As I eat my delicious albeit slightly inaccurate attempt at mansaf, I am wondering how to react to the news of the latest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, President Barack Hussein Obama. My first reaction created the following scenario in my mind.
A group of very pale men with bright blue eyes and bright white hair sit 6 feet tall in an old room in a castle, two of them pacing back and forth on the side.
"You mean nobody here has thought of anybody to pick for the Peace Prize this year?" one blurts out in perfect yet frustrated English.
"Nei..." the rest mumble, embarrassed.
"Sorry..." starts one man, obviously apologizing before he speaks, "but we could always pick Obama... I mean... at least everybody knows him."
The least obvious choice for the award, yet arguably the most inspiring dancer being in the world. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize is certainly I could foresee for Obama--in perhaps 10 years if all goes to plan. Nine months into his presidency, I have seen him make many bold declarations: rid the planet of nuclear weapons, engage in diplomacy with those coldest to the West, solve regional conflicts that have been uncracked codes since the First World War when this age of nationhood swept the planet, and the list goes on. And what have we now? Well, not much has changed since our former Accident left office. The US and Russia can still blow the world up 93,274 times over each, Iran and North Korea seem to be following their plans to be independent of foreign influence in making all kinds of decisions related to nuclear programs and not, and Israeli and Palestinian leaderships are nowhere near close to being ripe for making final status agreements--one doesn't believe in the steps he has to take and the other has remained in office past his term's expiration despite the fact that he has done almost nothing for his people but continue to help divide them.
Obama, I respect you, I feel that you have some major work ahead of you, and I feel that your rhetoric reflects true passion and sincerity towards fixing this broken world. People everywhere look up to you; you inspire billions of the world's inhabitants. But the world is no more peaceful than it was before you came into office, nor has your policy had time to settle in long enough for us to even know whether it will help or harm.
Some argue that you should take advantage of this opportunity, that it will "strengthen [your] capability to contribute to regional peace in the Middle East," as Minister of Defense Ehud Barak of Israel commented. How, Ehud? How does this award strengthen him in any other way? Was his authority as President of the United States of America, the largest and most powerful superpower in the world, not enough? Does it somehow give him the ability to restore unity among the Palestinians, securing the trust of their own people in their leadership? Does it magically deradicalize the religious and ultranationalists in Israel, convincing them that the Settlement Enterprise is immoral, illegal, and harmful to real people that identify as Palestinian? Does it in any way remove nuclear weapons from the Middle East or the world at large just by rewarding him for saying that such a utopia should exist one day? If only it were that easy.
Then there's this weird conspiracy theory that is floating around in my head. Maybe, just maybe, all the world is in on it. What if secretly somewhere anyone with faith in humanity all got this great idea that if a young, inspiring leader comes along with all of the right qualities that allow him or her to touch the heart of people regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, sex, religion, shoe size... you get it, what if he or she came along and we all gave him all the praise and support that we could possibly muster up. Day after day, we told him [because it is a him in this case] that he was saying the right things, doing the right things, deciding in the best way for humanity, and so on. We gave him every award, every chance to speak, and all spoke so highly about him where it mattered most. We give him and the world this false sense of hope that all of the right things are happening until...
Voila.
All of the things that we used to believe are no longer relevant, now that we've all convinced ourselves that Barak Obama has already done everything in his capacity to help us all cooperate and cohabit this beautiful earth. Wars between nations will be a thing of the past, we are now fighting global warming, and together! Every one of us 7 billion dancer beings are committed to living energy-efficient lives, live and let live, man. Abusers of power see the great success of Obama's honesty and determination and vow to dedicate all of their efforts for improving the lives and freedom of all of the citizens of their nations. It ends with representatives from every nation sitting in a circle at the UN in Geneva singing Kumbaya in each person's respective language in the most beautiful harmony ever witnessed on the planet.
If these constant encouragements, such as Nobel Peace Prize, are intended to replace insecurities with a false sense of security that becomes actual in the way that I have described above, then I welcome it. If such a massive conspiracy is not in the works, my skepticism and anxiety for heightened expectations remain.
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Heres what I think happened. Obama won the award for his game-changing efforts in diplomacy and international cooperation. There has never been a president of any country that attended, sponsored, supported so many summits, talks, conferences. Obama has been to more countries than any other president in his first year. He did not win it for any specific situation like, por ejemplo, my main man Yasser, but he won it for the atmosphere he has created internationally. This is an atmosphere where enemy countries are sitting down at a table together, instead of engaging in an escalating war of words which, who knows, might sometime end up in physical war. The replacement of conflict with diplomacy is why this award was created. Whether or not this atmosphere of engagement stands the test of time, we will see, but the important thing is that it has changed everything. Real Talk.
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