A big thank for the Nobel Committee – they have just made our day today. Perhaps most of the people here are not sure why US President Barack Obama was honored, and they are pretty sure that he doesn't deserve it. But they were all happy, because it gave them hope that everyone and anyone can win the prize. It wasn't only the people here who were shocked that he won, but even the Associate Press has the same point of view:
For one of America's youngest presidents, in office less than nine months — and only for 12 days before the Nobel nomination deadline last February — it was an enormous honor.
The prize seems to be more for Obama's promise than for his performance.
The Egyptians reactions started with announcements on Twitter
@fustat: President Obama awarded the Nobel peace prize 2009
Then some others were really astonished.
Ghafari: نعم! اوباما فاز بنوبل للسلام؟ سلام ايه؟ وفين وامته؟.
@Ghafari: Yes! Obama was given the Nobel Prize for Peace? What peace? When and how?
@alaa: Oh f**k me. The president of a country waging two preemptive wars in two countries (I'll ignore Pakistan) wins the Nobel Peace Prize?
@waelabbas: Obama wins Nobel prize for aiding Dictators
@Ssirgany: Nobel Prize nomination deadline was Feb 1, just 10 days after Obama took office. What did he do in those 10 days?
While the majority started making fun of it
@nightS: Obama and Nobel Peace Prize?!?!?! I guess it's good news..I mean I can win it in 2010 if they really saw he deserves it!!
@Sarahcarr: The Nobel award ceremony should be held in Afghanistan and attended by relatives of civilians Obama's troops have butchered.
@minazekri: Noblepeaceprize winner Mr. Obama to study a request to increase his troops in his war in Afghanistan.
@minazekri: Afghanistan, Iraq and now Obama is about to PUNISH Iran, surely he is the best choice for Nobel Peace Prize
@moftasa: Funny how politicians can get the Nobel prize before they do anything, while scientists get it sometimes decades after their discoveries.
@moftasa: Barbara McClintock won her Nobel prize in Medicine in 1983 for her discovery of gene transposition in the 40s and 50s.
@alaa: @moftasa funnier how mandela had to wait until his victory and had to split it with a racist murderer or how ghandi failed to get it 4 times
@WilYaWil: Obama may deserve a Nobel prize for speech, but not peace!
@BooDy: قلت لابوي و انا صغير يابا انا عاوز آخد جايزة نوبل ضحك علي الندل و قالي ذاكر و ابقى عالم و انت تاخدها أتاريني الأسهل اني ابقى سفاح
@BooDy: I once told my father, wen I was young, I want to win the Nobel Prize. He laughed and told me I have to study to be a scientist in order to get it, however it seems that it's easier to be a murderer to get it.
@WilYaWil: Kanye West interrupts Obama Nobel speech “I'll let you finish, but this is the worst Nobel for peace decision of all-time”
@Amiralx: And I should win a Grammy for singing in the shower!
Arabawy also wrote a special post about it in his blog.
The butcher of Iraq and Afghanistan (and Pakistan) has won the Nobel Peace prize. Congratulations! [Mabrouk!] It’s a great day for world freedom. Obama, Manachem Begin, Henri Kissinger–all men who made this planet a great place to live in. Why can’t Mubarak and Habib el-Adly get it too? The message those a**holes in Norway are sending: Murder and butcher your way to Nobel.
And finally, some others had a different point of view:
@majdtweets: On the bright side: Now that Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize, he might actually want/have to stand up to the title & make peace!
@sarsour: I like Obama – he seems like a cool guy. He does however seem to get a lot of credit for things BEFORE having actually done them.
13 comments
Sir:
If you will kindly re-read my comments you will note that there are two strongly implied criticisms of the U.S. administration that preceded that of Mr. Obama.
I do not hold American citizenship but if I did I would not have been in agreement with the ideology of the Bush/Cheney administration in any case, and in fact, I wrote a research paper on what I viewed as “Ominous Power: An Imperial Presidency” as pertained to the Bush administration. I remain convinced, however, that while Mr. Obama is indeed an advocate for peace and solidarity, hence, an idealist, he was not as yet prepared to have received the Nobel Peace Prize and that to have been given it at such an early point in his administration, where few inroads were made to resolve the problems left over by the last administration, the N/P/P was based on Mr. Obama’s wonderful rhetoric (in particular re: the Middle East) and future policy.
Barbara J. Sowak
Dept. of Political Science
University of Alberta, Canada
Sir:
If you will kindly re-read my opinion you will duly note there are two very strongly implied criticisms of the Bush-Cheney administration. I have never advocated their ideology, and in fact, I wrote a research paper entitled “Such Ominous Power: An Imperial Presidency” a few years ago, which pertained to that administration. I am not an American citizen but I spend a good deal of time in the U.S.A. and I posses the greatest respect for Mr. Obama and I particularly adore his wife who is a fabulous role model for the contemporary, educated woman, no matter what her ethnicity. However, I maintain that Mr. Obama was not as yet prepared to receive the N.P.P. and that it was, at the point of time it was given, based upon beautiful rhetoric, in particular concerning the Middle East, and on great expectations regarding policy and plans to-be. In the meanwhile, Mr. Obama has been viewed as a disappointment by most Americans, and his approval rating has sunk quite low. Clearly, there were sky-high expectations placed upon him to completely re-dress the Bush mess, and the Nobel Peace Prize was given rhetorically as a kind of assurance of this, far before the mess was cleaned up, rhetorically.
Barbara J. Sowak
Dept. of Political Science
University of Alberta
Canada