I like Barack Obama. Obviously I’m unlikely to agree with everything he says (so don’t bother with any ‘waddabout his policy on x or his statement on y” stuff). But on the whole his speeches are inspiring and he comes across as a thoughtful and articulate person. Since he won the election, there is little to dispute there, I hope.
It is also obvious that there has been an increase in goodwill towards America since we saw the back of George Bush II. This is important to me because I have a lot of American friends, friends who have made America their home, and – frankly – I really like America and Americans.
So it grieves me to think that President Obama is the victim of such obvious (if not entirely overt) racism. It is sad, but it seems not even the president of America is immune from patronising racist white affirmative action-driven low-expectations:
Yes, he has won the Nobel Peace Prize!
Even as a fan of the man, about all I can muster is WTF!!!???
He hasn’t even fucking done anything yet! He’s only been in office for 6 months and its not like he had a long and distinguished political career – much less an international profile – before he took office. He has not paid his dues.
Is the Nobel Committee insane?
Okay, sarcasm off. Let’s get serious.
Morgan Tsvangirai– who didn’t have the benefit of an expensive Harvard education, millionaire backers, and a holiday sanctuary in Hawaii, was overlooked. For a decade Tsvangirai stared down a military-backed tyrant who banned newspapers, murdered opponents, used famine as a political weapon and brought the country – a rapidly failing state – to the eve of civil war. And yet, through skillful statesmanship he managed to hold it together, avert a bloody war and bring the country slowly back from the brink.
But then, he didn’t have the difficult task of fighting an uphill battle against nasty Fox News pundits and vindictive Madison Avenue opinion-shapers to get to where he was.
Sorry, there’s the sarcasm again. It’s hard to avoid.
Gene adds: I think Obama’s statement on the award was graceful enough.
He took the opportunity to mention that the award must be shared with, among others, “the young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be heard even in the face of beatings and bullets; for the leader imprisoned in her own home because she refuses to abandon her commitment to democracy; for the soldier who sacrificed through tour after tour of duty on behalf of someone half a world away; and for all those men and women across the world who sacrifice their safety and their freedom and sometimes their lives for the cause of peace.”
