The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama is a symbolic gesture to youth all over the developing world who have a new hero, our symbol.
Here is an example. In 2007, with support from the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense, I researched attitudes related to political violence among youth in the tumbledown neighborhood of Jemaa Mezuak in Tetuan, Morocco. The Mezuak had provided 5 of the 7 young men who blew themselves up when cornered by Spanish police for their role in the 2004 Madrid train bombing, as well as several others who had volunteered for suicide missions in Iraq.
One of the questions I asked was, "Who's your hero? Who do you want to grow up to be like?" Number one was a soccer star, number two the fictional film character "The Terminator" (with no awareness of any relation to the present governor of California) and number three, Osama bin Laden.
But in mid-November 2008, when I repeated the survey, Obama had surpassed Osama as the youths' top political role model. Ali, the deeply religious owner of Mezuak's "Cyprus Barbershop," who was following the progress of the survey, and had known and tended the Madrid plotters and Iraqi volunteers since their boyhood, commented:
Hope isn't always reality. The Middle East is a rose, a flower so sweet that no bees can resist it for their honey. Bees, you know, have to work together, and Obama must as well. That's the way of the world (tariq al-'alam).
"But people can change things," I protested. And a dictum dawned on me whose originator I have forgotten: "The only true law of history is the law of surprises," I blurted. The barber of boys who would kill for a cause ─ or be Barack Obamas ─ lifted his eyebrows and then his whole face to sky, stroked his beard and smiled: "Maybe someday, but not today." Perhaps the ability to simply inspire that hope now indeed merits a Nobel.
Scott Atran, an anthropologist at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, John Jay College and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, is the author of the forthcoming Talking to the Enemy.
Huffington Post: Obama's Nobel Peace Prize: HuffPost Bloggers Weigh In
President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize early Friday morning, and HuffPost bloggers have offered opinions that range from skeptical to angry to adulatory.
say Obama biggest accomplishment would be becoming the first
black man to be president of the United State of America. A country
where less than 50 years ago he could not go to the same school, used
the same restroom, eat at the same table, live in the same neighborhoods,
vote or drink from the same fountains as the majority of it citizens could.
I think by awarding him the Peace Prize it also goes to all the ones that
were knock down my fire hoses, hit with bats, jailed, pushed, bombed and
killed to make it possible. Or maybe it should be America itself for making
it possible but whatever it is to say it is not an accomplishment is ludicrous.
Could it be that the ones that cannot see it think it should be that way again?
For this achievement alone, Barack Obama , the 44th President of the United States,
has earned the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Motto: Give an already rich guy (Obama) over a million dollars with a prize, and that will generate hope for the youth of the world. It would be even more generous to give Obama a billion $$$$. Imagine how big a boost of hope that would be. In the meantime foreclosures throw thousands of children on the streets with their parents, but our champion of piece does not seem to have word of hope on that matter. Piece be with you!
Our president is certainly a role model for my teenage daughter and other teenagers who are her friends. This is well deserved.
I 'hope' our president takes action on the principles he campaigned on.
He should be a bit more than an uplifting spokesmodel for
hope.
We’ve taken arts and ethics out of our schools and daily our youth juggle a family life shattered by divorce.
MerrieWay Community recently facilitated a ‘Morph America’ program at the ‘Boys and Girls Club’. Youth, ages 11- 13 (most in Foster Care) created a time capsule to be opened in 2109. They dreamed’ a positive future for 100 years from now. Main topic they chose was to eliminate drugs. Their reasons: “Drugs kill those we love, hurts our family.”
100% of the kids could dream for a better future. Only 25% could dream a good future for themselves. That 25% envisioned: Boys- “I’m going to play in the NBA.” “I want a skateboarding sponsor.” Michael Jordan, etc. served as role models. The girls dreamed. “I want a house, a husband, three kids.” Not the idealism of 50’s but prayers to have what they’ve never had. “A home to feel secure and a family to love.”
Join us step up shine a bright light of hope for our kids. MerrieWay shares the “Morph America” curriculum with ‘Boys and Girls’ Clubs and schools nationwide. Heartfelt caring uplifts hope. www.hollywoodmag.org