The Nobel Prize you get for best intentions - Just got more political

[Papewaio]

Nobel Peace committee demotes controversial head Thorbjoern Jagland, elects new chair

"Norway's Nobel Peace Prize committee has demoted its controversial chairman Thorbjoern Jagland in a move unprecedented in the long history of the award."

""This can be interpreted as an attempt by the rightist government to exert more political control over the committee than has been customary," Nobel Peace Prize historian Asle Sveen said.

Others expressed more grave concerns.

"This introduces a new principle by which we associate the chair of the Nobel Committee with the new majority's political colour," wrote Harald Stanghelle, editor of daily newspaper Aftenposten.

"This raises the question: Is the Nobel Committee as independent of a political point of view as it should be?""

So a prize you can get for best intentions is now having the selectors based on the flavour of the government elected. Would be okay if the prize meant anything, didn't cost anything and was limited to the country that selects the political appointees.

The Nobel prize for peace should be revoked from Norway and not reinstated until it selects based on measured outcomes like the respectable science prizes rather then best intentions. After all the path to hell is paved with best intentions.

Right now the Nobel Peace prize might as well be managed by Trump as it has about as much merit as his competitions.

[Fragony]

Nobel peace price, and a coffee please. Is there anyone who still takes it serious anyway

[Gilrandir]

Is there anyone who still takes it serious anyway

Those who get it.

[Greyblades]

It's an organization, intergrety rarely survives past the founder's rule.

[Sigurd]

The committee members should sit for shorter periods, say a 2 year term. Disregarding a direct wish from Nobel himself and after 118 years of being responsible for this price, a revoke is not needed. Heck, active members of Stortinget and government sat on the committee until 1977 before this was changed.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Nobel funded the thing, setting it up as a trust of which he was the settlor. Subsequent trustees should only be allowed to alter the process, format, etc. to the extent and in the manner delineated by the trust itself.

Nobel himself indicated that intentions and/or the potential to encourage peace should be adequate cause for awarding the prize. I always thought that is rather silly, but I come from a culture that rewards accomplishment and not intention for the most part. Nobel's prize, not Seamus,' so his rules should apply.

[Papewaio]

The science prizes all have to show that they made a contribution. In fact that can take so long the winners can no longer receive recognition as they need to be alive to be recognised and the process to make sure that the accomplishment is of real impact takes time.

So unless I'm missing something very subtle in the difference between Norway and Sweden in cultural trends, I think it is more the arena of the prize and not Norway's culture that is the problem. The peace prize is often a political one, and as such it suffers from a lack of talent to award it too. The politicians on the whole would not like to see a prize go to a politician of yesteryear and would not like to admit someone on the other side of the political divide did something worthwhile.

Lets face it the Nobel Peace Prize is like a school prize for citizenship. Sure a kid gets it, only because they seem nice but didn't show up every day at school to nab the attendance prize. Nobel Peace Prize should come with a cat poster...

[Gilrandir]

The peace prize is often a political one, and as such it suffers from a lack of talent to award it too.

Nobel Prize for literature sometimes tended to be a political one as well.

[Sigurd]

So unless I'm missing something very subtle in the difference between Norway and Sweden in cultural trends, I think it is more the arena of the prize and not Norway's culture that is the problem. The peace prize is often a political one, and as such it suffers from a lack of talent to award it too. The politicians on the whole would not like to see a prize go to a politician of yesteryear and would not like to admit someone on the other side of the political divide did something worthwhile.

I take it that you have read the information found on the public nobelprize site. It was Alfred Nobel's wish that a 5 member committee appointed by the Norwegian Storting (equivalent to the congress in US) hand out the peace prize. Why? We don't really know.
Why choose the current Storting to appoint if not to have a political influence?

Besides... there are rules to nominate candidates - and the nominations come from respected universities, courts of Haag, international governments and international political institutions. The candidates are discussed and a short list is made, then a group of respected university professors with expertise in peace prize disciplines will investigate each short list candidate and write recommendations.
Based on these recommendations a shorter list is discussed by the committee - one is chosen maybe after revisiting and updating of the recommendations by the professors.

The committee is a reflection of the current power-setup of Stortinget and it has always been thus. Stortinget is re-elected every 4 years, but the committee sits 6 years.
I agree that the committee members if re-elected during several periods could potentially get a little high-minded (self-important bastards) and should therefore sit shorter periods with a higher turnover. I think however the process is sound.

[Husar]

There were even times where people in some countries took to the streets with guns in order to get a parliament, I don't find it that surprising that someone would trust a parliament with such a thing. If you want to know how great it works in Norway consider that if the US were responsible, the committee would have been privatized and would be run by the military industrial complex and the NRA who would have awarded it to Hitler in the 1930ies because they believe more weapons make everyone safer.

[Viking]

Jagland is a fool. Good riddance.

[Papewaio]

Nobel Prize for literature sometimes tended to be a political one as well.

The key difference is that with the Nobel Prize for literature it is given to a book that has been published, not to someone who intends to one day, maybe write a book.

The political shenanigans just steeps the whole thing in another layer of ineptitude.

[rory_20_uk]

I agree that the Peace Prize is a ridiculous, sick joke - it has even been given to those whose main qualification appears to have been stopping what they had been doing, or using their status to ineffectually try to do something.

[Papewaio]

Like giving the literature prize for someone who has ran out of books to burn.

[Husar]

I agree, the only things we can believe in nowadays are guns, nukes, lawyers and the banking system, the rest is really not what it once was.

[Papewaio]

I agree, the only things we can believe in nowadays are guns, nukes, lawyers and the banking system, the rest is really not what it once was.

And then give the lawyers come politicians prizes for starting a war over non existent nukes, supplying guns to people they then turn around and shoot a decade later all the time banking their profit from the arms dealers.

[Husar]

And then give the lawyers come politicians prizes for starting a war over non existent nukes, supplying guns to people they then turn around and shoot a decade later all the time banking their profit from the arms dealers.

It's good for the economy to export guns and freedom.

[Gilrandir]

It's good for the economy to export guns and freedom.

Normally guns=freedom.

[rory_20_uk]

Those Ukranian rebels must be very free then, with all that Russian support.