American Presidents Barack Obama, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter won the Nobel prize for Peace. But it would too far-fetched if Trump had won it this year. What with his talks of a nuclear button with North Korean President Kim Jong-un and the news we have been getting about families and isolated children at detention centers, Trump seems a far throw away from any sensible nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2018 to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.
Nadia Murad is one of an estimated 3,000 Yazidi girls and women who were victims of rape and other abuses by the IS army. The abuses were systematic and part of a military strategy. They served as a weapon in the fight against Yazidis and other religious minorities.
Nadia Murad, awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, is the witness who tells of the abuses perpetrated against herself and others. She has shown uncommon courage in recounting her own sufferings and speaking up on behalf of other victims.#NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/NeF70ig09J
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2018
This year, the Nobel is engulfed with drama. The Swedish Academy was forced to announce the postponement of the Nobel Prize for Literature in May 2018 after 18 women made sexual assault allegations against French photographer Jean-Claude Arnault, a poet and a member of the Nobel committee of the Swedish Academy, that decides the winners.
Another historic moment this year was when Professor Donna Strickland became the first woman in 55 years to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Along with Arthur Ashkin, from the US and Gérard Mourou, from France, she was awarded the prize this week for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.
Meanwhile, the Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded for the most ignoble work, like using voodoo dolls to influence the boss or roller coaster rides to cure kidney stones.
This year’s Peace Prize is a just award for those fighting violence in today’s dystopian times.
