The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 was awarded to Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, an innovative lending institution he founded in 1983 that offers loans to poor villagers, especially women, who are not covered by the traditional banking system. When announcing the prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was given for their efforts "to create economic and social development from the bottom up." via Flickr's Scottlondon.comIn complete and total fairness to President Obama, he did not ask to win the Nobel Peace Prize. While the pundits debate whether the prize is a curse or a blessing, most commentators on Friday evening public TV agreed that he frankly didn't need the prize on his plate right now.
The Daily Beast gives us seven white men of various political persuasions, plus The Daily Beast aggregator voice, analyzing the win. Presumably they will cover most aspects of the honor, from an American point of view.
Even I see the award as pressure on POTUS from the Nobel Committee, not only about American military might around the world but also about environmental action in Copenhagen. You know -- Copenhagen in December 2009?
Environmental action means a lot to Europeans and our friends in Sydney and New Zealand, too. Actually, China's on board, with comparatively strong initiatives.
Of all people -- the American big-business community agrees that soon it's "do or die" on the environment. They insist on factoring the risk of inaction into stock prices going forward, if new rules somehow bind them to a longer-term view of business success, rather than a short-term payout.
So the Repubs will focus on Oslo 'neutering' POTUS from using our big guns around the world, but the Norwegians are also very committed to environmental action.
Whoever twittered that announcing President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award five minutes before NASA bombed the moon yesterday morning, had a great sense of irony in his reasons for not supporting the award.
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