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With Grace and Humility
Saturday, October 10, 2009 @ 6:25 AM

When I first heard that US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, I was more in a state of numbness than that of shock. I couldn't really wrap my head around it, because when I think of Nobel Peace Prizes, I think of Aung San Suu Kyi—a woman who is still in prison after so many years but never gives up on hope for democracy to reign her country. I think of Al Gore—a former US Vice President doing so much work for global environment sustainability, who brings the issue to the front desk of not just fellow politicians but to ordinary citizens like us. I think of people like Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama, and Mother Teresa, but NOT (at least definitely not right now) President Barack Obama.

I have the utmost respect for Obama; he is a sincere, smart, and really hardworking guy, and I couldn't have imagined anyone else as fit for Commander-in-Chief of one of the world's top and leading nations than him.

But Barack Obama is just eight months old in his time at the White House. This is a man who has to make the decision some time really, really soon whether or not to send 20, 30 thousand American troops to Afghanistan, and he's already a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. This is a guy who hasn't even lasted a year in office, and the most he has done for the international community was a world tour of concert speeches—his rhetoric and his passion.

But winning a Nobel Peace Prize can't just be about someone's passion, good efforts, and well intentions; he/she needs to do something. I am not against the idea of Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but I'm definitely critical of the Nobel community for him winning it now. The man should have been given at least two years tops to prove to the world that he has done something concrete and real for the global community, something that really makes us go, 'Yes, I know he deserved something like that.'

Nevertheless, as he always does, Barack Obama addresses the situation most graciously and eloquently—something which has made him very popular to people all around the globe, and I do in fact admire him so much for this. He accepted his award, he was honest in saying his real thoughts about him winning, saying that he doesn't think he "deserves" it, and he made the award not about him, but about America and American leadership.

And it just goes to show how you could never really hate a guy like him—too nice and too gracious and who you know is working his ass off; almost as if his grace and humility was what got him to win in the first place.