DC Edit | Deserving Laureates Get Nobels, Including A Champion Of Peace

One of the most anticipated Nobel seasons became more famous for the Norwegian Nobel Committee not handing the peace prize to Donald Trump, the obstreperous US president who literally demanded that he be awarded the coveted prize for peace. Instead, they picked a brave and committed champion of peace “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness” in the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

To be fair to Mr Trump, let it be said that his unceasing efforts to end wars, including those in which he was asked not to intervene like in the subcontinental conflict between India and Pakistan, did yield fruit as in the phase one of his plan for ending the Gaza War concluding successfully with the last of the live Israeli hostages being handed over to the Red Cross on Monday. To rein in the vengeful Israeli offensive of two years may have needed the best and worst of Trump’s virtually blackmailing style of negotiating.

Amid all that was said or left unsaid, including in the winner crediting Mr Trump as one deserving of the prize, what was not highlighted was that one of the defining clauses of the awarding of Nobel peace prize is that it should pertain to work in the “preceding year,” which just means that Trump will be the consensus candidate for the prize next year, never mind if he stealth-bombed Iran’s nuclear fuel processing facilities and did more to prop up or support dictators, oligarchs and monarchs than for those upholding democracy.

Mr Trump was probably not exaggerating when he said he deserves the peace prize more than a predecessor in Barack Obama who may not have been as forceful a champion of the stopping of wars and conflicts. Considering the likes of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman did not get the Nobel for bringing World War II to a conclusion, let it be said that Mr Trump is a non-winner who is overtly sore about it. But then the committee did not even honour the ultimate apostle of peace in Mahatma Gandhi, which could lead the sceptics to ask what all the fuss regarding the Nobel Peace Prize is about.

The Nobel committee’s choices in the scientific Nobels were more readily understood by the community because they honoured achievements in fundamental research. Of course, much of the research in medicine, physics and chemistry that were awarded this year was pertinent to life in the modern era as they all led to discoveries like the ubiquitous cellphone without which life may seem unbearable, the reason why the body’s immune system does not attack itself leading to developments in cancer treatment and a way to satisfy a real world need like harvesting water from the air in dry places like desert fringes.

The season wound down with the economics prize, which has often proved contentious given the common understanding that if you put two economists in a room there may be three opinions or more on offer. In picking three economists for their identifying the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress and for postulating a theory of growth through creative destruction, the committee may have awarded people whose work will have a bearing on life in the planet even if it may not always be easy to spot how relevant the research is towards enhancing the quality and comforts of modern living.

As in its wisdom of leaving out Mr Trump this year, the committee must be lauded more than censured for its considered choices that carry so much prestige. However, the fact that online betting patterns showed the choice for the Peace Nobel may have somehow been leaked before Ms Machado was announced as the winner does suggest that there is no such thing as absolute secrecy in today’s world, nor perfection ever.