Nobel Peace Prize for 2011.
October 7, 2011 6:57 AM Subscribe
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen share the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work".
This disappoints me only because I was really hoping Julian Assange would win the prize.
posted by LSK at 7:29 AM on October 7, 2011
posted by LSK at 7:29 AM on October 7, 2011
As much as I would love the sputtering and sturm und drang that would follow Assange (or, even better, Bradley Manning) winning the prize, these women deserve it more.
(I must not use international prizes as an excuse for lulz, I must not...etc.)
posted by kalimac at 7:43 AM on October 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
(I must not use international prizes as an excuse for lulz, I must not...etc.)
posted by kalimac at 7:43 AM on October 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
Each individual would be a worthy choice by the Committee, but it is strange to award a joint honor to three women who appear to be working independently of each other. I mean Barack Obama got the award all by his African-American self and he didn't even do anything. Here you have three accomplished African women and they are forced to share the award?
posted by three blind mice at 7:51 AM on October 7, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by three blind mice at 7:51 AM on October 7, 2011 [3 favorites]
These are excellent choices. I already knew about Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - who is the most sensible politician I have ever heard speak from anywhere in the world - but in someways I am even more impressed by Leymah Gbowee. Just reading the simple summary of what her organisation did is inspiring.
That said, I think I would have divided up the prize a bit - make this year Liberia's year, and have the Yemeni candidate for next year. Even here in my comment, her achievements are being over-shadowed by the two others, because they and Liberia are more familiar to me. I don't see the need to group so many people together, when they aren't being awarded for action together. There is a prize every year, and they need a good candidate like Tawakel Karman to avoid another silly thing like giving it to Obama.
posted by jb at 7:53 AM on October 7, 2011
That said, I think I would have divided up the prize a bit - make this year Liberia's year, and have the Yemeni candidate for next year. Even here in my comment, her achievements are being over-shadowed by the two others, because they and Liberia are more familiar to me. I don't see the need to group so many people together, when they aren't being awarded for action together. There is a prize every year, and they need a good candidate like Tawakel Karman to avoid another silly thing like giving it to Obama.
posted by jb at 7:53 AM on October 7, 2011
(also - Leymah Gbowee is about my age - that's probably why I'm do very impressed. She's only 39 - and already has done so much to better the world.)
posted by jb at 7:55 AM on October 7, 2011
posted by jb at 7:55 AM on October 7, 2011
How on earth did people honestly believe that Mark Zuckerberg was in the running?
posted by Paid In Full at 8:13 AM on October 7, 2011
posted by Paid In Full at 8:13 AM on October 7, 2011
These people have done so much more to deserve recognition than Assange (at least at this point). While I think most of the support for Assange is generated by the appeal of poking world leaders with a stick, these people have actually made tangible improvements in people's lives.
A+
posted by dry white toast at 8:41 AM on October 7, 2011
A+
posted by dry white toast at 8:41 AM on October 7, 2011
"These people have done so much more to deserve recognition than Assange (at least at this point)."
This is a very common misconception about the Nobel Peace Prize, it is not intended to reward previous work, but instead to encourage and aid future work. Wikileaks is, if nothing else, imploding; not awarding it to him makes total sense while awarding it to these awesome women is also perfectly straitforward.
posted by Blasdelb at 8:55 AM on October 7, 2011
This is a very common misconception about the Nobel Peace Prize, it is not intended to reward previous work, but instead to encourage and aid future work. Wikileaks is, if nothing else, imploding; not awarding it to him makes total sense while awarding it to these awesome women is also perfectly straitforward.
posted by Blasdelb at 8:55 AM on October 7, 2011
I think awarding it to three women at once is a positive in terms of recognition. Apparent there are so many awesome women there is no way to choose just one. As a woman I find that very encouraging and hope it inspires younger women and girls to leadership roles.
posted by fshgrl at 12:58 PM on October 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by fshgrl at 12:58 PM on October 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
I heard Karman interviewed on NPR a few months ago. She's great! I'm so glad she was recognized like this.
posted by thirteenkiller at 8:41 PM on October 7, 2011
posted by thirteenkiller at 8:41 PM on October 7, 2011
Each individual would be a worthy choice by the Committee, but it is strange to award a joint honor to three women who appear to be working independently of each other. I mean Barack Obama got the award all by his African-American self and he didn't even do anything. Here you have three accomplished [African] (yemen not being in Africa) women and they are forced to share the award?
This was my thought exactly. But I rather liked Desmond Tutu's comment in the Beeb:
with Mr Tutu telling AFP: "Woo hoo. She deserves it many times over. She's brought stability to a place that was going to hell."
posted by infini at 3:11 AM on October 8, 2011
This was my thought exactly. But I rather liked Desmond Tutu's comment in the Beeb:
with Mr Tutu telling AFP: "Woo hoo. She deserves it many times over. She's brought stability to a place that was going to hell."
posted by infini at 3:11 AM on October 8, 2011
I thought this was a sort of odd and unsettling choice, although I was happy to see them win.
I looked at a list of previous winners, and it looks like up until the 40s they would occasionally give it to 2-3 people working on completely different things. More recently, if it's 2-3 people, it's because they were all working on the same project or issue (e.g. Arafat/Rabin). There has never before been an example where it was multiple people working on completely different things but awarded as if working on a single issue.
Even if they were all specifically working on "women's rights," it would sort of irritating to see women treated as a niche issue, when we're, you know, half the world's population. But I would argue that their work seems to be broader than the women's participation angle that they're being awarded for. So, what does this award come down to? It kind of feels like they're just doing it because they hadn't given it to many women (5 in the last 20 years) - but wouldn't want to spread the women out over a few years or anything.
Meanwhile, though, the more interesting controversy is whether it's appropriate to give the Nobel Peace Prize to someone four days before a national election in which she is the incumbent president.
posted by naoko at 11:13 AM on October 8, 2011
I looked at a list of previous winners, and it looks like up until the 40s they would occasionally give it to 2-3 people working on completely different things. More recently, if it's 2-3 people, it's because they were all working on the same project or issue (e.g. Arafat/Rabin). There has never before been an example where it was multiple people working on completely different things but awarded as if working on a single issue.
Even if they were all specifically working on "women's rights," it would sort of irritating to see women treated as a niche issue, when we're, you know, half the world's population. But I would argue that their work seems to be broader than the women's participation angle that they're being awarded for. So, what does this award come down to? It kind of feels like they're just doing it because they hadn't given it to many women (5 in the last 20 years) - but wouldn't want to spread the women out over a few years or anything.
Meanwhile, though, the more interesting controversy is whether it's appropriate to give the Nobel Peace Prize to someone four days before a national election in which she is the incumbent president.
posted by naoko at 11:13 AM on October 8, 2011
Yemen's Woman-Hero Revolutionary: From the moment Tawakul Karmen took off her veil in front of television cameras five years ago, she has been a force of change in Yemen. And now she has been recognized around the world with a Nobel Peace Prize. Meet the woman who started the entire peaceful protest movement in the Arab world.
posted by homunculus at 2:10 PM on October 8, 2011
posted by homunculus at 2:10 PM on October 8, 2011
Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkul Karman on Human Rights Abuses Enabled by 'War on Terror'
posted by homunculus at 10:05 AM on October 10, 2011
posted by homunculus at 10:05 AM on October 10, 2011
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posted by AwkwardPause at 7:23 AM on October 7, 2011