Nobel Prizes

Nobel Prizes

It is Nobel Prize time once again. The whole world watches which of the eminent figures in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics across the world will receive the highest honour in their respective fields. The Prize winners will be recognized and adjudged for their  long years of hard, focused and dedicated work. If one devotes some time to study the past winners, across the areas, it can be seen that many of them worked devotedly  for 20 to 30 years before they were awarded the prize. There were of course exceptions even in earlier days when the Australian father - son duo William Henry Bragg aged 53  and  William Lawrence Bragg aged   only 25 at the time, won it in 1915. But, by and large most of the winners received the award when they were into their   fifties or sixties. Some have won it in  their seventies and eighties.The oldest to have won the award is Arthur Ashkin who won the award in 2018 for Physics at the age of 96!

While there have been no concerns about the years long work  and credibility of most of these awardees, of late some concerns have been raised about the awards for Peace. Awards have been given for creating  catchy slogans, making  fiery speeches or  beginning a stir about a subject of current global concern and popularity. Please remember that Mother Theresa was not awarded the Prize when she started The Missionaries of Charity in 1950; she was awarded it only in 1979.Nelson Mandela was not awarded the prize even though he started fighting against the racist  Apartheid  in South Africa in the 1940s;he was awarded the prize only in 1993! Even Dennis Mukwege, joint winner  in 2018 along with Nadia Murad,  began his efforts  for treating  women who suffered injuries from sexual violence in 1999. The Nobel Committee would increase its credibility if they also start looking into the sustainability of a movement or an initiative by waiting to see the outcomes for a few years. 

Of course, there have been very interesting cases where the Nobel Committee decided to give away the Nobel Prize for some peace  effort in a particular year  in the same year or the next year without waiting to see whether the peace effort sustains. For example,Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitshak Rabin were awarded the Prize in 1994 based on the Oslo Negotiations held in 1993. But peace still eludes the Palestinian –Israel border.