Malala, The Taliban, And the Nobel Peace Prize

[Sanji Himura]

It has been awhile since we have heard from Malala Yousafzai, the 16 year old girl who was shot by the taliban for being an avid supporter of girl's education in her native Pakistan.

Since we are roughly four days out from handing out the prize, which has been awarded yearly since 1901, it is time to revisit her story.

After being shot by the Taliban, she underwent surgery in England, where she still lives today(Birmingham, if you wish to be more specific), still under threat from the Taliban for still supporting girl's education in muslim countries.

And today, she stands to win the Nobel Peace Prize, worth about 1 million Euros, or USD(actually 10 million Swedish Kronor).

Though this has been a summary of what has been happening with the story, Please discuss.

 

[DK]

There was a BBC programme about her tonight, so she hasn't completely vanished off the Earth.

I can't think of a more worthy recipient of the NPP.

 

[Badasp5.0]

I can't think of a more worthy recipient of the NPP.

Agreed.

 

[Dotini]

Julian Assange, Eric Snowden and Vladimir Putin have all been mentioned as potential NPP candidates. Barack Obama was a winner almost before he took office.

I not sure if the NPP has anything really to do with achieving peace, or if it is some kind of prize or honor given out to a range of various "deserving" people, or potentially deserving people.

 

[Badasp5.0]

I not sure if the NPP has anything really to do with achieving peace, or if it is some kind of prize or honor given out to a range of various "deserving" people, or potentially deserving people. It is something like an emoticon.

It lost any of that when they give it to Arafat in '94

 

[Sanji Himura]

All I know is this, if Malala doesn't win it this year, the award has become a political statement and has lost it's true purpose. I don't know what Alfred Nobel was thinking when he put Norway's parliament in charge of the award instead of Sweden, like any of the other awards.

 

[A2K78]

There was a BBC programme about her tonight, so she hasn't completely vanished off the Earth.

I can't think of a more worthy recipient of the NPP.

If anybody really deserve such an award better it be Ron Paul seeing how he's actually doing more to advance the cause of peace politically and economically as oppose to being a pawn.

In the case of Malala, its quite a shame that she was shot as no kid should have no such violence inflicted upon them(like the current amount of violence being inflicted on pakistani's by american drones) but in no way have she done anything to really advance the cause of peace other than becoming the new figure-head for feminist.

Overall it dosen't really matter who gets the prize as its already a tainted.

All I know is this, if Malala doesn't win it this year, the award has become a political statement and has lost it's true purpose.

This is quite true as I said.

I don't know what Alfred Nobel was thinking when he put Norway's parliament in charge of the award instead of Sweden, like any of the other awards.

Given the fact the award have been now given to a man clearly dedicated to a permanent state of war its essentially moot regardless of who gets it.

 

[Dotini]

Malala was groomed almost from birth to be an educational activist like her father. At age 11, she was taken on by the BBC to keep a diary and write a blog. She swiftly came to prominence around the world and in Pakistan. Predictably, the Taliban tried to blow her head off.

Somewhat cynically, her father and the BBC created a child soldier to be used as a tool or weapon in the culture change war. She nearly became a martyr to the cause, a kind of intellectual suicide vest.

Was this justified? Many will jump to to say the cause was just. And so it is. But to say the cause is just is like saying the end justifies the means.

We are on swampy moral ground when a British institution recruits children in tribal lands as martyrs to a cause that is anathema to the bulk of the locals.

 

[BobK]

Arafat and Obama both winners -- Obama before he'd been in office long enough to accomplish anything whatsoever. The Nobel Peace Prize has become a travesty of what it originally was.

All I know is this, if Malala doesn't win it this year, the award has become a political statement and has lost it's true purpose.

That happened a couple decades ago, actually.

I don't see why Malala is such a great candidate for the prize anyway. A2K78 summed it up quite well.

 

[Touring Mars]

Somewhat cynically, her father and the BBC created a child soldier to be used as a tool or weapon in the culture change war. She nearly became a martyr to the cause, a kind of intellectual suicide vest.

Let's not forget for one second who are in the wrong here. The Taliban shoot 14 year old girls in the head for daring to aspire to what every person has a right to aspire to - an education, equal rights and a better life... supporting those with such aspirations is not a crime, shooting 14 year old children in the head is.

 

[Dotini]

Let's not forget for one second who are in the wrong here. The Taliban shoot 14 year old girls in the head for daring to aspire to what every person has a right to aspire to - an education, equal rights and a better life... supporting those with such aspirations is not a crime, shooting 14 year old children in the head is.

Let's say you sent your pre-teen daughter, dressed like a whore, alone into the grimier regions of Glasgow, to proclaim to one-and-all she had the right to dress as she pleased, then one day she came home on a stretcher, raped and bloody. The crime surely would be with the rapists, but the moral atrocity would be yours.

The BBC and her father deliberately and callously sent Malala into harm's way. She was used. Used as an expression or symbol of an adult agenda of change in a wild, remote and savage land.

 

[Zenith]

There was a long discussion about this in a recent thread regarding rape. The TL;DR is that fault lies 100% with the perpetrator, but steps can often be taken to prevent becoming a victim. In this case, getting shot was what catapulted her activism career. It seems rather cynical, but this isn't as convincing of a heart-rending story of bravery and grassroots activism as many would like it to be.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

There was a long discussion about this in a recent thread regarding rape. The TL;DR is that fault lies 100% with the perpetrator, but steps can often be taken to prevent becoming a victim. In this case, getting shot was what catapulted her activism career. It seems rather cynical, but this isn't as convincing of a heart-rending story of bravery and grassroots activism as many would like it to be.

I could have sworn she was already an activist and was getting noticed in her region which caused her to be targeted and shot. Her activism was known world wide after she was shot and it became bigger due to her being shot, which was ironically the opposite effect her perpetrators wanted.

Either way she didn't win, and the group that did win seems less prestigious then how you put her. I feel they lucked into it because of the job given, which was to dispose of the Syrian chemical weapons, so yet again Nobel Prize for Peace is yet again political which isn't surprising. I'd pay attention to the science rather than the Politics of the peace prize.

 

[Keef]

Assange and Snowden are definitely worthy recipients. Their actions have effected almost everybody in the world in in one way or another. They've put themselves in the crosshairs of some of the most powerful governments in the world, namely the US, in their quest to uphold real transparency, something which the US in particular does not agree with. I think both of them should win.

Meanwhile, Obama should be publicly stripped of his, humiliated, and made to pay back double what he made from it. What a laughing stock.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Assange and Snowden are definitely worthy recipients. Their actions have effected almost everybody in the world in in one way or another. They've put themselves in the crosshairs of some of the most powerful governments in the world, namely the US, in their quest to uphold real transparency, something which the US in particular does not agree with. I think both of them should win.

Meanwhile, Obama should be publicly stripped of his, humiliated, and made to pay back double what he made from it. What a laughing stock.

Like I said Nobel Peace Prize is political and in this sense they are trying to seem anti-weapons of destruction, but underneath it I'd say it has more to with them picking a side and because they already gave Obama his award.