Nobel Peace Prize Awarded

[PopDaisy]

Not sure if this is the correct forum, but this was just released:

OSLO, Norway - Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her work as leader of the Green Belt Movement, which has sought to empower women, improve the environment and fight corruption in Africa for almost 30 years.

***********

For obvious reasons I know many of us feel that Bono is a most deserving recipient of this award... and I'm confident that he will receive it sometime in the future.

But I can't help but feel he would be very pleased that an African woman has been recognized for her work in helping to establish a foundation for the work that is so close to his heart.

Peace and love,

PopDaisy

 

[Herco]

Bono will win it anyway, fortunatly not this year, this year it's U2-time and a new album. No time for political stuff please Bono!

 

[Jamila]

PopDaisy, I'm sure that Bono is ELATED that Wangari Maathai will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

For those of us who have been following the developments in Africa for many years, we know of Wangari Maathai's heroism in fighting for women's rights, environmental rights and political democracy in Kenya over the last two decades.

She has continued her fight for social justice and political democracy in Kenya despite hazardous conditions (she was constantly harassed by the former government of Daniel Arap Moi).

She is a WONDERFUL choice for this year's Nobel Peace Prize because she continues the trend to award this prize to deserving women (women have only won 12 of the 103 Nobel Peace Prizes awarded) and because she FOCUSES THE WORLD'S ATTENTION TO THE ISSUES OF POVERTY, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN AFRICA - and that can only HELP BONO and others in their fight for Africa's Future!

Although I look forward to the day when the B-man will be awarded his own Nobel Peace Prize, I am OVERJOYED that Wangari Maathai has finally found international recognition - it was long overdue!

Here are two articles about Wangari Maathai (the second one has an indirect mention of Bono):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3726084.stm

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=4&u=/nm/20041008/ts_nm/nobel_peace_dc

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY! DON'T LET IT GET AWAY!

 

[Souly]

Congrats to her.

Kudos to B for being nominated.

 

[tkramer]

Congrats to all nominated. This thread deserves notice.

 

[Jamila]

thanks, tkramer, I think so too.

We all like to talk about Africa and Bono while many of us know very little about the REALITY OF LIFE ON THE CONTINENT.

So I think it's good sometimes for those of us who have been "in the movement" for years to try to share with others to encourage everyone to have a broader understanding of Africa's challenges and Africa's glories!

Bono only knows as much as he does about Africa because he listened and learned from Africans before he became able to speak up himself for Africa.

It's good for us to do the same.

WALK ON, WANGARI MAATHAI!

 

[dandy]

i can't state my feelings any clearer than what jamila wrote. well said.

 

[anitram]

Not sure if this is the correct forum, but this was just released:
For obvious reasons I know many of us feel that Bono is a most deserving recipient of this award...

Do people really feel this way?

I have all the respect in the world for Bono, but he is a man who lives an extremely privileged life, in peace, with a lovely family and will soon be going on a successful tour. When he goes home and flies first class and drives in his $200K Mercedes, there are people who are working in the trenches, sleeping on dirt with barely anything to eat. I think he's done great work, but there are many more deserving. JMVVVHO.

 

[starsgoblue]

Re: Re: Nobel Peace Prize Awarded

Do people really feel this way?

I have all the respect in the world for Bono, but he is a man who lives an extremely privileged life, in peace, with a lovely family and will soon be going on a successful tour. When he goes home and flies first class and drives in his $200K Mercedes, there are people who are working in the trenches, sleeping on dirt with barely anything to eat. I think he's done great work, but there are many more deserving. JMVVVHO.

What does his own personal success have anything to do with his "deservingness" of a Peace Prize?

Does he need to be starving and dying too in order to be relevant to the problem going on in Africa? I don't think so...not for a second.

I think he is deserving of this award. Perhaps even more so because of his own personal successes....this man doesn't have to do a darn thing about this crisis, he's privilged and living the good life. But he does....and that my friend, speaks very loudly to me.

 

[Jamila]

Bono WILL win a Nobel Peace Prize one day because he has lived and continues to live a life which bestows "the greatest benefit on mankind" ( the criteria Alfred Nobel originally established for award of the Peace Prize).

Not only has Bono contributed to the welfare of the Poor and oppressed people of our world by advocating tirelessly for them, especially for the People of Africa, but he has written songs/psalms which have uplifted and encouraged millions of people around the world to not only be better people but to help them see themselves as part of the FAMILY OF HUMANKIND and to get involved in making our world a more Peaceful and Fair place to live for ALL!

And remember, Alfred Nobel was a millionaire who donated his fortune to be awarded as part of the Nobel Peace Prize so being rich doesn't make you morally ineligible for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Now - can we have some more discussion on Wangari Maathai?

LOVE YOU, B-MAN!

 

[cass]

Cheers PopDaisy. I was about to start a thread about this in lemonade stand as reafforestation is one of my hobbies.I'm glad I looked here first.
She's some kind of wonderful..yes she is

I want to use a quote from her in my signature here, but I'm so fond of the u2 smillies. It's a big decision.

"You should not be disempowered by the problems you see, you must be empowered by hope. Despite all the problems we go through, I have hope for the new millennium.

Wangari MaathaiWangari Maathai
© GBM

We will go with a lot of baggage from the 20th century but there is hope and tomorrow seems like it is possible."

Sitting in her 'office', the leafy garden of the Green Belt Movement (GBM), Wangari Maathai points to the trees above her head: "I use trees as a sign of hope. They are alive. They keep going, don't give up. There is hope in the environmental movement. You can do something positive for change, set out to work, plant trees, dig trenches ­ not just complain."

"With a leadership that is so corrupt, it is difficult to protect the environment," says Maathai. "People tend to think forests are government property and the government takes advantage of their ignorance. We emphasise they are public goods for the common good, for now and for the future.

Her efforts to save the park unleashed a barrage of personal insults, focusing on the failure of her marriage. One MP said he would circumcise her if she set foot in his district. Government ministers dismissed her as "bogus" and "a tribalist". Maathai says she is unfazed by such abuse, although she admits: "Of course, they don't do your psyche any good. If you attack a woman by attacking her womanhood, she'll feel embarrassed and violated. You're human, you don't want to be humiliated. They hope you will be so hurt you will not raise your voice again. The real objective is to stop you talking. 'Are you going to give in or what?' And for me, never."

Instead, she plays them at their own game: "Last time, I told another MP: 'I'm sick and tired of men who are so incompetent that every time they feel the heat because women are challenging them, they have to check their genitalia to reassure themselves. I'm not interested in that part of the anatomy. The issues I'm dealing with require the utilisation of what's above the neck. If you don't have anything there, leave me alone.' He didn't say another word."

I'd have trouble choosing a quote that would fit.
Richard St Barbe baker would be proud of her. I know I am.

Peace

 

[Jamila]

thanks cass -

 

[Jamila]

Here is another GREAT story on Wangari Maathai - hope y'all like it!

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY! DON'T LET IT GET AWAY!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3728472.stm

 

[DrTeeth]

Now - can we have some more discussion on Wangari Maathai?

Does everybody realize this woman believes AIDS is a bio-weapon created by the West as a tool to use against blacks? Really, I went over the list of Nobel peace prize winners and I can't say I can get excited about it anymore. I think the people who deserve it the most will probably never get nominated.

 

[Jamila]

Dr Teeth, do you have a direct quotation from her stating this?

Why all this animosity towards a woman who has done SO MUCH GOOD for the People of her country?

Or do posters here have hidden agendas?

I guess the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Aung San Suu Kyi, Lech Walesa and Rev. Desmond Tutu were wrong too. Right, DrTeeth?

Elevate yourselves.

 

[anitram]

Why do people immediately jump up and use "hostility"? Is nobody allowed to ask questions anymore?

"Some say that AIDS came from the monkeys, and I doubt that because we have been living with monkeys (since) time immemorial, others say it was a curse from God, but I say it cannot be that.

"Us black people are dying more than any other people in this planet," Ms Maathai told a press conference in Nairobi a day after winning the prize for her work in human rights and reversing deforestation across Africa.

"It's true that there are some people who create agents to wipe out other people. If there were no such people, we could have not have invaded Iraq," she said.

"We invaded Iraq because we believed that Saddam Hussein had made, or was in the process of creating agents of biological warfare," said Ms Maathai.

"In fact it (the HIV virus) is created by a scientist for biological warfare," she added.

"Why has there been so much secrecy about AIDS? When you ask where did the virus come from, it raises a lot of flags. That makes me suspicious," Ms Maathai said.

I am a scientist, and I personally find this to be an incredibly offensive statement by her, as well as extremely irresponsible. I'm not saying she's necessarily undeserving of the award, but what she's saying is utter garbage, and DrTeeth and others have every right to call her on it.

And yes, this award was also given out to Yasser Arafat, so there you have it.

 

[anitram]

Oh, and that was AFTER she won the Nobel. These are her statements before:

"We know that the developed nations are using biological warfare, leaving guns to the primitive people," the Standard quoted Maathai as telling a public workshop in the central Kenyan town of Nyeri on August 30.

"They have the resources to do this."

"AIDS (is) not a curse from God to Africans or the black people," she said, according to the paper's account of the meeting published a day later.

"It is a tool to control them designed by some evil-minded scientists, but we may not know who particularly did."

 

[shart1780]

Wait... she believes a mad scientist created the AIDS virus to control Africam Americans?

Did I hear that right?

 

[BAW]

Apparently that is what she believes but because she's a Nobel prize winner, we're supposed to sweep it under the carpet and pretend those quotes don't exist.

 

[Liesje]

She's so wrong. It came from monkeys.

 

[shart1780]

That's crazy.

 

[A_Wanderer]

After giving the award to terrorist kingpin Yassir Arafat I have a lot less respect for it.

 

[Jamila]

Can anyone post an actual link to an actual article with these comments?

And, if Ms. Maathai actually did state those comments, that still does not diminish the fact that she has helped to reforestate her country, has provided thousands of poor Kenyan women with an economic means to take care of their families, have fought for the economic and political rights of women in her country and worked tirelessly for political democracy in her country when it was under a repressive government.

The simple fact is that most people here had no idea who this courageous woman was a week ago, but are now experts on her!

Wangari Maathai has more ATTRUBUTES than she has liabilities. On the whole, she is an excellent choice for the Nobel Peace Prize.

I think the fact that Arafat was once awarded this prize (along with Yitzak Rabin) is the underlying reason why people are demeaning this Prize.

That is very short-sighted.

 

[anitram]

Jamila, go and Google it. It will take you less than 1.3 seconds to come up with hundreds of links.

 

[BAW]

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6458267

 

[speedracer]

Why do people immediately jump up and use "hostility"? Is nobody allowed to ask questions anymore?



I am a scientist, and I personally find this to be an incredibly offensive statement by her, as well as extremely irresponsible.

Not to mention really stupid. I mean, if we did invent AIDS as a plague to leash upon the people of Africa, we'd probably also have invented a vaccine to protect ourselves as well...

 

[Jamila]

" Maathai....said her comments in August were intended to promote an inquiring attitude to AIDS among Africans and combat the fatalistic notion that it was a curse from God."

As the State Department said you do not have to agree with her on every issue.

Again her contributions to peace, democracy, poverty alleviation and women's rights in Kenya far outweigh the fact that some people are offended by her anti-American statements.

Nelson Mandela and Rev. Desmond Tutu are completely outspoken in their dislike for Bush and his administration. Does this undermine their credibility?

No - being suspicious of the U.S government who has historically supported repressive governments which exploited their people and robbed their countries' treasuries in Africa is a natural reaction in many parts of the continent.

Again, your comments show a narrow worldview - only looking at life through your own viewpoints.

The only way to understand some Africans' suspicions of the developed world, especially of the USA, is to put your own viewpoints on the backshelf and try to walk in someone else's shoes.

But that is hard for some folks.

 

[BAW]

Why are you assuming anyone is taking issue with her "un-American" statements instead of her blatantly wrong, uninformed views on the AIDS virus?

 

[anitram]

"Again her contributions to peace, democracy, poverty alleviation and women's rights in Kenya far outweigh the fact that some people are offended by her anti-American statements.

WTF?

I'm not even American, I don't give a half a crap what she thinks about the current administration, although for the record, it seems like you're projecting your own thoughts on the woman, since nowhere in her statements did I see anything particularly anti-Bush, or anti-America. Just a bunch of incorrect crap and slander against the same scientists who are trying to save the people she claims we're out to kill.

 

[speedracer]

The only way to understand some Africans' suspicions of the developed world, especially of the USA, is to put your own viewpoints on the backshelf and try to walk in someone else's shoes.

But that is hard for some folks.

I wouldn't blame an uneducated person from Africa for thinking that AIDS was a biological weapon.

But apparently Wangari Maathai used to be a professor in veterinary medicine, and she held a visiting position at Yale University. I don't think her comments about AIDS can be construed as ignorance.