World peace

The Nobel prize for peace, a well-known big prize and even a bigger honor to receive. It is the prize given to the person ‘who shall 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 last time this honor was however donated to Barack Obama - a person of whom by that time it was impossible to say that had ‘done the most or the best work’, even better; he had done about nothing yet! Such a ‘mistake’ by the organization of the Nobel prize can (maybe) be tolerated once. It has done some damage to the worth and weight of the prize, but hey, as long as they choose someone better the next time… right..?

The new runner up for the prize proposed by the American magazine WIRED might however completely destroy the image of the Nobel prize. They are convinced the internet deserves the Nobel prize for peace! The internet, out of everything! The medium open to any kind of anonymous discrimination, unabashed cursing, raw censuring in countries like China, and after all let’s not forget that the internet originates from the war between America and Russia in the times of the atomic threat. That indeed really sounds like world peace…

Personally I think the internet might have contributed something to the fraternity between nations by improving the communication, but that is about the only demand of the Nobel prize definition the internet fulfills. I can simply not see how the magazine could come up with the crazy idea to give the Nobel prize to the internet when there are so many alternatives to choose from..