Müller / Obama

nobel prize week. coming with surprises this year.

yesterday, the prize for literature: Herta Müller.
who? - i first thought. and then did a google search. the first thing that came up was the quote of the committee, with he answer to my question:
"who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."
the second clue that came up is that Herta Müller is shortlisted for the german bookprize. that's why she was interviewed on tuesday, in a rather casual way - not knowing yet what was to come, in an interview titled: "Ich habe noch nie auf einen Preis gewartet" ("I have never waited for a prize)".

and today, the prize for peace: Barack Obama.
"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"
and an additional explanation, here, in the BBC article: "Asked why the prize had been awarded to Mr Obama less than a year after he took office, Nobel Committee head Thorbjoern Jagland said: "It was because we would like to support what he is trying to achieve."

not sure about the theory that the Committee awarded the prize to morally shift US politics towards peace in this conflicting times. but what do i know. and what a subversive idea - that the way to peace, after all, rather might be peace prizes than guns ;).

~

update, 10.10.
seems this prize stirs up quite a bit of emotions and reflections, on politics, peace, and the world in general. "which is a fitting thing," a german newspaper commented, "especially as the prize is funded by dynamite."
here an interesting blog link: "An Open Letter to Americans Who Are Annoyed at Obama's Nobel Prize." (check out comments, too).
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