So, the teenage strop pot didn’t get a peace prize after all.
The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who made peace last year with bitter foe Eritrea.
There are two reasons to be pleased about this. Firstly, this guy really has done something for peace. Indeed, he seems to be an all round good guy, so well done to him. Secondly, it would appear that the adults in the room have decided that a teenage tantrum does not equate to doing something for peace, so doesn’t qualify. This is a very good thing indeed. As others have commented, we should not be deifying children when they have tantrums, we should tell them to shut up and get on with their homework – preferably out of sight and earshot in their bedrooms until they have calmed down.
Anyway, the Guardian, being the Guardian and the home of idiocy that is incomprehensible to normal people, seem to think that angry white guys who hate Greta Thunberg have been denied an opportunity to rant.
But in a very real sense, far more deeply felt in the content mills of the west, it is also a tragedy. Clearly, Abiy’s win and Greta’s loss leaves countless angry hacks, pundits, shockjocks, populists, provocateurs and alt-right conspiracists with an unexpected hole in their rant schedule. The crusaders had their already somewhat familiar backlashes against this 16-year-old climate activist all ready to go, and then this absolute dog in the manger goes and ruins it for them. How dare he?! That is the most urgent question we face today.
This version of reality exists only in the crazy parallel universe that is the mind of Marina Hyde. It does not exist out here in the real world. I am a middle-aged white guy and I am perfectly happy to see this result. You know, someone who has actually done something positive for peace gets the Nobel Peace Prize, instead of a politically correct award to a stroppy teenager. It is a pleasant surprise. Why would I rant about it? Rather, what we are seeing is Hyde engaging on projection that would put an iMax to shame. She was hoping to have something to rant about when the angry white guys ranted about the messiah winning and it has been snatched away.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind. You’d need a heart of stone…
My take on all this is that the Nobel Prizes for excellence in the sciences are a great honour to receive. The peace prize is more of an insult really. Consider the scumbags and nonentities who have received it in the past, who would want to be associated with any of them? If the latest recipient is one of the good guys I think that it must be a first.
Hence my touch of optimism.
Fiction, science, science-fiction (is there such a prize?)
Maybe an Oscar or some such drama prize.
But not a peace prize.
You mean St Greta didn’t win?????
Maybe there’s hope for us yet then…
Why give a nutter like Greta Thunberg an award ? Kick up the arse would be more appropriate.
A nobel prize, a proper one – Physics, chemistry or medicine – is the recognition of typically decades of work. just as importantly, it recognises through context, not just the brilliance and innovative nature of the work, but the contribution based on practical benefits or that it has led science generallly into promising new areas.
By definition, an award to a 16 year old can ONLY be political.
Had this abused child been awarded.
1. Who would have got the prize money
2. Who would have written the lecture that I believe all prize winners are required to give (hardly a precedent though. I can’t imagine obama wrote his when he got an award for basically being black. And don’t get me fucking started on “inventor of the internet” Gore!)
How about Greta winning Best Face Puller of the year award? Everyone would be happy then.