The Nobel Peace Prize

The 'Independent' today reports that there is a possibility that the Chinese dissident, Hu Jia, will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and that this is something that Beijing is not at all happy about.1 Doing a little research into Hu Jia, I have discovered that what we have here is a very principled and brave individual who has fought for an improvement on the environmental front and has spoken out on AIDS related issues, Tibetan autonomy and free speech. It is, therefore, quite understandable that the Chinese government don't want him to get too much publicity. Nevertheless, Beijing trying to discredit him in the eyes of the of the world is, in fact, self-defeating and they might do better than try to tell the Nobel Prize Committee what it can do and cannot do, while realising that it is not by hosting the Olympics or sending a man into space that China will earn the world's respect but rather by not jailing dissidents and not sulking and threatening like a silly little child when those dissidents gain recognition abroad.
However, I do have a little bit of advice for the Chinese; should they want to discredit Hu Jia they might do well to point out some of the previous winners of the Peace Prize and for preventing the war in Iraq, the prize goes to Kofi Annan (2001), and for their efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East the Prize goes to Yassir Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin (1994) and these are some of the nicer people to have picked up the prize, a prize whose winners include; the Zionist, Elie Wiesel, the Clerical Fascist, Lech Walensa, the egocentric Mother Teresa and, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, what about this; Mohamad Anwar "all my opponents are in prison" Al Sadat and his "mate", Menachem "Irgun" Begin* and, ooops, I almost forgot Henry "responsible for a lot of nasty, nasty things" Kissinger and wouldn't it have been nice to have listened in on his advice to Sara Pallin?
Hu Jia is under house arrest but I am sure he can do some research on the past winners and my advice to him, would be to do just that. Having done his research, he might want to tell the Committee to give the prize to someone more "deserving". Oh, on that note, Bob "the one hit wonder" Geldorf and Vladimir "the hitman" Putin have also been nominated; Bob, for his song, "I don't like Mondays" and Vladimir for his silencing the opposition in Mother Russia and wiping out the resistance in Chechnya. The history of the Nobel Prize would seem to suggest that not a lot has been done to promote peace on the planet. Still, there is money in the peace business and I notice that Hu Jia has also been nominated for the Sakharov Prize, which is awarded by the European Union.2 Got to beat the Dalai Lama and Morgan Tsvangirai for that one though and it is only worth 50,000 euros, while the Nobel Peace Prize is worth 1.1 million euros. All right Hu, take the money and run!
1 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/beijing-issues-warning-over-peace-prize-choice-942826.html
2 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/23/europe/EU-EU-Human-Rights-Award.php
3 * the Jewish terrorist gang "Irgun" was headed by Menachem Begin. This group was responsible for the blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on July 2, 1946. 91 people were killed. The group was also responsible for the massacre Deir Yassin on April 10, 1948, when 260 Arabs, mostly women and children were massacred.
The picture shows Henry "responsible for a lot of nasty, nasty things" Kissinger meeting Mao and Zhou Enlai in 1971, a couple of years before he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize