Momen Thinks

I will not go into the debate as to whether or not Barack Obama’s peace prize was deserved based on his accomplishments.  I am writing my view as to why he was chosen.

I will say that this award given to Obama by the Nobel Committee was indeed a tactical move on their part.  They could have given it to so many people.  They could have gone high profile and chosen Bill Clinton or even Bill Gates for his “Gates Foundation” or they could have given it to any one of the silent warriors of peace. “Dr. Denis Mukwege at the Panzi Hospital in eastern Congo, or Jo and Lyn Lusi at the Heal Africa Hospital also in eastern Congo, or Dr. Paul Farmer of Partners in Health for his tireless work in Haiti and Rwanda, or Greg Mortenson traipsing all over Pakistan and Afghanistan to build schools, or Dr. Catherine Hamlin working for half a century to fight obstetric fistula and maternal mortality in Ethiopia, or so many others,” as Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times said.  Or as the Washingon Post decried Neda Agha-Soltan, the Iranian women who was shot to death while protesting the election in Iran.  All of these people have done so much for the cause of peace.  For a while I felt myself agreeing that perhaps Obama was the wrong person to give this award to.  But then I heard him speak.

Rightfully, and with immense humility Obama accepted the award acknowledging that he does not deserve it, and that he feels unworthy to be placed in the company of so many like Tutu, and Mandela:

“To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize, men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.”

But then he did something that only he could do.  He let his peace prize not be about one cause, or one person.  He could not claim the prize all to himself, so with humility he shared it with all of those mentioned above.  When Shirin Ebadi won a couple of years ago it was all about her work as a lawyer and bringing about equal rights to Iran, when Desmond Tutu won, it was all about apartheid, and when Al Gore won it was all about climate change.  Obama’s win doesn’t sit in any specific spot.  Perhaps that’s not a bad thing.  Perhaps the Nobel Committee saw Obama as the greatest vehicle to promote everything that the prize stands for.

“This award is not simply about the efforts of my administration; it’s about the courageous efforts of people around the world.

And that’s why this award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity; for the young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be heard, even in the face of beatings and bullets; for the leader imprisoned in her own home because she refuses to abandon her commitment to democracy; for the soldier who sacrificed through tour after tour of duty on behalf of someone half a world away; and for all those men and women across the world who sacrifice their safety and their freedom and sometime their lives for the cause of peace.”

After the 1979 Revolution, Khomeini asked his population to procreate and made contraceptives limited…the result? A majority of a nation that is under 30 and too young to remember the revolution and it’s reasons.

As I watch the situation in Iran unfold I fear that the religious leadership in Iran is going to fight the inevitable, the inevitable being a young nation thirsty for modernization.

Too fat for your plane seat? I’ll sell you part of mine. – By William Saletan – Slate Magazine .

If an airline can sell 200 seats and make x number of money on a flight, why should they accommodate a situation where due to the size of someone they now lose a couple of seats??  It makes no sense.  This isn’t discrimination.  If your size requires you to have two seats then that’s not the fault of the airline.  Simple.

Props to Kelly Nestruck for posting this on his blog:  

I’ve written much about Obama, and have spoken to my friends a great deal about this transformative leader.  I simply want to repeat something I’ve stressed before – Obama’s appeal to me is his pragmatism, his intellectual curiosity, his steadiness, and his empathy.  For those on the left; do not think that America will no longer engage in war, or that they will have single payer healthcare.  For those on the right; do not fear Obama.  I promise you that he will be a friend, not a foe.

But just to pat myself on the back, here’s a quote from my blog that I wrote on March 16, 2008:

“I predicted almost a year ago that Obama would win the primary on the premise that America after 8 years of the worst presidency in its history was ready for true change and that Obama was quite frankly one of the most gifted politicians since JFK.  I was right.  Today I will predict that Obama will win the White House in the manner that Reagan did…huge.”  - YUP!

Obama’s told this story before, but never as well as this.  I think he senses victory.

Here’s a touching story from a reader at Talking Points Memo

I didn’t vote.  Not for President, anyway.

Oh, I went to the voting booth.  I signed, was given my stub, and was walked over to a voting machine.  I cast votes for statewide races and a state referendum on water and sewer improvements.

I stood there, and I thought about all of these people, who influenced my life so greatly.  But I didn’t vote for who would be the 44th President of the United States.

When my ballot was complete, except for the top line, I finally decided who I was going to vote for – and then decided to let him vote for me.  I reached down, picked him up, and told him to find Obama’s name on the screen and touch it.

And so it came to pass that Alexander Reed, age 5, read the voting screen, found the right candidate, touched his name, and actually cast a vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Oh, the vote will be recorded as mine.  But I didn’t cast it.

Then again, the person who actually pressed the Obama box and the red “vote” button was the person I was really voting for all along.

It made the months of donating, phonebanking, canvassing, door hanger distributing, sign posting, blogging, arguing and persuading so much sweeter.

So, no, I didn’t vote for Barack Obama.  I voted for a boy who now has every reason to believe he, too, can grow up to be anything he wants…even President.

When Kanye West performed “Love Lockdown” at the VMA’s I thought that we were being shown the only song from his upcoming album where Kanye would be singing…well I was wrong.  Songs from his upcoming album 808’s and Heartbreak have been popping up it seems like daily.  I’m a huge Kanye fan, and yes to hear Kanye using Autotune kinda eeks me as a singer, but really the music industry, especially hip-hop is becoming more about the producer than the artist.  And here Kanye is once again pushing new boudaries in hip-hop.  I’m happy Kanye is taking this new approach.  Late Registration and Graduation, specifically the former, are some of the best sounding albums in any genre in the past couple years.  I mean the guy uses real harps, and string quartets…in hip-hop!

Anyways, here’s a sample.  This song just came out today.  It’s his first up-tempo release from the album.

Some of you don’t have cable, so here’s a live video link to MSNBC’s political coverage.  Enjoy the liberal media bias.

Here are some reviews that have come in for MASKED.  Check out www.neptunetheatre.com for details on the production.  The process while challenging, has been wonderful.  Anthony Black is a director that y’all need to look out for as he’s quite exceptional.

Metro News – Masked is an intense look into a tragic scenario

Chronicle Herald – Realistic Thriller Captivating