Is humour a recognised characteristic of Norway? Obviously, with the award of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union, Norway appears in a new light. The prize was awarded among other things for the EU role of “fraternity amongst nations” and “peace congresses” promoting “peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe for over six decades”.
Perhaps there is something in the water in Norway. A better description of the EU would surely be as the jailer of Europe’s peoples and nations. The promoter of the greatest extension of police powers, data collection and spying on individual citizens of Europe.
Maybe the prize goes to the promoter of the most reactionary anti-trade union and anti-worker legislation outside of the United States of America? The promoter of every crackpot failed market-driven economic nightmare ever dreamt up by capitalist theoreticians and politicians – Hayek, Friedman, Thatcher, Merkel, Cameron?
Or perhaps the promoter of a new colonialism through the ex-empires of its member states – Britain, France, Germany, Portugal etc? The promoter of war and breakup of nation states – Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Britain next? The assassin of democracy and promoter of unelected autocrats in Greece, Italy and Belgium?
What kept the peace before the EEC was founded in 1957? What really kept the peace, in fact, ever since 1945? A clue is that Europe’s first war since 1945, the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia, only happened after the demise of the Soviet Union.
The EU and NATO go hand in hand – war in Afghanistan, war in Libya, war in Syria. The Nobel Peace Committee would have been better following its precedent of 1914-18 and 1939-45 and awarding no prize.
Truly, the Nobel Peace Prize has become a farce (unlike the highly respected scientific awards). It was founded by dynamite inventor and arms manufacturer Alfred Nobel, after all. And who, exactly, awards it? Stand up the four proud members of the Norwegian Peace Committee, political lightweights all: Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe; Kaci Kullmann Five, self-employed public affairs advisor and former chair of Norway’s Young Conservatives; Inger-Marie Ytterhorn, advisor to the conservative-liberal Progress Party; and Berit Reiss-Andersen, a lawyer and Norwegian Labour Party politician. Surprised, anyone? ■