Hey EU peeps, here we go again! Another interesting week to say the least; quite a few things took my eye (and ears), and I have selected a few of note for this weekend's blog. First up, the announcements of the Nobel Prize winners for 2013 which certainly warmed a few hearts I am sure.
After a life and career as a short story writer (who recently retired), the Nobel Prize for literature went to a Canadian woman for the first time in history, none other than Alice Munro. Now in her eighties, Ms. Munro could not be reached and Peter England of the Swedish Academy had to leave a message on her answering machine to tell her the news! She was typically (Canadian) humble in her reaction to winning, even after such a magnificent cherry-on-the-cake of her career. Many congratulations to her.
The prize in physics rightfully went to those who first conceptualised the "God particle" more scientifically referred to as Higg's boson - that would be Peter Higgs of the UK and Francois Englert of Belgium. Even though the particle was only truly discovered/proven in July 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider of CERN, the prize was appropriately awarded to the pair who came up with the hypothesis almost a half century ago. Quite remarkable!
Onward to the Nobel Peace Prize, for which my money was on none other than Malala Yousafzai, who has been the subject of a few other blogs on this site in the past. Most recently, we commented on our enormous disappointment that Time magazine sold out and gave their prestigious "Person of the Year" award in 2012 to Barack Obama, for merely getting re-elected against almost non-existent competition. As opposed to a girl who got shot for her belief that girls everywhere deserve the same education and opportunities as boys.
But let's not forget that the Time award was previously known as the "Man of the Year" award until as recently as the millennium, and old habits die hard. Choosing Obama over Malala was a woefully conservative and wholly underwhelming choice, almost as incomprehensible as the Nobel Peace Prize he got simply for being elected in the first place. In both cases, I feel the choice represented an inverse bias and had a lot more to do with new world old school politicking, than any quantifiable merit. In fact, the Academy acknowledged they had given Obama the award more for what he would (read, might) do, rather than had done for world peace, which in my opinion cheapened the award. What he did do was spend a first term way more focused on getting a second term, rather than fussing over world peace.
It's ironic that Obama beat out Malala for the Time award, just because he scraped his way into a second term (and for being a black president, which also got him a Nobel Peace Prize) as once again, in 2013, the Pakistani girl lost out for her own shot at the Nobel Peace Prize to an organisation (OPCW) responsible for eradicating chemical weapons on a global scale. This is the outfit who will be responsible for decommissioning all of Syria's chemical weapons systems, which while being an admirable pursuit, does not in my opinion in any way equate with the notoriety and individual heroism displayed by Malala Yousafzai.
One is an organisation paid to carry out its mandate, and the other is a schoolgirl who risked her life everyday by speaking out for girl's rights everywhere and who got shot for doing so - which did nothing to silence her - in fact, she has become more vocal than ever and is truly an inspiration to girls (and their parents) all over the globe. I cannot help but feel that losing out to Obama for the Time award and to the OPCW for the Nobel Peace Prize just underlines that we still have a way to go when it comes to real equality between males and females.
Go and look at who has won the former "Man of the Year" award since it became "Person" in 1999 to see how cosmetic the supposed political correctness is, versus it being any actual reflection of the fact that women are as dominant as men in today's zeitgeist. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, indeed. There's a lot more recognition given to a black male politician for staying home in Washington for four more years than some Pakistani schoolgirl who took a bullet from the Taliban enemy that this president is also at war against - I know who is by far the real (only) hero of the two!
But Malala did get the Children's Peace Prize in Holland this past week, so we are glad she continues to draw attention to her crusade for equal rights for children everywhere, and still being a tender 16-years-old, well, time is on her side to one day go to the White House as a new Nobel Peace Prize winner. It will be quite fitting that it sure can't be Barack Obama who will be there as her host, and in all likelihood, it will be Hilary Clinton, potentially the first female President in American history. Very appropriate!
Our second subject (befitting the sublime to ridiculous title) actually arises out of a campaign championed by that other Obama, the first lady, and her "Let's Move" initiative. It's part of her approach to tackle childhood obesity that is at epidemic levels in the US, via promoting both a more active lifestyle as well as better nutrition for the nation's youth.
It's a worthy cause, not least because the future healthcare costs for a nation of already clinically sick children is going to be massive when they become adults with lifelong obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and atherosclerosis (among others) ahead of them. For the first time in history, children are developing age-related diseases ahead of their parents, which is a staggering indictment both of the impact of fast food on society, as well as the outcome of endless hours spent in front of TV and computer screens.
As part of the effort to support this campaign, the US Postal Service released a special "Just Move" stamp series (example shown above) to commemorate the concept and get it into the public eye everywhere. But whaddya know? There's always someone who wants to spoil the party, and due to criticism from various groups, the stamp has been withdrawn and will have to be redesigned for later release.
What's the huge problem? Apparently we had a skateboarder with no kneepads, a kid doing a cannonball into the pool ((whoa, dangerous!) and another doing a headstand with no helmet. Are you kidding me?! I mean, come onnnnn! This is totally ridiculous and a real example of what is wrong in society today - total (often hypocritical) political correctness at all times in public, yet simultaneously doing nothing to change things or even happily clinging to old ways in private.
You know what I find the most ridiculous thing in all of this? As kids, we didn't have kneepads, we crashed into the water with total abandon and got ourselves into all sorts of shapes and situations, and yet we are the healthy ones? If these naysayers worried less about kneepads or helmets and always finding something negative in a positive, and actually got their kids off their backsides and out doing these activities like we did, they might actually become healthier!
I think it's a real shame that the stamps were pulled and the artist involved saw his work being removed from the shelves. All due to some little concerns over a cut knee or a bump on the elbow or a bruised leg - as a kid, I know which I would happily race outside to get, rather than being diagnosed with adult-onset diabetes or metabolic syndrome, due to the way kids get to live today.
Shame on those responsible for creating a furore over this stamp and for giving kids yet another excuse to claim that activity and exercise can be dangerous, so just let us sit idle at our gaming screens while we stuff our face with crap, as we can't get injured doing that at least. Out of the mouths of babes.
Ironically, finding any excuse to not let kids get into any of the activities shown on the stamp above is going to injure them in a way that makes a sore knee seem like something to celebrate and show off by comparison. We used to be proud of our battle scars, and maybe there was more reason to be proud of them than even we realised at the time - we were active and we were healthy! ;) - Kevin Mc
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