I suppose were supposed to drop anything were doing, no matter how important, and start jumping around like headless chickens, in celebration. US president Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which makes him the first American black man since Ralph Bunche (1950) and Martin Luther King, Jr (1964) to get the Peace Prize. Of course, he hasnt achieved anything yet, and like Bunche he is a coconut, but there seems no reason why he should be given the Prize. Or maybe the prize committee has run out of recipients that wouldnt raise objections, like the organization of doctors on both sides that worked for peace in the Cold War, or Al Gore for bringing about global warming. The Nobel was a quintessential Cold War weapon, and was countered by the Moscow-controlled Lenin Prizes, but in the USAs Bicentenary Year of 1976, all five Prizes were given to Americans. Leading the celebrations were all those Palestinians, Kashmiris, Afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis to whom Obama made promises during his campaign which he kept when he became President. Leading the celebrations was President Asif Zardari, who ordered his daughter to write a rap song on the occasion. Interior Minister Rehman Malik was busy fighting the War on Terror, but he told his parties that their residence in Harlem would only continue if they too came up with a celebratory rap song. No matter how fierce their trousers. Ralph Bunche, the first person of colour to receive the Prize, was given it for his efforts in Palestine. Note that he got the Prize in 1950, and now 59 years on, Palestine is still under illegal occupation, and there does not seem to be a solution in sight. Before that, he had helped draft the Charter of the UN, in the formation of which he had an important role. That Charter has made Kashmiris laugh since 1948. So the Prize should not raise any hopes even among the Award Committee, let alone in this part of the world. Another very important lesson is that the Prize does not mean a solution of the problem for which it has been awarded. Even if it has been awarded to a white man rather than a coconut. Another interesting thing is that this is the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded to an American President since Theodore Roosevelt, who got it in 1906. Interestingly, he too was a sitting President, so it seems that all of Jimmy Carters efforts will go in vain. He didnt make it between 1976 and 1980, when he was President, so he probably wont make it now. Teddy got his Prize for championing mediation, but he is not the best company for an American President, being an out-and-out imperialist, who probably wouldnt have approved of the wishy-washy American methods in Iraq and Afghanistan. Somebody celebrated by going amok in GHQ. Someone should catch the culprits, who also took a brigadier and a lieutenant-colonel. The whole situation has gone too far, and you have got people of JCO-level doing in senior officers. Someone must pay, and it should be Obama, because if he had not won the Prize, GHQ would have been saved. And those who dont know that GHQ is sacred ground deserve whatever they get. And they should get it fast. But maybe the Nobel Peace Prize is going to be for US Presidents like the Nishan-i-Imtiaz (Military) for Pakistani service chiefs and its JCS chairman: to be awarded irrespective of any achievement, as something which is awarded just as a marker, and that so to speak, goes with the territory. The only problem is that the Peace Prize must be awarded every year, while Presidents only arrive once in eight (or four) years, while the NI(M) need not be awarded unless there is a change. If thats the case, and the Prize is merely an acknowledgement of the Leader of the Free World, thats all very well. But it does debase the value of the Prize for the recipients in the other years. In fact, come to think of it, it devalues the Prizes in other fields as well, since the whole purpose is ideological, isnt it? And once people realize that the new US President will win a Peace Prize no matter what he does, the sheen will come off the Prize very quickly. But then, it means that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is on the lookout for off-year nominees. Some of our local candidates would be our President, of course, our ex-President (now enjoying himself in exile), for their glorious role in having peace with India at the expense of the Kashmiri people. Then there would be the Interior Minister for his one-man show in the War on Terror. Then would come his parties, who would probably welcome a Swedish visa, who would probably claim the Literature Prize, provided of course that it was left alone by our First Rapper.