't wait to see the analysis of the why Rene says that the award is a mistake? He is one of the few outsiders that have an in depth understanding of our country. And a usual follow up on that by Prof. Mesay Kebede.

Having said that, I was bothered, still don't get it, why the US President Obama received an award? Abiy getting an award didn't bother me at all.

There are few reasons I would give Dr. Abiy the prize; what tops it for me is, his commitment for the purest DS, on Ethiopia reaching the goal of middle income by 2025 or few subsequent years after that without mentioning, the re-building and opening of the Palace (Unity Park) as a driver to accomplish that vision.

Off course, the award presenters mentioned Eritrean peace accord as a reason; that is fine and a good start. However, my hope on that is Isaias taking even a much needed bolder step, because he can; "con-federate" the two countries, snatching an "award", championing we the people next year after doing that!

Cheers!

[Zmeselo]

Giving the Nobel, in itself, is a huge pretension.

Who made these cave dwelling savages, the moral/ethical judges of what goes on in the world?

[Zreal]

[Zmeselo]

The Nobel Peace Prize: A prestigious award or a political tool?

The former secretary of the Nobel committee has written that he regrets giving President Obama the award in 2009.

By Lonnie Shekhtman, Staff

https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/am ... tical-tool

September 17, 2015


President Barack Obama looks at the Nobel Peace Prize medal at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway in December 2009. (Pete Souza/White House)

The Nobel Peace Prize, an award that was established in 1901 to recognize outstanding achievement on behalf of mankind, a century later seems to have morphed into Norway’s magic geopolitical wand, wielded to encourage political action, rather than reward accomplishment.

In a memoir released Thursday by Geir Lundestad, the former secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee – a five-person group that selects the annual winner through top-secret methods – he revealed regret http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articl ... red-effect over the decision to give President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

... the committee didn't achieve what it had hoped for,

he wrote, according to The Associated Press. Furthermore, Dr. Lundestad wrote in his memoir,

Even many of Obama's supporters believed that the prize was a mistake.

When the committee awarded the prestigious prize to the brand new American president, no one was more shocked than the man himself. After all, he hadn’t yet had time to earn it.

I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee,

the president said in the Rose Garden http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/10 ... g_nob.html on the morning of his win in October of that year.

Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.

Maybe the aspirations were too high. The Nobel Committee latched on to the global enthusiasm for Obama, banking on his ability to deliver a strengthened United Nations, stronger international diplomacy, and nuclear disarmament,

as Dr. Lundestad insinuated in a 2011 speech at the 16th Annual Nobel Peace Prize Festival at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, where he tried to explain the committee's decision two years prior.

But Obama's award is just one of many controversies surrounding the group. It has faced criticism over winners since the awards program was founded in 1901. The Nobel Peace Prize was developed at the bequest of the Swedish chemist, engineer, and the inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel, who left much of his fortune http://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/ for the establishment of the Nobel prizes.

Mr. Nobel ensured that the committee would be affected by politics when he stipulated in his will that the members of the Norwegian peace-prize-granting group be appointed by the country’s parliament.

Today, the committee mirrors the political makeup of Norway’s government, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2 ... -yes-video as The Christian Science Monitor has reported, with two people appointed by the Labor Party, two from the Conservative Party and one from the Progress Party. This has caused continuous debate about its independence.

The committee's prize decisions face constant scrutiny. In 2010, the prize was awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2 ... Liu-Xiaobo offending China which retaliated by freezing diplomatic relations http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2 ... -limelight and trade talks with Norway.

In a controversial move in 1994, it awarded the prize to Yasser Arafat, http://content.time.com/time/specials/p ... 80,00.html the decades-long leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Time magazine wrote,

one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,

about the award decision.

Mr. Arafat received the prize along with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, all honored for their work on the Oslo peace accords, the first peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian people.

[Zmeselo]

A profile of courage! The Nobel Peace Prize was once rejected, in 1973. Le Duc Tho became the first & only person ever to voluntarily refuse a Nobel Peace Prize. The prize had been awarded jointly to Tho, a North Vietnamese politician & diplomat, & US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

[DefendTheTruth]

You know what? Social media is just a new version of what people used to call a coffee shop chatter. There is no clear differentiation of the source and target of the flowing information. Anybody can get up and claim something and the rest in the circle add to or refute what has been said, just like what used to be done in a coffee shop, in the case of social media it is being said on a plattform of global reach compared to a chatter confined to the premise of a room in the case of coffee shop chatter. In nature and effect both remain the same, so why should someone really need to pay that much attention to a simple chatter of individuals, specially when peole have got much more important tasks to do?

Defend,

I on the other hand, can't wait to see the analysis of the why Rene says that the award is a mistake? He is one of the few outsiders that have an in depth understanding of our country. And a usual follow up on that by Prof. Mesay Kebede.

Having said that, I was bothered, still don't get it, why the US President Obama received an award? Abiy getting an award didn't bother me at all.

There are few reasons I would give Dr. Abiy the prize; what tops it for me is, his commitment for the purest DS, on Ethiopia reaching the goal of middle income by 2025 or few subsequent years after that without mentioning, the re-building and opening of the Palace (Unity Park) as a driver to accomplish that vision.

Off course, the award presenters mentioned Eritrean peace accord as a reason; that is fine and a good start. However, my hope on that is Isaias taking even a much needed bolder step, because he can; "con-federate" the two countries, snatching an "award", championing we the people next year after doing that!

Cheers!

Dawi,

corrections on what I highlighted above. The reason for awarding the Prize to PM Abey Ahmed is not only the peace accord he reached between the two sisterly countries of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The People of Negative Energy (PNE) didn't want to bother themselves to listen to the whole of the statement that the lady read out, while annoucing the selection of PM AA as the winner. The statement is longer and mentions many more points about why he was the winner, includes many more domestic policy steps the government of PM AA has taken to improve the livelyhood of the people of Ethiopia (the so called reform policies, internally). At least that is the conviction of the committe charged with selecting the awardee.

And one other important point must also be pointed out here: the award doesn't presume that the PM has already achieved the issues enumerated in the statement, but indicated that his initiatives are worth encouraging and approved his hietherto policy steps, so that he can be motivated and try to implement even more steps in the same direction in the future.

Without trying to demunish the contribution of President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea for the success of the peaceful resolution of the border issue, I think he has not deserved to win the nobel peace prize, in my view.

He is a rebel leader, which was founded to liberate the people of Eritrea from "Ethiopian colonization" and succeeded in realising the goal. Since then the people of Eritrea didn't even come any nearer to what a freedom is, they have no functioning constitution, they can't change their leader, they don't have an economic freedom to pursue their life-dreams in their own homeland. Instead they have to risk their own precious lives over open seas and other perlious journey in far away lands of the world. And I don't have a concise to approve this practice and support President Afwerki's qualification for a Nobel Peace Award.

The likes of Rene Lefort might have some other criteria in their respective minds on how and who should get the Nobel Peace Prize, and they are entitled to their opinion. But that (alone) doesn't make me question the integrity of the committee to select the awardee in their decision finding process. When it comes to the PNEs then it is a completely different thing, as we all see here on this forum too.