For Putin, a Peace Prize for a Decision to Go to War
(By Edward Wong, published 15 November 2011)
The prize
committee members admire Putin’s heavy-handed approach in quelling the terrorist
forces of Chechnya. Yet the writer puts down the prize committee in his article and mocks the Confucius Peace Prize as being
an unknown and silly award that no one cares for. Perhaps he
cannot accept their opinion that true peace is gained through
war. The decision made by the committee to award Putin a peace
prize would probably seem like a ridiculous one to him (and probably to the
Westerners in general), who think the ideal peace prize-winner should be one
who abhors violence and achieve unity through “nobler” means.
Claire, you have the tone of the author spot-on: mocking and derisory. The word limit does not allow for elaboration, but it would be interesting to see which words and phrases you recognise as achieving this effect. I also like your reflection on how perspective is influenced by ideology. You imply that the author writes from a Western perspective. However, you perhaps give "Westerners" too much credit for believing peace can be gained by nobler means. George Bush had two wars going (Iraq and Afghanistan) in order to achieve peace. A less biased author may have taken that into consideration? Nice post.
ReplyDeleteYep, maybe I shouldn't use the term "Westerners". I think actually most people in the world would feel that those who deserve peace prizes should be people like Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi, not people who wage war like Putin. :)
ReplyDeleteOne of the founders of the prize committee said that the Chechen "...wars were righteous wars” and that “Mr. Putin fought for the unification of his country”. Personally, I thought that maybe parallels could be drawn between the resentful attitude that many Chinese have regarding Taiwan's continued independence and how the Russians attempted to force Chechnya back into the Russian Federation by fighting against the separatists.
But perhaps that is stretching it a bit too far. ><
I think that is a very valid deduction! I had not thought of interpreting the significance of the award in those terms, but it seems like a neat parallel that the judges were hoping people would make!
ReplyDelete