Nobel Peace Prize for Europe – a joke

You must wonder if there is a need for something like the Nobel prize for peace. In fact, it’s everyone’s duty to do everything possible to maintain peace and prevent war. There is no need to have a special award for something like this. Usually a prize like this is no more than a bit of backslapping by the rich and powerful who have little better to do. But sometimes this goes just too far. Last week Norway announced that Europe as a whole had been awarded the Nobel prize for peace. Apparently this was done because Europe has managed to maintain peace since the Second World War.

This is the biggest lie that has ever come out of the Nobel committee. It is true that since 1945 a third world war has been avoided. But that does not mean that the countries of the European Union have only been involved in peaceful activities. First of all there was the cold war against the Soviet Union and other countries of the Warsaw Pact. For decades the European countries, especially Germany, did everything possible to destabilize the Soviet Union, and they were involved in every American threat made against the Warsaw Pact.

American nuclear weapons are still littering Europe, even though the cold war has been over for years. Then, what to think of the way Europe destroyed the former Yugoslavia? Again it was Germany who started the conflict on the Balkan by recognizing Croatia, which was illegally breaking away. This was the start of a bloody war in which NATO planes bombed Serbia at random. Thousands of people died as a result. Apparently the Nobel committee has forgotten this war on European soil. We can make a long list of interventions by Europe in the Middle East, sometimes open en sometimes in a more hidden way. But the results were always the same. More people killed, more destruction, and intervening in the affairs of other countries far beyond international laws.

If this is keeping the peace, it makes you wonder what war would look like. It is also said that the prize has been awarded to boost the European idea. It is this idea that has started the current financial crisis and which has plunged millions of people, especially in southern Europe, in poverty and unemployment. While the European idea is turning Europe more and more into a field of destruction, the clutter brains in Norway paint a picture of Europe that makes paradise look like a neglected backyard.

So why has this prize been awarded? We have already seen that it has nothing to do with peace. The answer is simple. The European leaders needed a boost to hide their panic and confusion over de Euro crisis. They were desperate for some good news while their system is collapsing with increasing pace. The peoples of Europe are rightly associating Europe en the EU with cutbacks, financial chaos and increasing police repression. That picture is right and in accordance with reality. But the European leaders want to show another side. A side which in reality does not exist. The Nobel committee has let itself be used for this unrealistic European propaganda. Propaganda, which hides the truth and paints a rosy picture of a bankrupt system.

We all know that the European leaders and the truth are a combination which does not match. It is logic that they try to draw others into this murky game. You cannot even blame them. But you can blame the Nobel committee which let itself be used in such an obvious way. The European leaders can now congratulate themselves with this so-called achievement. But they will not fool anybody. The peoples of Europe have taken a long time to see the truth about the EU and open their eyes. But now they know a propaganda lie when they see one. So in the end no one will benefit from this distasteful charade.

If the committee in Norway wanted to give a prize, they should have given it to the European peace movement which has fought for years against higher defence spending, war preparations, nuclear arms and foreign interventions. The millions who demonstrated and stood on picket lines. Who withstood police attacks and condemnation through the rightwing and establishment press.

They deserve this peace prize every year. But instead of getting a prize they are seen as troublemakers, traitors or the enemy within. This goes to show how serious the Oslo committee is when it comes to real peace. After this debacle the best thing is to abolish the prize altogether and have done with it. Before anymore sickening awards are made. It degrades prizes such as these and ignores the people who really care about peace. End of story, we would say.