Dream costs nothing. To daydream, it costs next to nothing. A person in power, could make this statement because he can deliberately disrupt carefully built international relationships with a signature. This task becomes much easier, if he has advisors who misguide based on misinformation or who have sealed lips. As the daydream trans-lands from an episode to a full-length feature film in which something happens in every frame - the rest of the world finds itself flooded with diktats from one sunrise to the next, every hour on the hour. There is no method but only madness in this ruler of a proclaimed, benchmark democracy.
Imaginch has been dreaming for a Nobel Peace Prize. Once he even asked his one and only friend about his chances of getting it. The friend asked him, what credentials do you have to covet that Prize? Feeling hurt, Imaginch replied, " I have never quarrelled with my neighbours and never stood in a place where a fight is going on."
His friend replied, “Your case is as pathetic as a weak password, you are encouraged to improve in any internet portal."
Not to be put down so easily, Imaginch asked, “hypothetically speaking, what are my chance of getting that Prize?”
The friend became serious and replied, “At the most, six persons can be awarded a single Prize. Coming to your chances, I estimate about 10% of the world population living in all the six continents are eligible. To this we may have to add a few world leaders as VVIP wildcard entries. Even if you are one among the 10 does not help your case at all. Considering all these factors, the chances of someone from the Nobel Institute to recognise and award the Prize to you are ...”
Imaginch shouted, “Come on, out with it.”
His friend calmly replied, “Odds are astronomical and even beyond the Big Bang times the Big bang.”
Undaunted, Imaginch continued. “Even in his horrible dreams, Alfred Nobel could not have experienced the fright of his life. Politicians and dictators are busy dynamiting the very foundation of Nobel Prize for Peace. Quirk of fate, the inventor of dynamite unwittingly had provided the tool to take down the edifice he had erected for a Peace Nobel.
The ghost of Alfred Nobel must be ruing his dream of rewarding the Nobel Prize to those who brought the "greatest benefit to humankind" in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The ghost recalled the premature obituary that labelled him a "merchant of death” which forced him to create a lasting, positive legacy to overcome his repentance. The prizes were designed to reward outstanding achievements in key fields, to encourage progress.
Nobel dreamed of countering the destructive potential with constructive interventions. The Peace Prize has its own story - Nobel, inspired by the efforts, of his activist- friend for peace, decided to honuor those who worked for promoting international brotherhood and peace, with this coveted Prize. Nobel believed that humanism and the power of science and knowledge will work to improve society. Alfred’s ghost had only this regret, for having had these noble thoughts and thinking that the world would not be ruled by “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall type” people. The ghost cleverly used ‘people’ instead of ‘men’!
No doubt the value of things, moral and materials have changed a lot since his times. But this should not be used to make him turn in his grave, every year. Of course, it is a grave concern, which he failed foresee. Now, the grave-turners are breaking speed barriers to claim a Nobel, that too for Peace! Is it to keep their peace of mind?
The unashamed aspirations of political leaders are being expressed personally or by proxies. It did not matter whether the leaders are elected, selected or usurpers. On the flip side, the orchestrated trumpeting, unwittingly left a deep well of sympathy for Alfred Nobel.
Had he anticipated this lowering of the bar on the eligibility criterion, Alfred would have got proxies to demand a Nobel Peace Prize for him, before his demise. By today's standards, this would have easily passed muster as a coordinated PRO exercise. Roping in some NGOs to a deal with the Nobel Foundation will certainly add dignity & legitimacy for the bid. Alfred Nobel had set the precedence ‘for missing out’ on the moment of Nobel glory. Many after him, missed a Nobel Prize for their achievements and break throughs, including in the theatres of war & brokered peace.
This recent trend along with other countless unrelated trends, disturbed Imaginch, now a non-contender to any of the Nobel Prize - after his friend had dashed his hopes with insurmountable odds. Then you may ask why get disturbed?
Don’t the densely populated countries having an army of contenders- ranging from councillor to the head of the nation deserve a go at the Prize, with pending civil and criminal cases, short - or long-term residency in jail or out on bail from every court in the nation, trying to catalyse discontent, rewriting textbooks on tax free corruption practices and confusing the electorates, every time? Have these worthies not contributed in all the scientific, and economical spheres? Forgetting the criminal cases, why other efforts could not be considered for at least a runner-up Peace Nobel!
Another nation may have a political group picking up region and religion to demonstrate electoral-victory bending effects. Is this group's achievement not on par with Alfred Einstein's bending of light in space-time curvature? For this group's peaceful efforts, why not a Nobel, keeping aside the side effects like arson, looting, a few lost lives here and there and a few court cases?
Nations that went about colonising the world, importing dirt cheap working hands and literally stealing wealth from asunder get Peace Prize probably by leaving the colonised nations poor and starving and too weak. Where is the question of them fighting against the oppressor and at the same time take time to produce a contender! This being a shining example, what harm befalls, if a leader from a country, which is hard to locate on the world map, stakes a claim for Nabel Peace Prize? Are we again living in the wild west where people staked claims on mining and drilling rights?
These seekers are not disturbed by the fact that Nobel Peace Prize recipients Carl von Ossietzky (1935) Germany, Aung San Suu Kyi (1991) Myanmar, Liu Xiaobo (2010) China, Ales Bialiatski (2022) Belorussia and Narges Mohammadi (2023) Iran suffered incarceration and really had their necks on the chopping block.
Today's world runs on GDP, per capita income and Sovereign bonds and other evil monetary traps. When population density produced more conflicts, countries with lean population stood a chance to start conflicts and then appear to end them. The short list emerges with who spent time in stopping military actions initiated by their predecessors and a few among them who supplied arms to one or both the sides and simultaneously brokered peace deals. To improve the odds further, they to let loose a pack of influencers to get proposed or bludgeon the Nobel Institute to part with a Nobel Peace Prize, peacefully!
Those, who have authored textbooks on cheating, corruption, nepotism and cronyism and stock market manipulation, and now in prison, will be happy with a Prize for Peace or Literature! Little do they worry about turning these illustrious winners in their graves - Nobel laureates in Literature who wrote their works after enduring imprisonment - Knut Hamsun (1920), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1970), Wole Soyinka (1986), Imre Kertész (2002) and Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Often cited as a contender, but did not strike gold).
Blowing self-trumpet or trumped-up proxy support or # Nobel@ Trumpet concert is not the way to achieve this honour! Overconfidence, assumption, grand vision of global recognition, a burning desire to take the world by storm with an unwelcome solo performance is definitely not enough. Has the world not survived the worst? Imaginch picked up his gauntlet against Alfred Nobel, albeit 125 odd years later. He had questions for him.
“Anticipating the changing world, you should have left a strict SOP to the Nobel Institute. This would have allowed the Peace Prize to enjoy a peaceful, meaningful and respectful existence without getting subjected to pulls and pressures from contenders. Why did not you do it?”
“You stood no chance, leaving the money and the world, to win a Nobel which would have amounted to a self-goal. But many after you missed a Nobel Prize for reasons other than their achievements and break thoughts. Don’t you realise that you have left a door open “for reasons other than” to bring pressure on the Institute, by personal declarations and through proxy voices?”
The Nobel Peace prize is under threat from diplomatic pouches bringing files on sanctions and deep freezing of assets. Diplomatic pouches are the soft threat and press briefings are hard threat. Has this world become munificent? In this world nothing is for free. Almost all pay for it but a rare breed of few makes all the others to pay for it, on behalf of them. Not so a noble trait, for getting a Nobel Prize. Whether the Institute will duck or dig in heels worried Imaginch.
After enduring this long winding speech, his one & only friend left the scene, without reworking to confirm the odds of Imaginch
getting a Nobel Prize, as the man himself had opted out of contention.
Before leaving, he said,
“Had Mr. Nobel foreseen the day when trumpet blowers would populate the bazaar,
with a mere hint he would have got a Nobel Prize awarded to himself. The committee
would have made sure that this Special Nobel Prize would never ever be awarded
to another person, living or dead!”
Imaginch cursed himself
for not coming with such a noble thought.
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