nobel prize - who gets it and why
kailash satyarthi and malala have got the nobel prize.
congratulations to them.
but will somebody explain to me how come i , in common with many indians, was totally unaware of what satyarthi was doing. and certainly the government of india. otherwise at least a padma shri could have been awarded. but suddenly he gets the nobel prize and, i am sure, he will get at least the bharat vibhushan next year (we are ashamed that others know his worth (sic) and we do not so we hurry up to make amends) (padma ratna may be a little difficult. he does not qualify for it as mother teresa did,( not having white skin). the question still remains who informed the nobel awarding committee about kailash satyarthi. i believe that this info about him was because of the RugMark, an international scheme that tags all carpets made in factories certified as child labour-free in which he played a leading role.
and what about malala. she is the face of resistance to taliban. but does being a face deserves a nobel prize. she is not part of any movement, neither leader, nor led. her greatest and probably the only achievement is that she survived the attack. had she died, she would be part of statistics as many others are. there are many others who are selected because she/ he are opposed to a regime to which the western world is against. be it a chinese (liu xiaobo) or an iranian (shirin ebadi).
in fact the award of nobel peace prize for peace is always bewildering. the list includes kissinger (for having agreed to cease fire in vietnam), rabin and peres (for accord with yasser arafat), al gore (for climate change activism), tawakkol karman (face of arab spring uprising in yemen). no wonder even the israeli army has been recommended (by the israel's ambassodor to united states) for its wonderful action in gaza.