PRE-EMPTIVE PEACE ADWARDS -

Obama and the Sticks and Stones of Peace
Maryam Ismail

15 October 2009
Shocked, like somebody had died. Chills ran all over my body when I got the news. President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize? I couldn.t believe it. While many are saying that this prize will be a motivator for him to do better, I am not too sure.

That.s like giving good grades to weak students just because they behave well. And compared to his predecessor, he really deserves an A for good behaviour, but not a Nobel for peace. What peace? Before we had pre-emptive strikes, now we have pre-emptive peace awards? So what did he really win it for? I have to disagree with the 59 per cent of respondents on NPR.s live chat who said that this award was not too soon. One of whom declared, .what a wonderful surprise, and nobody deserves it more than Barack n. Roll.. It was way too soon. Before Guantanamo closing, before they figured out what to do in Afghanistan, and Iraq, and before dismantling the corrupt healthcare system that causes millions of death and was in part responsible for the .housing crisis.

It seems to me, the list of those in competition for the award was not too impressive. Considering that French President Sarkozy was a rival for the award made it seem like crap shoot, President Obama wins for smile, debonair style, and over all good looks. But where.s the political substance? Hmmm, we are still waiting.

Saying that he will diminish the nuclear arms stockpiles is good, but is there a real threat from them right now? No. The reality is that bullets, missiles, bombs, and mortars are weapons du jour, so then? Is it only that the threat of war between Western powers is the war that matters the most? The problem of people dying, having their lives destroyed, their countries crippled beyond rehabilitation at this very moment at the hands of America means that this was not an award for peace.

For many Americans, this reward comes right on time . with them reeling from a mountain of worries; homelessness, joblessness, poverty, and as corporate biggies laugh in their faces as they get bags of money for cheating and swindling. We Americans can be very shortsighted and love to live in the moment sometimes. So, let.s pull out the flag and sing, .Didn.t I tell you America was the beautiful?. With the election of Obama as the president everybody took a minute to wipe the sweat off their brow. Then the punches started rolling. So, if Obama deserves any award it should be the .Sticks and Stones. Nobel Prize! You have to give it to him. He has been the most derided president ever, simply because of who he is.

From the picture of him as a stereotypical terrorist-Muslim dude, to an out right ape, an illegal immigrant (which is why Representative Joe Wilson had the gall to scream out .Liar!. when President Obama denied that his new health bill will give illegal immigrants healthcare, because they.re his people).

A group called the .Birthers. is demanding to see the president.s birth certificate, claiming that he.s an illegal immigrant. They have even filed a court case to do so. This goes deeper than President.s Kenyan roots, but to the centuries old notion that African Americans should have left a long time ago.

Only in America can this happen. First she was looking into people.s mouths and then she became a mouthpiece of the .people.. Orly Taitz, the lawyer with a dental degree, is the lead .birther. who has set out to prove that Obama has swindled America. This is her quote after hearing that President Obama won the Nobel Prize:

.Here is an affidavit from a second licensed investigator, Susan Daniels. She provides an undeniable proof, that Obama has used a social security number of a deceased person, someone who was born in 1890 and lived in the state of CT. No Noble prize, no feather in the hat, will sanitize the fact that this man is a fraud and is a danger to National Security. No prize will exonerate him.. Since Americans didn.t get social security numbers until the New Deal in 1936, I would say her argument is baseless, but she has an audience of her own; many of who are donating to her PayPal account. This is what I call too much freedom.

This insanity just doesn.t stop. But I have to admit this: I have fun in reading Obama conspiracy theories. There.s the Obama Deception theory.that Barack Obama is a sort of Manchurian Candidate, being used by gladio-like forces that want to take over America.

Others proclaim that he.s a member of the House of Saud, who will in time throw up a minaret on top of the White House, which ironically faces the Makkah already, thanks to its African American architect, Benjamin Banneker.

Leslie Savan.s Take the Obama Conspiracy-Theory Challenge, had me cracking up. She dared readers to come up with conspiracy theories of their own. .He.s working on a plan to sell Alaska back to Russia,. had me laughing out loud, but I wasn.t too sure about, .He.s black. What other conspiracies do you need?. As a former .Little Coloured Girl. myself, I know how racist America can be. They are not playing. They.re not just trying to steal Obama.s thunder; they want to make sure that it.s a long time before another African American dares to step into the front door of the White House.

David Dinkins, former New York Mayor, who was called nigger to his face by protesting police officers and firefighters on the steps of City Hall, was the first and so far, that city.s last African American mayor.

It.s more fitting to say that the Nobel goes to Obama for being the King of Cool, who just lets the madness just role off his back. Nevertheless, he.s got a lot of IOU.s (I Owe You) to pay to people who the Nobel Committee will never hold meetings with.those who are fast losing hope in change, when they are facing the same old bombs, deaths and days and nights of tears and patience in prison praying that President Obama forces America to keep its promise of peace. I.m praying he pays up.

Maryam Ismail is an American writer and sociologist based in Sharjah