But apparently Barack Obama is – so the selection committee passed them over and gave the award to an accomplishment-free novice who gives nice speeches as long as the teleprompter is working.

Sima Samar, women's rights activist in Afghanistan: "With dogged persistence and at great personal risk, she kept her schools and clinics open in Afghanistan even during the most repressive days of the Taliban regime, whose laws prohibited the education of girls past the age of eight. When the Taliban fell, Samar returned to Kabul and accepted the post of Minister for Women's Affairs."

Ingrid Betancourt: French-Colombian ex-hostage held for six years.

"Dr. Denis Mukwege: Doctor, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. He has dedicated his life to helping Congolese women and girls who are victims of gang rape and brutal sexual violence."

Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition: "These organizations are recognized for their consistently serious efforts to clean up cluster bombs, also known as land mines. Innocent civilians are regularly killed worldwide because the unseen bombs explode when stepped upon."

"Hu Jia, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, who was sentenced last year to a three-and-a-half-year prison term for 'inciting subversion of state power.'"



"Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China's communist system. He now lives in the United States."

Seems appropriate that two of the individuals kicked to the curb are human rights activists in China – I guess the committee was just following Obama’s lead in appeasing the Red Chinese dictators by ignoring the gross violations of human rights in that communist dictatorship. And since Obama seems prepared to ignore the ugly human rights record of the Taliban, the selection committee decided to overlook those who have actually worked for human rights in Afghanistan.

All around, IÂ’d say this is a pretty sick situation. Obama gets the Nobel Peace Prize while these much more deserving nominees with remarkable records of accomplishment receive the Nobel Piss-Off Prize.

Posted by: Greg at 09:05 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 346 words, total size 3 kb.