An Inconvenient Noble Prize

Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were chosen to share the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Protecting our environment is important and each one of us, including Al Gore can make small changes in our lifestyles to cut down on waste.

The Noble Peace Prize used to be awarded to those who strove for justice and peace. In 2006, Muhammed Yunus and Grameen Bank won for an innovative program for micro-credits in impoverished areas.

For the past ten years, there has been a largely political thrust to the Noble Peace Prize. But in all honesty, I stopped having any respect for it when it was awarded to Yassar Arafat in 1994 and Jimmy Carter in 2002.

Arafat never stopped embracing terror as was shown by the 2nd intifada. Jimmy Carter action's and books have led to unfair accusations against Israel while ignoring the terror tactics of Fatah and Hamas.

There were so many more appropriate candidates for this years Nobel Peace Prize. The Burma Monks come to mind. Their peaceful demonstrations were crushed by the Burmese junta. The Wall Street Journal has an impressive list of those who skipped over this year. Below are just a few:

The prize was also not awarded to Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders who were arrested and in some cases beaten by police earlier this year while protesting peacefully against dictator Robert Mugabe.

Or to Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam arrested this year and sentenced to eight years in prison for helping the pro-democracy group Block 8406.

Or to Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni, co-founders of the League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia, who are waging a modest struggle with grand ambitions to secure basic rights for women in that Muslim country.

Or to Colombian President Àlvaro Uribe, who has fought tirelessly to end the violence wrought by left-wing terrorists and drug lords in his country.

These are people who face death on a daily basis because they refuse to remain silent about injustices. The women in Saudi Arabia face extreme violations of their civil rights. How much good could the Nobel Peace Prize have done by highlighting the work of Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni?

But no, this year, it went inconveniently to those who don't need any more attention. Gore is inconveniently in the news almost daily. Far too many, myself included, have never heard of Reverend Phillip Buck; Pastor Chun Ki Won and his organization, Durihana; Tim Peters and his Helping Hands Korea; and Liberty in North Korea, who help North Korean refugees escape to safety in free nations.

A truly inconvenient Noble Peace Prize.

I saw this at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy