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Norwegians Incensed Over Barack Obama's Snubs
Barack Obama's trip to Oslo to pick up his Nobel peace award is in danger of being overshadowed by a row over the cancellation of a series of events normally attended by the prizewinner.
President Barack Obama in the Main Hall of Oslo City Hall in Oslo, Norway, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009. The White House has cancelled many of the events peace prize laureates traditionally submit to, including a dinner with the Norwegian Nobel committee, a press conference, a television interview, appearances at a children's event promoting peace and a music concert, as well as a visit to an exhibition in his honour at the Nobel peace centre. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Norwegians are incensed over what they view as his shabby response to the prize by cutting short his visit.
The White House has cancelled many of the events peace prize laureates traditionally submit to, including a dinner with the Norwegian Nobel committee, a press conference, a television interview, appearances at a children's event promoting peace and a music concert, as well as a visit to an exhibition in his honour at the Nobel peace centre.
He has also turned down a lunch invitation from the King of Norway.
According to a poll published by the daily tabloid VG, 44% of Norwegians believe it was rude of Obama to cancel his scheduled lunch with King Harald, with only 34% saying they believe it was acceptable.
"Of all the things he is cancelling, I think the worst is cancelling the lunch with the king," said Siv Jensen, the leader of the largest party in opposition, the populist Progress party. "This is a central part of our government system. He should respect the monarchy," she told VG.
The Norwegian Nobel committee, which awards the peace prize, dismissed the criticism. "We always knew that there were too many events in the programme. Obama has to govern the US and we were told early on that he could not commit to all of them," said Geir Lundestad, secretary of the committee.
Although Obama will not lunch with King Harald, he will see him on a visit to the royal palace.
Peace activists opposed to the Afghanistan war are planning a 5,000-strong protest in Oslo.
The visit will test Obama's rhetorical skills as he seeks to reconcile acceptance of the Nobel peace prize with sending an extra 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan.
White House officials said that Obama, who was planning to work on the final draft of his speech on his flight from Washington to Oslo, would directly address the issue of the irony of being awarded the peace prize while escalating the war.
The Nobel peace committee has been criticised for awarding Obama the prize before he has any major accomplishments in international relations.
A White House official said that it was not necessarily an award that Obama would have given himself.
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44 Comments so far
Show AllThe president's most significant act of snubbing was of peace itself. His being awarded this symbol makes a mockery of prizes in general.
They tell the world that if you're well connected, you can get any award you want even if you've done nothing to deserve it.
Perhaps this is an important revelation for a society that is built on nepotism and social reproduction.
"A White House official said that it was not necessarily an award that Obama would have given himself."
Ever heard of refusing the Noble Prize, then?
As for the Norwegians' being incensed and whatnot, they shouldn't be surprised, for they gave the "necessary war" president the prize, didn't they?
>>>Abendland wrote: Ever heard of refusing the Noble Prize, then?
No, I think he should have refused his nomination in February in the first place - assuming he knew his name was put forward by others. Too many people screwed this one up - starting with the one who got the bright idea of nominating Obama, Obama himself for not stopping the nomination, and most of all, the Nobel committee - for selecting Obama. Refusing the prize would have been an honorable thing to do - even despite the controversy it would have generated and the insult the committee would have felt. Others have done it - when awarded knighthoods from Britain. So the Brits are extra careful these days - so that no such embarrassment happens at a later stage.
Le Duc Tho refused his Nobel Peace Prize after it was announced in 1973. He said it was inappropriate becasue his country was not yet at peace.
Co-recipient and mass murderer Henry Kissinger accepted his.
Wow...it's people like Lê Ðức Thọ that are my heroes. I wish I could turn down something like that one day - to make a point by doing something like that. At the very least, I should turn down an invitation to appear on Oprah show (but it's ending in 2011). Oh well...we all have our little fantasies!
I understand that it is a long-standing tradition that every country, no matter how war-loving its government, routinely submits the name of its Emperor, King, President, Prime Minister, or Foreign Minister every year(but only one of these; I am, however, pretty certain that Chancellor and later President Hitler forbade that his name be submitted for such a "sissy" prize). Even though I consider the award to President Obama a bad joke, I think that it is possible that Mr. Obama did not understand in February 2009 that his name had been submitted.
Adding to the list, in literature, Jean-Paul Sartre refused being the first ever to refuse a Nobel (1), and George Bernard Shaw intended to, but accept because of his wife who viewed the award as a tribute to Ireland. Shaw refused the money and requested it be used to translate Swedish books into English.(2)
(1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre#cite_note-17
(2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw#cite_note-1
well.....Norwegians now ought to know:
this is how you get SCREWED BIG TIME...that's a VERY american specialty , screwing people and countries up.
Obama screwed the american voters BIG TIME
now obama and the USA screws the committee and norwegians that thought they'd give him a pass with his WARS AS peace....
now they know what Reveren Jeremy Wright feels like being thrown under the bus...and what obama's very own african americans , so hungry for a black president that they thought thinks of THEIR interest and past injustices, feel after he screws them BIG TIME - just like his MASTERS have done...
this of course is all nothing compared to the REALLY important thhings that barack obama has to do:
go back to the white house to sit in FULL ATTENTION as his EMPIRE's GENERALS ORDER HIM to OBEY their WAR IS PEACE demands!!
he's TOO BUSY to do such niceties as meeting with norwegians, u see...
they should be THANKFUL:
after all -- the EMPEROR HAS SPOKEN.
"Norwegians are incensed over what they view as his shabby response to the prize by cutting short his visit."
No one appreciates what is gained without any effort. The Nobel Committee has shown itself to be an easy old whore of non-existent virture, and is now appalled that it is treated as such by its latest "trick"?
Well, obviously attending all those functions is just too much work for Barry Obama, just as was actually EARNING a fucking Nobel peace prize in the first place, while he was so busy conducting so many wars in so many foreign countries, and killing so many civilians.
The Nobel committee should have been more sympathetic and just mail him the prize, in the same way Obama just mailed in his qualifications to receive it.
If Obama had just ONE OUNCE OF DECENCY he would have turned down this unjustified honor. He should be too embarassed to show his warmongering face in Oslo
Or, better yet, he could have accepted the honor by firing his generals, pulling the troops out of Afghanistan (and Iraq), busting up the 'too big to fail' mega-banks, declaring nothing less than Medicare for All, creating jobs by getting Congress to fully fund and administer a 'green' WPA, and prosecuting Bush, Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Gonzales, et al, for war crimes.
Under our admittedly very imperfect system of governance the President has no power to prosecute anyone. What you are suggesting is the Bushian control of the Justice Department. Some people (but not me) had "hoped" that the "new and improved" DOJ would be truly independent of the White House. "Hope dashed".
RE: ONE OUNCE OF DECENCY
Decency is a prohibited quality for those who have the job of running an empire. The ability to lie well, now THAT, is essential.
Why is anyone surprised by this behavior?
Obama is showing his true colors and allegiance.
He is the Sun king. Why should he concern himself with the desires of his lessors even the obsequious ones?
Double post, deleted.
Joe
Well, the Nobel Committee threw their pearls before this facile war monger. They had the whole world to choose from, and they chose Obama. Maybe they will make a better choice next time.
Joe
Maybe on some level Obama doesn't feel he's worthy of its acceptance.
Of course it was rude. Belaboring the obvious points to some deeper problem. I daresay it isn't too hard to figure it out.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
The more one watches Obama, the more it becomes clear he is not and never was prepared for the job. He, his handlers and the Dim "leadership" in Congress are lazy, rude, dismissive of their base and lacking in real strategy. He's become such a handled DLC/corporate interest hood ornament that he probably slows up the works by wasting everybody's time asking intelligent questions only to act in support of the worst and most stupid short-sighted answers.
He's not vicious enough in constant demeanor to be quite the pig Duhhbya was, but he certainly is the biggest boob I've ever seen in the White House.
Hey, Nobel people, don't you get it? The guy's so ashamed of himself (or ought to be) that he's trying to make himself invisible while grabbing onto the prize. Nice if he had the courage to humbly reject the honor he doesn't deserve, but I don't think 'courage' or 'humility' are words in Obama's action dictionary.
that maybe so,
otherwise -- he knows he is already so deeply entrenched in the policies he has embraced and can't get out -- even if, by some miracle - he actually has a conscience, which doesn't seem to be the case.
having said that, i think that obama is in fact avoiding a public "confrontation" in case it is in situations that are NOT entirely under the control of AMERICAN "law and order" micro-management...wherein - he will be SHOWN publicly being rebuked by masses of people - that are not his usual SELECTED, PROGRAMMED, "adoring americans" or such like-minded folk.
he is avoiding having pictures SHOWN on american news that the rest of the world is NOT as enamored of him as he "once" was when campaigning.
in effect - in just less than a year - in contrast to many others of dictatorial countries - OBAMA
IS ALREADY LIVING a LIFE if IMPRISONMENT - creating around himself an IRON BUBBLE . ...emerging only in public to utter his latest orwellian pronouncements and then disappear again to his perceived "contemplative leadership"....while the world "awaits the dear leader's next deliberation".....
he's becoming a caricature...and he knows it.
It's not that Obama wanted to snub Norwegians. European papers say that he was simply afraid of anti-american demonstrations, so he wanted to be done with it within 24 hours, rather than stay for 3 days. Clever, huh? It's just a PR/damage control issue.
We'll see if this works.
That sounds like the obvious motivation to me. Norwegians likely have more rights at a demonstration than we do, and are more likely to bother.
Man, I hate this guy and all his excuse-making sycophants.
Who cares?, a war criminal ought not receive a "peace" prize in the first place.
Like so many before him, Obama deserves a prison cell, a fair trial and a sturdy scaffold to execute the verdict as his "prize," which is all any Public Enemy #1 deserves.
The White House has cancelled many of the events peace prize laureates traditionally submit to, including a dinner with the Norwegian Nobel committee
Maybe they're feeling guilty. Maybe they're feeling embarrassed. Nah! They're not capable of such feelings.
So you thought you voted for change huh? Seems like the same ol American arrogance if you ask me!
Obama's not snubbing anyone, he's just too busy waging his little war, so he can't spend too much time on civilized, peace-related matters. Light up, people.
THE OBOMBER MUST HAVE FORGOTTEN HIS TELEPROMPER!!!
Jeevee
The "Prize" has become THE NOBEL WAR PRIZE.
Well, if the Norwegians were really offended, I would take back the prize especially after his speech which justified "WAR"..........It was not a "Peace Speech"
Well, it already went to Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Kissinger, I mean, what worth was it really?
watching him deliver his acceptance speech is painful. scrambling to weave some semblance of sanity from the loud dichotomy of the situation he looks an utter fool. the nodding heads in the crowd are even more disturbing. at the end of time we have a man waging a war on innocence and human freedom and polluting the night with the sweet stench of rational discourse, a vile poison distilled, and like chinese water torture diffused drop by drop into the ears of the willing.
This is like asking Willy Sutton to dine with the president of the bank after a heist.
The longer he is in the spotlight, the more likely it is that someone will recognize what's going on.
You know, I thought this sounded really bad until the quote that he should respect royalty then I was kind of glad he's pissing them off if that's their opinion. It's comments like that that make me realize that with all our problems the US is still the best country in the world.
The report did not say that he was pissing off the king. It said that he was pissing off the Norwegian people. We have recently shown ourselves to be very good at pissing off world opinion. So how does that make us the greatest country in the world?
Obama is too busy--planning wars, giving bailouts, breaking promises. The stupid King should know that.
Ok so Obama won the Nobel, well that’s very Nobel of him. Look I don’t think we could expect Him to go around in Norway like he’s on show at a carnival, He is the President after all, but hey not respecting an invite from a King that is serious… I found this informative though…
http://ketiva.com/Politics_and_Government/obama_accepts_the_nobel_prize_and_spoils_the_peace_with_norway.html
Obama, neo-liberal that he is, fears the good example of socialism that is Norway.
If I were the King of Norway I'd say, "Fine. War mongers give me nausea anyway."
dunked out of "...appearances at a children's event promoting peace ...."
This is the part that sticks out for me. He even snubbed the little boys and girls. Especially ironic after using their image in his grand acceptance speech. So much for education, so much for examples of helping girls with education, which then leads into his big peace hoopla.
Rhetoric v reality
Could you image taking your kid(s)to the auditorium to find out the president won't be attending because he is busy making war, and now you have go over to little Gunnvoer and explain to her President Obama is the big bad wolf?
This is a wonderful photo for our resident wags to add a caption. Any takers?
I'll begin: An empty suit outmatched by the throne of peace.
As a norwegian, living in Oslo near the Nobel Peace Institute, I got to observe some of the crazyness going on in the city yesterday. We're not used to all this Secret Service and hundreds of police men blocking the streets and stopping all the traffic, lol.
Regarding wether Obama deserves the prize or not...well, time will show, right? I understand that Obama is not the most popular man in the US now, but he is still some kind of symbol out in the world. You can believe it or not, but outside of the US a lot of people still think of him as a symbol for hope and change - it's easier for us I guess since we are not affected by his actions directly... And Alfred Nobel's vision was to give the Nobel peace prize to someone who gave the world hope. And on some level I guess Obama has done that. But it was of course way to early, since he haven't had the chance to do anything yet. And Obama was not nominated in February, so he couldn't have declined the nomination back then. Also, Norway supports the war in Afghanistan along with a lot of other countries - and our goverment also believes it is an necessary war at this point.
Norwegians consider that being invited to the castle to eat with the King is a great honour, and an invitation that it's quite rude to decline. Furthermore, the traditional interview with CNN that has been done 13 years in a row, was unfortunately cancelled. These two things was not cancelled due to security, like the childrens peace gathering - so it's almost unacceptable. I can promise that our castle is pretty safe and well guarded...
Norway used about 100 million Norwegian Kroners on safety for the President - multiply it by 5-6 to get it in USD. We can afford it - but we should get something in return. We take great pride in our Peace Prize - and therefore we expect the receivers of the award to do the same.
I am afraid the credibility of the Peace Prize has been badly soiled. Henry Kissinger received one and now Obama. If you pay attention to US politics, you would realize that Obama has repeated the same lies as Bush/Cheney. A peace prize ought not be awarded to someone based on irrational "hope" especiallly when accompanied by blatant lies. It ought to be awarded on merit. I don't believe Alfred Nobel would approve of this. Please disregard the slick rhetoric and look for deeds and actions.
If the Norwegian govt. supports the occupation of Afghanistan, they ought to send COMBAT troops, not support troops. If wealthy Norwegian kids are willing to die for corporate profits and pipelines that is one thing. The position of the Norwegian govt. is not only based on misinformation but it is highly hypocritical.
In short, this whole affair is morally reprehensible, and truly Orwellian.