Bono - Nobel Peace Prize!?

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PopTart Pamela

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After reading the Time magazine article I have decided that Bono should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize! It is too late for this year, as nominations have to be submitted by Feb 1st. I don't how it is done, but surely as a Forum somehow we could be a force here. Bono has done so much promoting peace and justice. He gives of himself so much - its just superhuman what he does, and should be recognised at this level. He is so deserving!!
What do you think about this?
Can we do something, or am I just dreaming?

Pamela

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That'd be SWEET....but I don't know what the qualifications are. He's obviously done more than A LOT of people, though.

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Kick start my rock 'n rollin? heart. ~J.E.W.

"I think I just said I was smart there - I'm sorry about that." ~Bono

?Naughty pop star? ~Bono
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We probably can't do much at this point. I however do agree that he should have won/been nominated. Anyway -- am I dreaming, or was he nominated? I think I remember people talking about it but I'm not positive.

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"You must not look down on someone just 'cos they are 14 years old. When I was that age I listened to the music of John Lennon and it changed my way of seeing things, so I'm just glad that 14 year olds are coming to see U2 rather than group X." - Bono, 1988
 
If George Bush and Tony Blair got nominated, then Bono definatly deserves a nomination
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I also have no idea how to go about making it happen though. I think that is a great idea though, and we have almost a year to work on it!!
 
Um, I think you need to have special qualifications to nominate someone for that, like being a major world figure or an entire nation or something. But don't take my word for it.



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Your sun so bright it leaves no shadows, only scars
Carved into stone on the face of earth
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We see the sun go down in your eyes
 
Originally posted by scatteroflight:
Um, I think you need to have special qualifications to nominate someone for that, like being a major world figure or an entire nation or something. But don't take my word for it.



Interference isn't a nation???
We could be.....
We could have Bono help drop the debt of Interference.
 
My ex boyfriend suggested this almost two years ago while having breakfast, do I have to say that I really choked on that, since he's not a U2 fan at all and don't know much about it.

Anyway, here is how the nomination works.
Unfortunatly those who decides who will get it never think as everyone else.....

Nomination and Selection of the Nobel Laureates

1. Each year the respective committees send individual invitations to thousands of scientists, members of academies and university professors in numerous countries, asking them to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prizes for the coming year. Those who are competent to submit nominations are chosen in such a way that as many countries and universities as possible will be represented.

2. These prize nominations must reach the respective Nobel Committees of the Prize Awarding Institutions before February 1 of the year for which the nomination is being made.

3. The nominations received by each committee are then evaluated with the help of specially appointed experts. When the committees have made their selection among the nominated candidates and have presented their recommendations to the Prize Awarding Institutions, a vote is taken for the final choice of Laureates.

4. The choice of the year's Laureates is announced immediately after the vote in October each year.

5. The prizes are awarded at the Prize Award Ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10 (the Anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death). The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on the same day at the City Hall in Oslo, Norway.
 
Originally posted by Mrs.Clayton:

Interference isn't a nation???
We could be.....
We could have Bono help drop the debt of Interference.


I knew someone would say that...



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Your sun so bright it leaves no shadows, only scars
Carved into stone on the face of earth
The moon is up and over One Tree Hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes
 
Oh, and here is two quotes from Mr Nobel's will about who would get the price:

"shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" (I guess Bono fits this description)

"shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

I guess after reading all this it means that if, say harvard University gets an invitation to nominee someone and that Sachs guy (can't remember his name, the one who tought Bono alot about economy) sits in Harvards' commit?e for nomination, he can nominate Bono and make the rest to agree and then send it in to the Nobel committ?e

About interference being a nation, it might be, but I don't think the Nobel commit?e would think that we are educated ad competent enough to be able to get an invitation to nomin?e someone.... unfortunatly.
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you hve to realize that bono is still very young comapred to most nobel prize winners...I think that he will get one...just not for a while.
 
It seems that Bono is already being considered for the prize....this from www.youtwo.net: (check the last paragraph)

January 30, 2002
From Reuters:

Nobel prize wide open after attacks
By Inger Sethov

OSLO (Reuters) - The devastating September 11 attacks on the United
States have thrown nominations for the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize wide
open with the deadline for names just days away.

Olav Njoelstad, acting director of the Nobel Institute, said the secretive
Oslo-based Nobel committee was still receiving nominations for the
award before Friday's deadline.

Tips for 2002 include former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and
Malaysia's former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, environmental
organisations, media groups or even pop stars.

"There are applications pouring in every day," Njoelstad told Reuters.
Nominations have faxed or e-mailed to the Institute by Friday, or received
by mail postmarked no later than that date, February 1.

He declined to give names of any nominees for the prize, which went to
the United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan last year on the
100th anniversary of the first award.

The number of nominations, which totalled 126 in 2001, will be clear
around the middle of February. The award, worth 10 million Swedish
crowns, is announced in mid-October.

Njoelstad said many nominees were related to peace efforts after the
September 11 attacks. "The events during the past six months are
clearly reflected in the nominations," he said.

Giuliani, praised for his work after the suicide attacks on New York's
World Trade Center, is seen as a likely nominee for the prize, named
after Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.

"I assume that Giuliani is among the nominees," Svein Toennesson,
director of the independent International Peace Research Institute in
Oslo, told Reuters.

POSSIBLE MUSLIM AWARD?

Toennesson said the committee might try to demonstrate that the
U.S.-led war against terrorism is not a war against Islam by picking a
Muslim winner, such as Malaysia's now-jailed Anwar.

Anwar, whom the United States has called a political prisoner, is serving
jail sentences totalling 15 years for corruption and sodomy convictions
after a trial that human rights watchdogs have labelled unfair.

"It would be a daring choice, but in line with the Nobel committee's
traditions," Toennesson said. No Muslim has won the prize since
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in 1994.

Toennesson, who correctly tipped last year's winners, said it was harder
to guess 2002.

"We have entered a second century of prizes, opening for a little more
fantasy," he said. "There is no obvious candidate, but I would not be
surprised if it went to a dissident."

The Nobel committee has several times spoken out against authoritarian
regimes and director Geir Lundestad hinted in a speech last year that the
committee should "sooner rather than later...speak out also against the
regime in Beijing".

Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama was the last anti-Beijing activist to win the
prize, in 1989. Awards to anti-Communist campaigners Andrei Sakharov
and Lech Walesa irked the Soviet Union before its fall a decade ago.

Toennesson also mentioned the World Council of Churches, working for
cooperation between religions, and individuals or groups involved in
peace efforts in Sri Lanka and Cyprus.

Former laureates, members of every national parliament and professors
of politics are among those who can make nominations.

In his speech in December to mark the first 100 years of the prize,
Lundestad also said the environment could add a new dimension. And
he cited media groups or even pop stars -- like Bob Geldof, Sting or Bono --
as possible future winners.


Brian


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port 2002
user u22u
pass u22u
 
Originally posted by MissZooropa:
Oh, and here is two quotes from Mr Nobel's will about who would get the price:

"shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" (I guess Bono fits this description)

"shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."


Hmmm...Nothing about hotness.

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She's a little lightheaded, so check on her in a few minutes -- my podiatrist, about me (again), 2-11-02
 
The Nobel Peace Prize is a essentially a political award, and the list of recipients is not one that we should be proud of. Many of the winners are politicians (many have committed murder, commanded others to commit murder, and similar crimes) who happened to be doing what the West wanted at the time - Gorbachev to take one example (and I believe Arafat has won the prize also though I could be wrong) - and so they were rewarded. That said, sometimes true humanitarians with valid peace credentials do win the prize (e.g. Doctors without Borders).

On a practical level, Bono is doing the right things to win the award - sucking up to the Western establishment, supporting their murder of civilians (specifically, lauding the U.S. for its bombing of Afghanistan), and giving rhetorical and diplomatic shelter to many of the true culprits in Africa's disaster - western corporations and politicians. Hence, he may indeed be nominated some day.

However, I'm quite convinced that Bono does not deserve such an award, either on moral grounds or even accepting the current criteria for getting the prize:

1. Even if we accept current moral criteria for awarding the prize, the fact is, Africa is going down in flames. No one deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for saving Africa, because IT HASN'T BEEN SAVED.

2. Debt relief wasn't Bono's idea. The idea has been there for many many years, and various solutions to the problems have been worked out in nuts and bolts fashion by many other investigators in this field. Bono is just the celebrity who is bringing this to the attention of the powers-that-be (which is indeed a very good thing and one that he should be lauded for).

3. It's very possible that Bono's approach of courting the powers-that-be will actually have a NEGATIVE effect on the problem, because he's essentially encouraging the common person to put continued trust in these companies and politicians to fix the problem. And these entities have proven themselves over many years to be the CAUSE (partially) of the problem, not its solution.

Hopefully Bono's approach (or anyone's approach) works, and it IS a great thing that the African problem is at least on the elite's radar screen now, partly due to Bono's efforts. But I think the politicians are using Bono, and will ultimately come through with the usual token cash that doesn't effect real change.

To change the situation would require a massive change in the U.S. (and other Western powers) method of conducting international diplomacy and business. The U.S. would have to forswear giving money/aid to dictators that favor its business interests - that will never happen. The pharmaceutical companies would have to make major changes in its methods of doing business with dying countries - unlikely to happen.
 
Prior winners:

2001 United Nations (U.N.), Kofi Annan

2000 Kim Dae Jung

1999 M?decins Sans Fronti?res

1998 John Hume, David Trimble

1997 International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Jody Williams

1996 Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, Jos? Ramos-Horta

1995 Joseph Rotblat, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

1994 Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin

1993 Nelson Mandela, Frederik Willem de Klerk

1992 Rigoberta Mench? Tum

1991 Aung San Suu Kyi

1990 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

1989 The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso )

1988 United Nations Peace-keeping Forces

1987 Oscar Arias Sanchez

1986 Elie Wiesel

1985 International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Inc.

1984 Desmond Mpilo Tutu

1983 Lech Walesa

1982 Alva Myrdal, Alfonso Garc?a Robles

1981 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

1980 Adolfo P?rez Esquivel

1979 Mother Teresa

1978 Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin

1977 Amnesty International

1976 Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan

1975 Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov

1974 Se?n MacBride, Eisaku Sato

1973 Henry A. Kissinger, Le Duc Tho

1972 The prize money for 1972 was allocated to the Main Fund

1971 Willy Brandt

1970 Norman E. Borlaug

1969 International Labour Organization (I.L.O.)

1968 Ren? Cassin

1967 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section

1966 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1965 United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

1964 Martin Luther King Jr.

1963 Comit? international de la Croix Rouge (International Committee of the Red Cross), Ligue des Soci?t?s de la Croix-Rouge (League of Red Cross Societies)

1962 Linus Carl Pauling

1961 Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskj?ld

1960 Albert John Lutuli

1959 Philip J. Noel-Baker

1958 Georges Pire

1957 Lester Bowles Pearson

1956 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section

1955 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1954 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

1953 George Catlett Marshall

1952 Albert Schweitzer

1951 L?on Jouhaux

1950 Ralph Bunche

1949 Lord (John) Boyd Orr of Brechin

1948 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section

1947 Friends Service Council (The Quakers), American Friends Service Committee (The Quakers)

1946 Emily Greene Balch, John Raleigh Mott

1945 Cordell Hull

1944 Comit? international de la Croix Rouge (International Committee of the Red Cross)

1943 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section

1942 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section

1941 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section

1940 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section

1939 The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section

1938 Office international Nansen pour les R?fugi?s (Nansen International Office for Refugees)

1937 Cecil of Chelwood, Viscount (Lord Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne Cecil)

1936 Carlos Saavedra Lamas

1935 Carl von Ossietzky

1934 Arthur Henderson

1933 Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane)

1932 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1931 Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler

1930 Lars Olof Nathan (Jonathan) S?derblom

1929 Frank Billings Kellogg

1928 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1927 Ferdinand Buisson, Ludwig Quidde

1926 Aristide Briand, Gustav Stresemann

1925 Sir Austen Chamberlain, Charles Gates Dawes

1924 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1923 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1922 Fridtjof Nansen

1921 Karl Hjalmar Branting, Christian Lous Lange

1920 L?on Victor Auguste Bourgeois

1919 Thomas Woodrow Wilson

1918 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1917 Comit? international de la Croix Rouge (International Committee of the Red Cross)

1916 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1915 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1914 The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section

1913 Henri La Fontaine

1912 Elihu Root

1911 Tobias Michael Carel Asser, Alfred Hermann Fried

1910 Bureau international permanent de la Paix (Permanent International Peace Bureau)

1909 Auguste Marie Fran?ois Beernaert, Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet, Baron d'Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque

1908 Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Fredrik Bajer

1907 Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Louis Renault

1906 Theodore Roosevelt

1905 Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner, n?e Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau

1904 Institut de droit international (Institute of International Law)

1903 William Randal Cremer

1902 ?lie Ducommun, Charles Albert Gobat

1901 Jean Henri Dunant, Fr?d?ric Passy
 
Originally posted by sv:
On a practical level, Bono is doing the right things to win the award - sucking up to the Western establishment, supporting their murder of civilians (specifically, lauding the U.S. for its bombing of Afghanistan), and giving rhetorical and diplomatic shelter to many of the true culprits in Africa's disaster - western corporations and politicians.

puhleaze. Could ya please throw just a little more rhetoric and bias in there? Cuz I'm not sure how you REALLY feel.
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Sulawesigirl4, while my negative feelings did show a bit in my comments above, I'm actually quite serious. If Bono HADN'T done all the kissing up to the US that he has over the past 6 months or so, and if he HADN'T referred to Western corporations as "easy targets", and if he HADN'T lauded Bill Gates' work, he WOULDN'T be on the cover of Time and there's no way he'd be mentioned for a Nobel Peace Prize. If he had done the exact same things from a humanitarian standpoint, while criticizing the US bombing of Afghanistan, he'd be pilloried in the media and told to shut up, you're just a rock star. That's the way the media and government work, and it's the way awards like the Nobel Peace Prize work. That's the point I'm trying to make.

When you refer to "bias", I was stating an opinion. Opinions are inherently biased - in fact, that's what opinions are. The opinion of some that Bono should be nominated for the prize is also "biased". You just don't happen to like my opinion in this instance.

I have no axe to grind with Bono. Like you, I'm a big fan of his musical ability and of most of his humanitarian efforts. I just happen to think it's a shame that he knows exactly where the problems lay, but that he has chosen to place his trust/support in those very people. I believe he wants the best for Africa. But on a practical level, I think he's very aware that it's no-lose for him as long as he doesn't challenge the powers-that-be - he will win whether Africa does or not.
 
I think that while the problems of Africa tend to concern us more, since we are well aware of Bono's work, the scope of the problems on the continent have eluded the average person. Though Bono is one of the leaders of the grass roots movement, it is a movement that is barely making a dent in the situation. Debt relief for the poorest nations is a cause that needs a real politcial leader to appeal to the richest nations. Bono, while certainly making headway into the politcial arena, is still seen as an outsider, and a figurehead. Many have questioned his motives and of course criticized him for being a rich rock star lecturing on helping the poor. I don't agree with these criticisms, but the point is that they certainly exist.

What will gain some credibility for the movement is the average person becoming more aware of the problem. Though there are many people working to resolve the issues, many more are needed to make serious headway. For most world leaders, debt relief is not a major issue, mainly because the poor nations provide little in the way of economic or political support. If a group, led by Bono or otherwise, can convince leaders to change their minds, it would be a step in the right direction.

Remember, that as diehard U2 fans, we all tend to allow our personal views towards the band affect how we the outside work of Bono. It's difficult, but sometimes we need to have an outsider's view of the issues, and try to objectively analyze them. Personally, I've done this, and while I see debt relief and African aid as great ideas, I can see that there is still a long way to progress before we see a real difference.

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