Betancourt honors
President Bachelet said she was going to nominate Ingrid Betancourt for the Nobel Peace Prize. Now she is given France's Legion of Honor. I hate to sound petty, especially with regard to someone who spent years under captivity in horrific conditions. But I keep thinking about the fact that you're supposed to do something to win major prizes. The other liberated prisoners aren't being given prizes, at least not that I am aware of, yet they are equally deserving because they did equally as much as Betancourt to earn them.
13 comments:
A few years ago when someone nominated Betancourt for the Nobel before she was released, Colombian Vice President Santos, who also founded the anti-kidnapping NGO Pais Libre, suggested something similar. He said that instead of one captive, all of Colombia's kidnapping victims should be nominated as a group. It makes more sense and probably delivers a greater symbolic value for the issue.
I won't pursue my petty line too far, but even with that I could quibble: did they promote peace?
It's a fair question. I think Santos' point was that if the Nobel committee were to give the prize out to symbolically highlight the issue (which was the reason Betancourt was nominated), that it would be better to give it to all hostages.
I'm not sure the prize means what it's *supposed* to mean (after all, Hitler was at one point nominated). Instead, I think it's a prize for a person/group that can stand as a symbol for the Nobel committee's political preference de jour. Past winners include men like Kissinger and Arafat, but not men like Gandhi or Bishop Romero.
Also, Betancourt might be tough to beat. Evo Morales has been actively campaigning for the prize since 2006. After losing to Grameen Bank founder Muhammud Yunus in 2006 and Al Gore in 2007, this might just be his year.
But in this case, what is the political preference? Sticking to my original point, everyone you listed has done something. Perhaps we don't like what they did, but they did something.
Well, I more or less agree with Greg's point, but someone could always point out that, at the point of her kidnapping in Caguan, Betancourt was pursuing peace. I'm not sure we could really say she hasn't done anything (although my own view was that she was quite foolish to run the risks that she did).
There are some things to admire about Ingrid, but her tendency to fancy herself to be a national savior isn't one of them.
He said that instead of one captive, all of Colombia's kidnapping victims should be nominated as a group.
What Vice President Santos says is completely self-serving. The reason he doesn't want Betancourt to get too much political notoriety is that the Colombian political establishment is slightly afraid of her.
Let's not forget that Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize. That pretty much kills whatever credibility the award may have once had.
My apologies. I did not read the preceding comments carefully enough, and I see that Centellas already noted Arafat's prize. However, I will have to disagree on any criticism thrown in Kissinger's direction, as his award was of course well deserved for all of his efforts to establish peace in the Yom Kippur War, Vietnam, the opening of China, and so on.
However, I will have to disagree on any criticism thrown in Kissinger's direction, as his award was of course well deserved for all of his efforts to establish peace in the Yom Kippur War, Vietnam, the opening of China, and so on.
Uh, Kissinger just bombed the hell out of Hanoi to create more misery there, knowing full well that it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference at the negotiating table. Certainly not a man of peace.
However, I will have to disagree on any criticism thrown in Kissinger's direction, as his award was of course well deserved for all of his efforts to establish peace in the Yom Kippur War, Vietnam, the opening of China, and so on.
Could you paint any more falsely rosy picture? Talk to a Cambodian, East Timorese or anti-Pinochet Chilean.
I can't forget Tom Lehrer's comment: Satire died when Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize.
This lady gets all these accolades and attention and at the end of the day her legacy was to give bargaining power to a terrorist organization. She should go home in Paris and stay with her family, thank Uribe and dedicate the rest of her life to liberate other victims of terrorism.
You see, folks. The Uribistas are a bit scared of Betancourt.
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