The world's friend?
A storm has developed around the political world on the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Hussein Obama. Is this award given only for achievement? Strange! The peace award has been given to so many distinguished personalities, but where is peace in the world? The world has increasingly been burdened with occupations, wars, oppression, subjugation, deception, deprivation, arms race, nuclear proliferation, foreign interference, unilateralism, torture cells, religious extremisms, all forms of terrorism including state terrorism etc. My sense is that this award is meant for those who have been making serious efforts towards ending at least some of these evils that have been responsible for the "non-peace" situation in the world.
Obama's "change we need" has brought unthinkable change in America. It changed the mindset of the Americans, who elected, for the first time, an African-American to the great office of the president of the United States.
The whole world was electrified, and rejoiced at his election to the White House. The world's perception about America changed overnight, and hence his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize about two weeks after his election. Even before election he said that Americans wanted a "president who does not alienate the world." He discarded unilateralism and went for engagement. He showed his firm commitment for dialogue to end wars and conflicts, and promised to restore America's prestige around the world.
On entering the Oval Office, the first thing that he did was to issue an executive order to close down Guatanamo Bay torture prison within one year. He appears to be firm in his determination to end the war in Iraq by mid 2011.
He avoided war with Iran, and is trying to engage Iran on the nuclear issue, but the issue is extremely sensitive.
He started his speech in Cairo with Assalam alaikum. This is now being followed by some of his generals too when they address Muslims in Afghanistan and elsewhere. I was myself pleasantly surprised when an immigration official said Assalam alaikum to me when he saw my name on the passport. This is because of the "change" brought in by President Obama. In Cairo he made clear to the Muslim his desire to have meaningful friendly relations, and said: "The US does not recognise the legitimacy of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories." This had never before been said so openly by any US president.
On the Palestinian issue, he seems to have made some accommodation later as he used the term "restraining" in place of "freezing" the settlement. Sticking to "freezing" would have led to the fall of the Netanyahu government, which would have further delayed the final negotiations.
At the end of the talk, Obama warned Netanyahu that "I am losing my patience." This should be enough for an Israeli premier. President Obama however, reiterated his commitment on "freezing settlement" in his recent UNGA speech. He has asked George Mitchell to continue his work on the peace talks.
Obama is the first president of the US to have chaired the UNSC meeting. His commitment to reducing his country's carbon emission is another milestone.
His determined efforts have made definitive progress in pulling his country and rest of the world out of recession. He made automobile bosses nearly walk to Washington from Michigan instead of using their own jets. He openly rebuked the corporate bosses for walking away with hefty bonuses, and used the word "shameful" for such acts.
Bush-Cheney's Afghan war is a very critical issue for him. Apparently under the advice of the old guard, he had to send some extra troops to Afghanistan. The fear of al Qaeda apparently induced him to do so. But he probably has yet not abandoned his original idea of starting dialogue with the moderate Taleban and bringing them into the government, hence the delay in his decision to send extra troops.
His commitment to reduce nuclear weapons was welcomed by everyone who wants a nuclear free world.
It's not only Libyan leader Gaddafi who said "Obama should remain president for ever." Even a fifth-grade American kid has the same sentiment. Nobel Committee obviously did not confer :life presidency" to Barack Obama; it only awarded, very rightly, the Nobel Peace Prize to him, which would hopefully oblige him to remain on his own stated path of engagement for achieving world peace.
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