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October 31,2021
Austin Kuan
The Nobel Prize is named after Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). Every year since 1901, five awards have been given out in the categories of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. After 1960, economists' insights had a greater impact on the finances of their own country and the rest of the world. In 1968, the Swedish Central Bank established the "Nobel Prize in Economics," widely regarded as the sixth Nobel Prize.
The initial prize money for each Nobel Prize was 9 million Swedish Krona (at about $1.08 million), but it was raised to 10 million Krona (nearly $1.2 million) in 2020. If there are multiple winners, the prize money will be equally shared. The Nobel Prize money is not small, but it is the highest honor for the winners to be widely accepted internationally. This honor is more significant than the monetary prize.
As a result, while there are no Nobel Prizes in some academic fields, there are Nobel Prizes for mathematicians: the Fields Medal, the highest honor awarded to young mathematicians, or the Abel Prize, which has no age limit for mathematicians. It is obvious that the term "Nobel Prize" when added to any other honor is the highest level of recognition in the field.
The Nobel Prize is given regardless of country, race, or skin color, and the majority of the recipients are deserving of their honor. The peace award, on the other hand, is the most contentious, especially when given to politicians. Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Myanmar's father, General Aung San, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She has been fighting the Burmese military regime. When awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she was actually under house arrest. By 2016, when she collaborated with the military to gain significant political power, Aung San Suu Kyi was widely regarded as the spiritual leader of international human rights. Myanmar military has carried out "ethnic cleansing," and she has chosen to remain silent, which has been criticized by the international community, which has demanded that she be removed of her Nobel Prize.
In 2010, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese human rights activist, in recognition of his peaceful efforts to advance human rights in China, but the award infuriated Beijing authorities. Liu Xiaobo was imprisoned before receiving the award, but he did not have the same luck as Aung San Suu Kyi in receiving the award while still alive. He's been locked up while he was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2017, and passed away a few days after being paroled for medical treatment. Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but was never allowed to leave China to accept it. It's difficult to say whether he was lucky or unlucky.
Generally speaking, Nobel Prizes are awarded to individuals, but when it comes to promoting world peace, an organization’s long-term efforts should be recognized as well. The Institute of International Law in Belgium was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1904 for its efforts as a non-governmental organization (NGO) to formulate general principles of international law so that global affairs could operate with a set of rules to follow. This is the first time that the Peace Prize has been awarded to the organization. Later, awards were given to the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, and the International Movement for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons.
Peace awards are usually given to organizations and are less controversial. Individuals awards, even if there is no controversy at the beginning, are hard to predict later. A political leader has a good chance of winning a peace award because he or she is an important promoter of world peace. However, when a leader's morality is altered by circumstances, widespread controversy ensues. Aung San Suu Kyi is an example. Another case is Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed Ali, who was embroiled in a controversy over launching a civil war at the end of 2020.
But when it is given to an individual, we can see the display of this person's strong will, and it is easier to touch the world. The pursuit of peace is often to fight injustice caused by those in power. A person who fight risks his or her life, but he or she may be moved by his or her fearless spirit and is equally willing to come forward. This is why, most of the time, the Peace Prize is awarded to individuals.
This year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to two journalists: Maria Ressa, CEO of the Philippine news website Rappler, and Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, on October 8, 2021. The award is given to the two journalists as they are "dedicated to protecting press freedom, which is a prerequisite for democracy and long-term peace." This time, the two journalists received the award while their home country was under authoritarian rule. After 87 years, journalists were rewarded once more. It is historically significant, but it has also irritated authorities in the Philippines and Russia.
Maria Ressa has spent her entire career as a journalist. When she was 50 years old in 2013, she founded the news website "Rappler." After Rodrigo Duterte was elected president in 2016, the police conducted drug-fighting raids throughout the Philippines, even allow to kill drug dealers on the spot. As a result, many people were wrongly accused of being drug dealers and died as a result. International human rights organizations have harshly criticized Duterte's anti-drug policy, but public opinion polls show that the president's anti-drug action was still widely supported. Therefore, Duterte has continued to give the police broad authority to combat drugs. Ressa was arrested several times since she publicly criticized the president for human rights violations.
The Philippines, with a population of 100 million people, has a wide disparity between rich and poor, and the drug trafficking situation is also bad. Duterte imposes harsh anti-drug measures. With an image of a heroic president in their minds, the public is easily persuaded to support the police shootings of drug dealers without a trial. However, if the police are of varying quality and want to retaliate against someone, he is likely to be wronged and killed as long as he is framed as a drug dealer. However, the justice system has no chance of proving his innocence. So, even if hundreds of people are killed unjustly, their deaths are dispersed across a population of 100 million people at different times and places, and the family members' grief fades. If someone opposes it and irritates the cops with bad morals, you may become a target of disappearance from the world.
Ressa is fortunate to still be alive. The Philippine government's best option for justifying the shutdown of her news website was to accuse her of tax evasion. Fortunately, it proved useless in the end. Although the Philippines is a democratic country, democracy does not guarantee national happiness. If a democracy lacks good rule of law, it will quickly become a breeding ground for dictators or a stage for officials to act brutally. It may also result in many people's complaints going unheard. If, as a result of Ressa's award, the Philippines can converge on policies that violate human rights, strengthen the rule of law, and reduce innocent grievances, the impact of this peace award will be even greater. It is widely assumed that when Ressa receives the Nobel Peace Prize, the dark forces of the Philippines who want to harm Ressa will be weakened. She is more fortunate than Liu Xiaobo in receiving the Nobel Peace Prize while still alive.
Russia's Dmitry Muratov may face a more dangerous challenge than Ressa because he is taking on President Vladmir Putin, who has been in power for more than 20 years. Candidates who pose a threat to Putin's position are easily poisoned or eliminated in Russia's democratic electoral system. Putin is a globally recognized dictator, but he can always be elected in a democratic election system. This is the most fundamental contradiction of the democratic system. There is no rule of law in a democratic society that produces dictators.
Of course, we can't fully dismiss Putin or the aforementioned Duterte. Many people consider the two to be heroes, which means they have achieved political success and do things that make the people proud. However, an obsession with power can corrupt a leader, even Putin, who has been in power for more than 20 years. The amount of corruption that can be exposed is virtually limitless, and this is what Muratov has been working hard to expose through his journalism. Putin despises him, but he is unable to get rid of him, implying that Muratov has some talent.
When Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, it became clear that when he founded his journalism "Novaya Gazeta" in 1993, part of the funds came from Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union's last general secretary. Gorbachev put a portion of the money he received as the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 in Muratov's new business. This could explain Putin's unwillingness to begin with Muratov. In ten years, however, six "Novaya Gazeta" reporters died. They had been poisoned, shot, or abducted. Regrettably, the Nobel Prize stipulates that it can only be awarded to living people.
This time, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to two journalists, and the greatest inspiration to the world is that "there can be no peace if there is no truth." Only when journalists uncover the truth will the country be able to achieve true peace. Even if you are not a journalist, seeking the truth about the incident is a good way to find a peaceful solution to an unfair and unjust situation. In fact, anyone can emulate Ressa and Muratov's bravery. Because, once the truth has been buried, resentment and anger have always been like an untimely bomb, ready to detonate sooner or later. Instead of causing public uproar, wise rulers should always dismantle society's unexploded bombs. Otherwise, even if you win the election, you will be harming the country. Perhaps this is the advice from the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 to those in power.