Dec 10 2009, amid controversies Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Well there is a controversy looming around this decision of the Nobel committee, where some believe that Obama deserves the prize for not being Bush and others find Obama’s statement on the necessity of war for achieving peace a little more like the statement of a Jihadist.
But as the controversy takes its own time to metamorphose into fact, and finally turn into a butterfly, as does most of the controversies, let’s analyze some of the top 10 controversial decisions of the Nobel committee from its inception in 1901.
No. 10 – The Inventors War
When it comes to Inventions, the first name that will come to anyone’s mind is Thomas Alva Edison. There will be no text-books dealing with Physics or Electronics which do not have the name of Edison in them. But Edison never received a Nobel questioning the credibility of the award itself.
Same is the case with Nikoli Tesla, the man who is credited with not only the Alternating Current, but also known as the inventor of Radio. Whereas Marconi received the Nobel for Radio in 1909, Tesla was not even nominated in that year. The Magnetic field is measured by the name which was not considered for Nobel.
These two inventors, although were nominated during 1916, bad-mouthed each other so much that the Nobel committee decided to skip the Nobel award for physics that year.
But as the controversy takes its own time to metamorphose into fact, and finally turn into a butterfly, as does most of the controversies, let’s analyze some of the top 10 controversial decisions of the Nobel committee from its inception in 1901.
No. 10 – The Inventors War
When it comes to Inventions, the first name that will come to anyone’s mind is Thomas Alva Edison. There will be no text-books dealing with Physics or Electronics which do not have the name of Edison in them. But Edison never received a Nobel questioning the credibility of the award itself.
Same is the case with Nikoli Tesla, the man who is credited with not only the Alternating Current, but also known as the inventor of Radio. Whereas Marconi received the Nobel for Radio in 1909, Tesla was not even nominated in that year. The Magnetic field is measured by the name which was not considered for Nobel.
These two inventors, although were nominated during 1916, bad-mouthed each other so much that the Nobel committee decided to skip the Nobel award for physics that year.
No. 9 – E = MC2
In one of my Physics papers there was this question, that “For what did Einstein awarded the Nobel Prize?” I as usual did not go prepared for the exams, but believed that this is an easy one. Although I was a bit confused between “Theory of Relativity” and “Mass Energy Equation”, I took a gamble and went for “Theory of Relativity”.
But after the exams, it was a surprise that neither were right answers. He was awarded the Nobel on his explanation of the Photoelectric Effect in 1921. Even though when compared to his other theories which were instrumental in creating a new term called “Modern Physics” as opposed to the Newtonian Physics, he was never recognized for his path-breaking theories explaining relativity or Mass Energy relation.
Some see this as a fallacy and others say that this is justified because some of his theories were yet to be proved during those times, but at the end of the day, I did not clear my Physics paper.
In one of my Physics papers there was this question, that “For what did Einstein awarded the Nobel Prize?” I as usual did not go prepared for the exams, but believed that this is an easy one. Although I was a bit confused between “Theory of Relativity” and “Mass Energy Equation”, I took a gamble and went for “Theory of Relativity”.
But after the exams, it was a surprise that neither were right answers. He was awarded the Nobel on his explanation of the Photoelectric Effect in 1921. Even though when compared to his other theories which were instrumental in creating a new term called “Modern Physics” as opposed to the Newtonian Physics, he was never recognized for his path-breaking theories explaining relativity or Mass Energy relation.
Some see this as a fallacy and others say that this is justified because some of his theories were yet to be proved during those times, but at the end of the day, I did not clear my Physics paper.
No. 8 – Barracks Obama
The most recent controversy surrounding the peace prize, guess there is nothing required to talk more on this. It is time for the man to do it in action.
No. 7 – A Pre – Phosphorus mistake
The man who created the first periodic table of classification of the known elements, Mendeleev, never received the Nobel. He was nominated for the Nobel in 1906 but due to the behind the scene politics, he did not get the award. The Chemistry award that year went to a man who isolated fluorine from its compounds.
No 6. – War and Peace
1973 – Henry Kissinger gets the Nobel for Peace.
1969 – 1975 – Henry Kissinger was involved in bombing NVA infiltrators in Cambodia
1975 – Operation Condor, involving the assassination of more than 60,000 people belonging to the left wing in S. America. USA even though played a Supervisory role in this, Kissinger was the man on the forefront, allegedly well aware of the Operation Condor.
Nobel peace was put to good use in quelling all the opposing elements ensuring peace.
No 5 – Hesperisum – What is that ???
In 1938, Enrico Fermi was awarded the Nobel in Chemistry for creating this weird named element Hesperium. But later It was found that he has not created any new elements and the Hesperium is nothing but some isotope produced due to Nuclear Fission.
A Nobel once given cannot be recalled.
No 4 – Sabbatical wars
Anwar Sadat, the then PM of Egypt, who lead the Yom Kippur war, on the day of the Sabbath against Israel, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.
Also another person Menachim Begin, who was an alleged terrorist, against the British rule in Israel, was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the same year.
No 3 – The PLO and Peace Prize
1994 – Yasser Arafat, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Arafat, a known terrorist leader, with a long history of violence was awarded the Peace Prize.
No. 2 – Ahimsa’s Way out
While Yasser Arafat, Anwar Sadat and Kissinger were given the peace prize, with known history of violence, the man who wielded his walking stick and travelled the nation promoting peaceful protests was shown the door by the Nobel Committee.
Gandhi was nominated five times and each time the Nobel committee failed to award him the Nobel. In 1948 after Gandhi’s assassination, no award was given stating that there was no living candidate with the word living underlined. This made sure that
Gandhi did not receive the prize even though he was nominated.
But Dag Hammarskjold was awarded the peace prize posthumously for being a fellow Scandinavian and not an Indian.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/gandhi/index.html
No. 1 – Hail Hitler
Even though the Nobel Committee did not award the Nobel Peace to Hitler, he was still nominated for the award in 1936.
The list of nominees cannot be published until fifty years by the Nobel Committee, and when the list till 1955 was released, it was a surprise to find Hitler among the nominees.
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