This video, recorded in the USA, is called Malala Yousafzai To Obama’s Face: Drones Fuel Terrorism.
Alfred Nobel, a Swedish arms businessman who opposed both capitalism and war, founded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1895 for people who had contributed to “the abolition or reduction of standing armies”; for people who had contributed directly to stopping militarism and wars.
In his will, he bequeathed the decisions over this prize to the parliament of Norway; then a neutral country.
Or, better but still not Alfred Nobel’s intention, to people who had contributed indirectly to peace.
Malala Yousafzai, this year’s Nobel Peace laureate, is best known in Western media as a supporter of girls’ education; which contributes to peace indirectly. She is not as well-known in the media as a supporter of socialism.
She is also not as well-known as an opponent of wars; like the Pentagon’s and CIA’s drone war which kills many civilians in Malala’s Pakistan. Malala’s speaking out against this is a direct contribution to peace; in the spirit of Alfred Nobel.
In her Nobel Prize acceptance speech today, Malala combined the indirectly and directly pro-peace sides of her activities.
Malala Yousafzai accepts Nobel peace prize with attack on arms spending
Pakistani education activist was jointly awarded prize with Indian child rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi
Alexandra Topping
Wednesday 10 December 2014 14.35 GMT
The Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai has used her Nobel peace prize acceptance speech to launch a searing attack on “strong” governments that have the resources to begin wars but not to enable universal education.
Dear brothers and sisters, the so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don’t. Why is it that countries which we call “strong” are so powerful in creating wars but so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so difficult?
This video from ther USA says about itself:
Socialist City Councilmember on Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai: “Socialism is the Only Answer”
13 October 2014
We speak to socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant about the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, who has expressed support for socialism. In 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman who boarded her school bus, but she survived and continued to campaign for the rights of girls to go to school. While she was recovering in England, she sent a message to a meeting of Pakistani Marxists in Lahore that “I am convinced Socialism is the only answer and I urge all comrades to take this struggle to a victorious conclusion. Only this will free us from the chains of bigotry and exploitation.”
This video, recorded in the USA, is called Malala Yousafzai To Obama’s Face: Drones Fuel Terrorism.
Ms Yousafzai won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Media said: ‘because of her stance for girls’ education’. Educating girls contributes to peace indeed, indirectly.
Media usually neglect Malala Yousafzai’s anti-drone warfare stance. This side of her makes her an even more deserving Nobel Prize winner, being more directly pro-peace. Alfred Nobel, founder of the prize, intended it for directly anti-war people.
Helen Keller from the USA is very famous as a champion of blind and deaf people. In the Capitol, where the United States Congress meets, a statue honours her.
Another famous woman from the USA is Katharine Lee Bates, author of the very well-known poem/song America the Beautiful. Ms Bates was a feminist, a lesbian, a Christian socialist, and an anti-imperialist. All of these now conveniently ‘forgotten’ by United States Right wingers, who, when singing America the Beautiful, conveniently forget its later stanzas, so inconvenient for them.
These two women have been dead for a long time. Will a young woman of only seventeen years old now suffer a similar fate at the hands of Big Politics and Big Media?
Ms. Yousafzai, from Pakistan’s picturesque Swat Valley, was shot in the head by a member of the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan (TTP or Pakistani Taliban Movement) two years ago this month for standing up for girls’ education.
Islamophobes who use her story as an indictment of the religion of Islam have another think coming. She credits her religion with inspiring her values, the values that made here a nobelist: “What the terrorists are doing is against Islam because Islam is a religion of peace. It tells us about equality, it tells us about brotherhood, it tells us about love and friendship and peace, that we should – we should be nice and kind to each other.”
It should be remembered that Ms. Yousafzai told Barack Obama off about his drone strikes in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of northwest Pakistan. She said of her meeting with the US president, “I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism… Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact.”
Honoring someone with the bravery and resiliency and ethical intelligence of a Malala Yousafzai is easy. Taking her more challenging positions seriously and engaging with them is much more difficult.
When Stoltenberg, the new boss of militarist organisation NATO, praised Malala, I felt disgust. Don’t let warmongers drown the true voice of the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner ever; the way the establishment tries to drown Katherine Lee Bates, Helen Keller, Dr Martin Luther King, etc. etc.
Malala Yousafzai gives $50,000 to reconstruction of Gaza schools. Nobel peace prize winner says money will go through UN agency and help rebuild 65 schools in Palestinian territory: here.
Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani female education activist, shot and wounded but never silenced by the Taliban, became the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize recipient last week. Few women have ever won a Nobel Prize. Of the 867 awards distributed since 1901, just 46 have gone to women: here.
Malala: Fearless teen leads fight for global education
12 November 2013
One year ago, Malala Yousafzai was recovering from an attempt on her life by the Taliban. Now, she is among the most famous girls in the world as she lobbies for education. Norah O’Donnell spoke with the young activist.
As one of very few journalists, Ms O’Donnell asked Malala about her talk with US President Obama, in which she expressed her opposition to United States drone warfare.
Snowden Nominated For Nobel Prize By Norwegian Politicians
01/29/14 06:34 AM ET EST
STAVANGER, Norway — Two Norwegian lawmakers say they have jointly nominated former NSA contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
Socialist lawmakers Baard Vegard Solhjell, a former environment minister, and Snorre Valen said Wednesday the public debate and policy changes “in the wake of Snowden‘s whistleblowing has contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order.”
Being nominated just means Snowden will be one of scores of names that the Nobel committee will consider for the prestigious award.
The five-member panel won’t confirm who’s been nominated but those who submit nominations sometimes make them public.
Nominators, including members of national parliaments and governments, university professors and previous laureates, must enter their submissions by Feb. 1.
The prize committee members can add their own candidates at their first meeting after that deadline.
Unfortunately, I doubt whether Snowden will get his well-deserved prize. Alfred Nobel in his will left decisions on the peace prize to the parliament of Norway. Norway then was still a neutral country. However, meanwhile, Norway is a member of the aggressive military alliance NATO. NATO countries participate in the United States “intelligence” establishment’s witch hunt against Snowden, which includes threats to murder him.
A decision by the Norwegian parliament to award Snowden the prize would mean a sharp break with NATO policy. Do they have the courage for that?
The National Security Agency monitored the communications of other governments ahead of and during the 2009 United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, according to the latest document from whistleblower Edward Snowden: here.
The National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden used inexpensive and widely available software to plunder the agency’s networks, it has been reported, raising further questions about why he was not detected: here.
We broadcast from Oslo, Norway, just outside Oslo City Hall, as the European Union receives the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. Norwegian peace organizations and opponents of the European Union held a torch-lit march Sunday to protest the decision.
Three Nobel Peace Prize laureates — Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland and Adolfo Perez Esquivel from Argentina — sent an unprecedented letter to the Nobel Committee opposing the award saying the 27-nation bloc contradicts Alfred Nobel‘s vision of a demilitarized global peace order.
From daily The Morning Star in Britain:
Nobel farce as EU accepts peace prize
Monday 10 December 2012
EU presidents Herman van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso managed to keep straight faces today as they picked up the Nobel Peace Prize.
Hundreds of Norwegians welcomed the 20 government heads who turned up for the lavish two-day ceremony with a torch-lit protest against the award.
Polls estimate that around 60 per cent of Norwegians are against the EU being awarded the prize and the country has twice voted to stay out of the bloc.
European Commission president Barroso said: “You can count on our efforts to fight for lasting peace, freedom and justice in Europe and in the world.”
But back in the real world campaigners pointed to glaring hypocrisy of the EU accepting the prize.
Peace prize laureates Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire and Adolfo Perez Esquivel have all demanded the bloc get no money because it contradicts the values of the prize.
But Scottish Campaign Against Euro Federalism secretary John Foster told the Star that the EU was continuing Alfred Nobel‘s policy of using his business power to enforce its world monopoly on dynamite sales “on a much bigger scale.”
He made lots of money from wars, but did not like war.
The Nobel Peace Prize, bequeathed by him, should be, according to Alfred Nobel, for those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
The European Union, winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, does not deserve that prize. The European Union has not contributed anything to the reduction of standing armies, let alone their abolition. Quite the contrary: in the European Union’s proposed constitution (rejected by referendum voters in France and in the Netherlands) there was a clause making it mandatory for European Union member states to increase their “defence” war budgets. The European Union also wants to have its own armed forces, as if the member states’ armed forces are not already bad enough.
Alfred Nobel in his will left decisions about the Nobel Peace Prize to the parliament of Norway. Norway then was a neutral country. In 2012, however, it is a member of the NATO military alliance.
So, now the bureaucracy in Brussels joins other undeserving Nobel Peace Prize winners; from Martti Ahtisaari from Finland (another ex-neutral, now European Union, country) to Barack Obama (who had only been president of the USA for a short time when he got the prize, and after winning it, escalated the war in Afghanistan).
The European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ‘six decades of work in advancing peace in Europe’, according to Thorbjoern Jagland of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who added: ‘Since 1945 reconciliation has become a reality.’
Try telling that to the workers of Greece and Spain who are being savaged by the EU’s class war austerity measures, to the point where thousands of families are going hungry, and where the Greek workers regard the German-led EU as the ‘Fourth Reich’.
As the world crisis of capitalism deepens, along with its financial crisis, the costs of the maintenance of the EU and the eurozone will see the class war imposed throughout Europe, especially on the streets of its capitals, as workers understand that since the EU can only survive by breaking them, to survive they will have to break the EU, and advance to a Socialist United States of Europe.
With a stunning hypocrisy, the Nobel Committee said the EU had helped to transform Europe ‘from a continent of war to a continent of peace’, and that for over 40 years it had prevented a new Franco-German war.
This new European war has been prevented thus far, by the bourgeoisie of France and Germany uniting to try to carry through what Hitler attempted and could not achieve, uniting Europe, this time under the heel of German and French capital. This is what has kept them from each other’s throats, so far.
On this basis this alliance went forward to break all the pledges that were made to Gorbachev not to advance the EU’s borders and the NATO alliance up to Russia’s frontiers.
In the process the EU played a leading role in a great European war, destroying Yugoslavia and creating a dozen or so new states all under the thumb of Brussels, through the means of pogroms the likes of which had not been seen since Hitler’s days, air attacks and military interventions on the ground, including the mass bombing of Belgrade.
The most recent interventions of the peace-loving EU has been the Italian, French and UK air assault on Libya, with the murder of Gadaffi, and the support for puppet forces in Syria to attempt the overthrow of the Assad government through destroying the country, with France openly calling for military intervention.
Now, with the advent of the capitalist crisis, imperialist wars have been joined by civil wars to preserve the EU by smashing the working class of Europe.
EU ‘democracy’ now sees the EU bankers and politicians appointing key members of the Greek and Italian governments.
This is while the Franco-German alliance weakens, as German capital attacks the ‘lazy southerners’ who are said to be responsible for the entire EU crisis. The Franco-German alliance is now weakening to the point where the German bosses openly proclaim that they are the masters of the new Europe, and that the Greeks and the others must be starved so that the ‘peace loving’ EU can continue.
The truth of the matter is that the Nobel Committee is desperately seeking to prop up the collapsing EU, whose attempt to unite Europe under the rule of Franco-German capital is collapsing.
The EU was an attempt to reconcile the contradictions of the imperialist powers at the expense of the workers of the EU and the workers of Africa and the Middle East especially.
Why Europe Did Not Deserve a Nobel Peace Prize: here.
AT the same moment as France and Germany were being given a Nobel prize for keeping the peace in Europe, ie not going to war with each other for the last 60 years, the two countries were in fact squaring up to each other over the future of the EU, the single currency and ‘policing’ the budgets of the eurozone states: here.
Watchdog the International Peace Bureau branded the decision to hand the Nobel Peace prize to the European Union unlawful today: here.
Adding Insult to Injury: On the 2010 Bank of Sweden Economics Prize in Memory of Alfred Nobel
by Yanis Varoufakis
Imagine a world ravaged by a plague, and suppose that the year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine is awarded to researchers whose whole career is based on the assumption that plagues are impossible. The world would have been outraged. That is precisely how we should feel about yesterday’s announcement of the recipients of the 2010 Nobel Prize.
The three academic economists, upon whom the 2010 Economics Nobel Prize was just bestowed, are undoubtedly technically accomplished, innovative in the way that they construct their models, and, in fact, rather nice people. But before we give them a pat on the back, and join in their celebrations, let us have a look at the official description of their contribution to society. This is how the Financial Times (11th October 2010) presented the body of work of the three men: Peter Diamond, Dale Mortenson, and Chris Pissarides:
[They] “have made fundamental contributions to understanding how supply and demand are matched when there are transactions or search costs involved. . . . The laureates “search and matching” theories show that it is not enough to have buyers and sellers who can in principle agree on a price; those buyers and sellers must also find each other and decide to enter into a transaction rather than hold out for a better match. Transactions do not happen by themselves but after a search process that can be costly and time-consuming, the research found. This makes it possible for market outcomes to match supply and demand well, inefficiently or not at all. The laureates’ insights have been applied, by themselves and many other researchers, to a wide range of markets, including the housing market, financial products and even marriage choices. But the most important application has been labour markets. Frictions in the matching of workers and jobs mean that labour market outcomes can be inefficient. In particular, the market may produce outcomes in which unemployment persists even if there are workers who would be willing to work at a wage employers would be willing to pay.”
And now for the translation: The three laureates have spent the better part of their careers studying what happens when there are jobs around but the workers who want them cannot find the employers who would like to employ them; and vice versa. On occasion they have narrated cases, using elegant mathematical depictions, like the one in which employer Jack would have happily wanted to hire worker Jill had he known that Jill is, in fact, quite productive but does not hire her because poor Jill has no way of convincing him that she is — e.g. because she is so desperate that she would work for a wage so low that it ‘signals’ to Jack that, to be that desperate, she cannot possibly be as productive a worker as she claims! Lastly, one of them (Mortenson) cut his teeth showing that workers can rationally choose to become unemployed as an ‘investment strategy': that is, to quit a bad job in search of a better one (an activity that may need to be a full-time endeavor).
Interestingly, these three fine mathematical economists have one thing in common, other than their work on labor markets: in their voluminous theoretical output on unemployment and the like, there is not a smidgeon of a hint, of a mention, of an economic crisis which may boost unemployment in every sector and for all types of workers. Not one!
Thus, the plague parallel above. In 2008, for the first time since 1929, capitalism went into a paroxysm at a grand scale. Millions of people lost their homes, even more lost their jobs, houses remain unsold and workers linger in the no man’s land of redundancy. At a time when even Mr. Bernanke is worried about the widespread impact and inexorable dynamic of unemployment, from the construction industry to the high technology sector, these three economists are rewarded for work on unemployment based on models in which mass unemployment is simply impossible.
How can that be? My simple claim is this: Mainstream economics is the most peculiar of all theoretical failures. Unlike astrology or phrenology, economics becomes more discursively powerful the greater its incapacity to inform us on really existing capitalism.
Bono just managed to hit a new low, proposing we scrap the minimum wage: here.
Recession continues for most Americans, even as Wall Street pay sets new records: here.
Citigroup accused of using recession to get rid of female employees: here.
Billionaire Investor Found Guilty of Fraud and Conspiracy. Peter Lattman, The New York Times News Service: “Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire investor who once ran one of the world’s largest hedge funds, was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy on Wednesday by a federal jury in Manhattan. He is the most prominent figure convicted in the government’s crackdown on insider trading on Wall Street. Mr. Rajaratnam, who was convicted on all 14 counts, could face as much as 19 and a half years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, prosecutors said on Wednesday. He will be sentenced on July 29″: here.
