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Obama wins nobel prize

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by thomaswos, Oct 24, 2009.

  1. thomaswos
    Jungle Swarm

    thomaswos New Member

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    Obama wins nobel peace prize. Why?
    Hard to believe that a U.S. President can win a peace prize while engaged in two wars.
    Can some one please inform me as to why Obama has gotten a Nobel Peace Prize when he has yet to do what he has gotten the prize for?
     
  2. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    Hmmm I think I might move this to general discussion, its not exactly a LM fluff topic. :p


    I honestly cannot understand it either. Maybe there were no other candidates. But yeah, he hasn't even done anything yet except increase the troops presence in Afghanistan. He should have done the honourable thing and refused it.

    It just demonstrates to me [begin scientist's bias :p] that any of the nobel prizes besides physics, chemistry and medical science are a complete joke. Even if you invent something groundbreaking, you don't get considered for a prize until your invention has been around for years to 'prove its worth' to the world, by the time you get the prize you are too old to use the funding for more research or even dead. Yet this dude gets a peace prize before hes even done anything?

    Eh whatever, it happens.
     
  3. Dumbledore
    Ripperdactil

    Dumbledore New Member

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    Regarding Obama I am indifferent regarding the merits of giving him it. If you read the Nobel's public statement when the news came out you'd know that their reason for giving it to him is because of his ambitions regarding nuclear disarmament as well as climate change and the middle east situation (consider the giant move in American foreign policy between the last president and the current - we would all be in Iran by now, or at least gearing up dialogue for a war). I'm not saying it's right or wrong but their reason was to show support for his stated ambitions and put pressure on him to persue those goals, as well as give his ambitions credibility.

    Regarding science etc I do think that there is a little merit in waiting to see how things pan out before awarding the prize. Eg wireless internet may be great, but for all we know so far prolonged exposure (ie every minute of the day) harms us somehow, or up bees (I did a google search and my guessed example might be right! http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ratcliffe/?p=283 among other pages)
     
  4. Eternity_Warden
    Terradon

    Eternity_Warden New Member

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    Ah, there were many other candidates, but they chose to give it to obama because the nobel prizes are changing from legitimate commendations for people with accomplishments to publicity stunts. Does sweden get much focus in major international news at any time other than when they award the prizes? Nothing that I hear about here in the US. And no I'm not trying to offend swedes, (I have swedish ancestors) just point something out.

    Awarding the prize to obama warrants more focus on sweden from the eyes of the world than if they awarded it to someone who has actually worked to deserve it but is not well known.
     
  5. lupercal
    Kroxigor

    lupercal New Member

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    I think that using the peace prize to encourage a person with as much power as President Obama to strive towards the goals he set for himself and his country is a fairly reasonable thought. Using the peace prize to lead towards peace is kinda preemptive which makes sense in a way. Giving someone a prize for not starting a war instead of stopping one makes a certain ammount of sense, in a way. I still don't know if he was the right person to give it to though since many don't realize that was why he got it. Especially considering that I have met many people right here in America that don't even know that he got the prize. And I have met many more that simply know that he got it and have no idea why.
     
  6. Celticfire
    Chameleon Skink

    Celticfire New Member

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    He did nothing. the europeans gave it to him because now the US has a president that they like, that was the only reason.
     
  7. Revered_Guardian
    Troglodon

    Revered_Guardian New Member

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    WHY CANT CANADIANS EVER WIN ANYTHING!!

    I mean we are like goody two shoes. We have less crime rates then most...and WE NEVER TICK OFF ANYONE! (Theres a reason why we can survive next to the us....and maybe being an originally comonwealth contry of britain has something to do with it...)
     
  8. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely, I agree. My point is that if science prizes have to wait to see things pan out, then so should the others. At the moment, we basically have the equivelant of me saying 'I'm starting my PhD, I plan to cure cancer!' and them replying 'sweet, here is your Nobel prize in advance for what you say you are going to do even though you haven't done it yet!'

    Though now that I consider it and see the reasoning, there is some logic in using it to put pressure on him to follow through with promises. I still think it is a little bit too preemptive though.
     
  9. Dumbledore
    Ripperdactil

    Dumbledore New Member

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    Except Obama's decisions and rhetoric will with 100% certainty have great effect on the global situation on every important front from the middle east to climate change and has made steps to remove nukes and push treaties, move American diplomacy's mentality away from one of disdain etc, while a biochemist starting their PhD would be a lot less than 1% likely to come up with something world changing.
     
  10. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    Hmm actually I think most people would be surprised at the amount of drugs and techniques in research at the moment that either kill cancer cells specifically or illuminate them for easy removal... A lot of people think that we are nowhere near finding a cure and as soon as one is discovered it will be all over the news and cause instant fame for the inventor. The reality is that even though techniques/nano-composites have been theorised, synthesised and even shown to work in lab rats with no immediate side effects, there is a huge process (10+ years) to go through before a drug can hit the shelves. Even then it is sometimes impossible to predict long term effects. Sure you aren't going to have one researcher doing it, but the whole point of a research project is to make a significant contribution to the field.

    But I'm getting a bit off topic here. :)
     
  11. Dumbledore
    Ripperdactil

    Dumbledore New Member

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    No you misunderstand me. Anyone who completes a PhD of that kind will make a difference to science, but the chance of one particular PhD being the one that discovers something incredible that changes or creates whole new fields of research, such as the discovery of DNA etc is minuscule. On the other hand the chance of Obama making a significant and considerable change in the dynamic of global politics and peace etc is 100% certain
     
  12. The Lybithian
    Chameleon Skink

    The Lybithian New Member

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    Obama hasn't really done anything monumentus to earn to the NPP. I choked on my cereal when I saw it on the news in the morning. I mean please, give it to someone who deserves it, not someone who can publicly speak well and say what he's going to do. I mean, by all means, please, if Obama has done everything he said he would do, then when he's done that, give him the prize! But he's done absolutely nothing so far. So, its possibly the dumbest thing I've heard all year. The Scientists in Switzerland underground experimenting with the Large Hadron Collider deserve the prize when they discover what they're looking for. Maybe they even deverve it now for creating the Collider, possibly one of the most complicated built scientific built instrument today.
     
  13. Celticfire
    Chameleon Skink

    Celticfire New Member

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    False. the idea tyhat any politican can deliver 100% is a one hundred percent piece of..... (well i would rather not get booted off the site). if you like obama Dumbledore thats all right, but he has not put one peice of major legisture through the gov. right now hisuniversal health care bill is stalling in congress. in fact he has already P.O. some major middle east leaders. i wish him the best of luck am praying for him and am still unbelieveing that he will not do everything that he says.
     
  14. Dumbledore
    Ripperdactil

    Dumbledore New Member

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    Not false. It is 100% certain that he will have to make decisions that will effect global peace for better or for worse. That is what the president of the largest power on earth in a global age does. Nowhere in what I stated did I say that the change will 100% be for better or 100% be for worse. In the course of his presidency he will come across global peace effecting situations and will have to react. That is all I claimed, in contrast to the chance that a science PhD will be of major effect for its respective field of research.

    As a side note to other things you said he has already set himself up for nuclear disarmament, which was not even a political issue in the west (except in the west's view of N korea) which is promising for the direction of peace.

    Nowhere did I say that I thought he deserved the prize. All I did was disagree with statements suggesting that the Nobel prize had no reason to go to him. The committee very clearly stated their reasons, it's just that lots of people hear the interesting bit of him getting it but don't bother reading why they gave it. I bet that everyone who said that he didn't deserve it can't name a single other nominee without looking it up, which is funny if they think others deserved it more than him. I also bet that they didn't know that this isn't the first time a politician received it early in office, Aung San Suu Kyi got it too a year or two after the berlin wall (didn't look it up - actually knew that :) - edit: though I did have to look up how to spell her name!) and maybe some others.
     
  15. strewart
    OldBlood

    strewart Well-Known Member

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    By the very same logic, why didn't George Bush get one just after he was elected in? I mean, he was definitely going to make decisions that would effect global peace for better or worse. He might not be the best example since he didn't make peace promises, but I don't really know enough about previous US presidents to give a better example, my point is there.

    I guess we just need to wait a couple years then one side in the debate will be able to say 'I told you so!' :p I too support him and wish him the best, but I don't really think world peace is even possible, or peace in the middle east.
     
  16. Dumbledore
    Ripperdactil

    Dumbledore New Member

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    You answered your own question. Bush went in with aggressive rhetoric with disdain for the world stage (if you remember some of his campaign-trail talk - isolationist, though we couldn't have known he'd be such a war-monger). Opinion being neither here nor there to have a US president talk of nuclear disarmament is exceptional. It is the combination of the power to do things and the unusual apparent intent to do things that made him a candidate. Opinions aside again, the willingness for discourse here in the UK and elsewhere that I've followed in the news (middle east, india, europe) at the start of Obama's reign is considerably more than Bush's or even Clinton's (wasn't old enough to be aware then but have discussed extensively with parents and teachers as well as read a bit). Not to mention this one is talking climate from the get-go while the previous refused the kyoto treaty. And this one can string a sentence together.

    World peace as an absolute is not the point, simply more peace in the world is.
     
  17. dhuan gor
    Saurus

    dhuan gor New Member

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    I think Barack Obama is a (I will not write stuff like that on the internet).
    He goes to Denmark to make Chicargo become an OL city, he goes to sweden to get a stupid price wich does not mean a thing, I't like winning the Ole Henriksen macho man reward. BUT he REFUSES to go to the climat meating in Cph. Obama is full of ...
    Obama is water next to Henri Dunant.
     
  18. Celticfire
    Chameleon Skink

    Celticfire New Member

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    i read wrong.Yet i still do not believe that he should have received the award. it is true that he has come in with more prmises but yet has not done anything with them. he should not have recived the award because of his promise to do anything. He has no reason to get the award. if he achived the disarrament talks, if he achives peace in the middle east, then he diserves the award. not before then

    No i do not know who the other canidates were. i have never made a search for these things, i am simply stating that Obama was not the right choice.
     

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