One day before the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize it seems to me the most appropriate moment to reflect on this well-known recognition. Few have never heard of the Nobel Prize, but how many know what the Nobel Prize is, why it exists and who assigns it? I will try to gather here various information available to all and unfortunately ignored by the most, small pieces of a mosaic scattered and lost in the abundance of redundant information, put together they will show a different and perhaps more authentic image of the illusion in which many lose their own life. When you look at the single piece of a mosaic, little or nothing can be understood, only by looking at the whole the importance of the parts is understood.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a chemist, inventor and businessman. Among his most famous patents are dynamite and gelignite, also known as blasting gelatin. His father, Immanuel Nobel, also an inventor, often experimented with nitroglycerin together with his children, playing with children is important; an explosion during one of these experiments caused the death of one of his sons, the young Emil Oskar Nobel, and other people. Among his great contributions to humanity is an improved version of the explosive underwater mine. Immanuel also founded a war material factory, the Fonderies et Ateliers Mécaniques Nobel Fils, very profitable in times of war, but when cuts occurred in military budgets and the economic difficulties came, the company was sold to creditors. Yoda would certainly have told the young Alfred that the War runs strong in his family. The young Alfred Nobel met the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero, the inventor of nitroglycerin, and John Ericsson, who designed the battleship USS Monitor used in the American civil war, while the family factory produced weapons for the Crimean war. Alfred Nobel devoted himself completely to finding a way to control nitroglycerin and make it commercially usable as an explosive. Pursuing his dreams and patenting mixtures, devices, production methods, based on the explosive power of Sobrero’s discovery, at the end Nobel invented dynamite, gelignite and ballistite, which made him an immense wealth, for those who didn’t know, those inventions of great value are all explosives. We could call the period in which Alfred Nobel operated the boom of the boom. Nobel has always been interested in peace in all his affairs, such as when he bought Bofors and remodeled it, transforming it from a trivial iron and steel manufacturer into a more modern and profitable artillery manufacturer. A curiosity about Bofors: the Bofors is famous for the Bofors 40 mm gun, used by both sides during the Second World War, when selling weapons it is always better not to choose a side and leave a wallet ready to be filled by both. Violence and money often walk hand in hand together holding a gun.
No, something is wrong, Nobel Peace Prize? Are you kidding? There must be an explanation.
In 1888 Ludvig, Alfred’s brother, died while he was in Cannes and a French newspaper mistakenly published Alfred’s obituary. The obituary stated, Le marchand de la mort est mort (“The merchant of death is dead”) and went on saying: “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday”. Alfred (who had never had a wife or children) was disappointed by what he read and worried about how he would be remembered. So he decided, surprisingly, to change his will.
Excerpt from the will of Alfred Nobel:
“All of my remaining realisable assets are to be disbursed as follows: the capital, converted to safe securities by my executors, is to constitute a fund, the interest on which is to be distributed annually as prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The interest is to be divided into five equal parts and distributed as follows: one part to the person who made the most important discovery or invention in the field of physics; one part to the person who made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who, in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction; and one part to the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses. The prizes for physics and chemistry are to be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical achievements by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be selected by the Norwegian Storting.”
And Now for Something Completely Different, in the will, in the end, it is also written:
“Finally, it is my express wish that following my death, my arteries be severed, and when this has been done and competent doctors have confirmed clear signs of death, my remains be incinerated in a crematorium.”
I find it slightly bizarre that he wants competent doctors to confirm clear signs of death after his arteries have been severed, I suggest to those who want to imitate him to reverse the order, first confirm the death and then, if you like, have the arteries severed.
Let’s go back and talk about the 5 prizes, yes five, no, they are not 6, read the will carefully, there is no Nobel prize for Economic Sciences, it’s just another bullshit.
The Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences is actually The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (Swedish: Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), it has been awarded since 1969, following the establishment by Sveriges Riksbank of a special endowment fund for awarding the prize. A bullshit to give prestige to those who often say bullshit. A prize / golden calf to glorify the money god in the eyes of his worshipers while the rest of the world dies of hunger.
Let us return to what interests us most, peace.
As we have read, in the will, Nobel clearly specified for each prize which experts are responsible for deciding who to assign it to.
The decision on the Nobel Peace Prize goes to five people selected by the Storting, the Norwegian parliament. I am not an expert on Norwegian, and in this I could be wrong, it is rare but it can happen, it seems to me it is written five people selected by the Storting and not that they must be or have been members of the Norwegian parliament, as it almost always happened.
The Nobel Peace Prize is an electoral award, not a political one, because political is a beautiful word misused. It depends on who wins the elections in Norway. And we all know the commitment of the majority of the elected around the world in favor of peace (yes, here you can laugh). There are many contradictions and bullshit around this prize. Some examples?
Mahatma Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and, finally, a few days before his assassination in January 1948. No prize for him, the dead are not allowed to receive it. But Obama received it immediately, before starting two full terms full of wars, a record even for American presidents, which are not usually pacifists.
The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 and now the front person of the successful “No to EU” campaign at the 1994 referendum, leader of the opposition to the European Union, sits on the committee that decides on the prize.
In a few hours the new prize will be awarded and the bookmakers refer to Greta Thunberg as their favorite, and the bookmakers know about money winnings.
Lula is also among the nominees, but I think he deserves more to get out of prison and receive a fair trial, perhaps by looking at the judges and prosecutors who violated the law on the other side of the bars.
I respect Greta Thunberg, I hope it is clear that my criticism wants to be constructive and non-destructive, I believe that, after all, her intentions are good, it is not her fault that she has no idea what she is doing, she is only a little girl with more vision of the future than many adults, there should be other people in her place, doing something really useful. Why should the young Greta be given a Nobel Peace Prize? For her environmental efforts?
In 2007, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and to Al Gore “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”. Is it a loop that we have to repeat from time to time? Or in twelve years has the world understood absolutely nothing? We have to give her the prize because it is right to go to America on a zero-emission boat so as not to occupy a seat on an airplane that would have flown the same, even if it would take four flights for the crew to bring the boat back again? Crew that does not live with zero emissions and has dedicated many days of its life to this bullshit. There are no zero-emission boats, nothing exists with zero emissions, to do anything it takes resources and with resources you can only do two things, or use them in the best way or waste them. Humanity is good at wasting them. And nobody wastes more resources than the rich, be them people or countries.
I hope for Greta that she does not receive the award, because she and her little fans may not have understood it yet, but they are not the solution to the problem, they have become part of the problem, they have become the camouflage of the problem. Making them manifest, making them talk, giving them the minimum of listening, it seems that everything is changing, but nothing is changing. In 12 years from now, if we are not all already extinct, who will be the new Greta? And after that? I personally believe that it is smarter to take a plane than to spend too much time in these short lives at sea and I believe, too, that planes should always improve and pollute less, have more honest prices and abolish luxuries and waste of resources for comfort of the rich. It is the lifestyle of the rich and the poor who like to imitate them what is destroying the world.
Many scientists have an interesting idea about what to do to curb climate change, a crazy and far more fascinating idea than not taking a plane or ceasing to reproduce: WHALES, I wrote it big because they are big. I won’t bore you here with all the scientific details, but in my opinion, someone’s opinion not so smart to deserve a Nobel, it’s a good idea. In the worst case, what can go wrong? We’ll have more whales in the oceans, I don’t think it’s a disaster. So why don’t we do it? Who tops the ranking for commercial whaling? Surprise: Norway! In May 2004, who did pass a resolution to increase the number of whales hunted each year? Surprise: the Norwegian Parliament. I don’t know who will win the Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow and it’s not important, nothing will change because of this. If there was a serious prize for peace, this year I would give it to Carola Rackete, the German ship captain who bravely chose to risk everything to save lives. Carola’s boat is one that I like, even though I wish it weren’t needed. The Nobel prizes are the price paid by Alfred Nobel to hide the shame of all the deaths for which he was responsible. Often even those who assign them, those who receive them or those who simply assist have shame to hide. And the whole world pays the price.
Some links:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whales-keep-carbon-out-of-the-atmosphere/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8538033.stm
https://us.whales.org/our-4-goals/stop-whaling/whaling-in-norway/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/07/norway-boosts-whaling-quota-international-opposition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling#Whaling_catches_by_location
https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/02/which-countries-have-continued-to-hunt-whales
https://awionline.org/content/norwegian-whaling
