mahsah
October 8, 2010, 9:58am
1
Good to see the prize going to someone deserving.
Wait, what? But he hasn’t started any wars.
And he’s a pacifist!? This is a bold choice for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Wait, what? But he hasn’t started any wars.
And he’s a pacifist!? This is a bold choice for the Nobel Peace Prize.
They probably just threw him in there for the lolz.
Kakugo
October 9, 2010, 5:53am
4
Yet another small step in preparing for the Resources Wars with China and yet another Nobel Prize awarded for political reasons.
This Prize has little to do with rewarding Liu Xiaobo for his efforts, as notable as they are, and lot to do with sending a clear message to China. Chinese politicians, very much like their French and Russian counterparts, are extremely sensitive about foreign meddling in internal affairs. They see this Prize as nothing more than an insult and are likely to retaliate. This is how tensions are excalated and how momentum is built to precipitate crisises. As usual we are left wondering how the West, on the brink of bankruptcy, could afford a confrontation with China.
mwalsh
October 9, 2010, 7:05am
5
Although most people here may understand, and most people will wonder why there is provocation of China, there are many who still believe the broken window fallacy. I will admit that my AP Econ class did discuss it, but only to the point that see, the economy is richer, and left out what was unseen.
Same idea, to me, that WW2 ended the Great Depression.
Last year, he was sentenced on Christmas Day, when much of the foreign press was away, to 11 years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” He is now held in a cell with five common criminals at Jinzhou Prison in Liaoning province, about 500 km northeast of Beijing, where his wife lives. The evidence against him was a series of essays he had written questioning the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party and Charter 08, a human-rights manifesto that he co-authored.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2024405,00.html
The Charter calls for 19 changes to improve human rights in China, including an independent legal system, freedom of association and the elimination of one-party rule. “All kinds of social conflicts have constantly accumulated and feelings of discontent have risen consistently,” it reads. “The current system has become backward to the point that change cannot be avoided.” China remains the only large world power to still retain an authoritarian system that so infringes on human rights, it states. “This situation must change! Political democratic reforms cannot be delayed any longer!”[5]
Specific demands are:
Amending the Constitution.
Separation of powers.
Legislative democracy.
An independent judiciary.
Public control of public servants.
Guarantee of human rights.
Election of public officials.
Rural–urban equality.
Freedom of association.
Freedom of assembly.
Freedom of expression.
Freedom of religion.
Civic education.
Protection of private property.
Financial and tax reform.
Social security.
Protection of the environment.
A federated republic.
Truth in reconciliation.[6]
The opening paragraph of the charter states:
“This year is the 100th year of China’s Constitution, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 30th anniversary of the birth of the Democracy Wall, and the 10th year since China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. After experiencing a prolonged period of human rights disasters and a tortuous struggle and resistance, the awakening Chinese citizens are increasingly and more clearly recognizing that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal common values shared by all humankind, and that democracy, a republic, and constitutionalism constitute the basic structural framework of modern governance. A “modernization” bereft of these universal values and this basic political framework is a disastrous process that deprives humans of their rights, corrodes human nature, and destroys human dignity. Where will China head in the 21st century? Continue a “modernization” under this kind of authoritarian rule? Or recognize universal values, assimilate into the mainstream civilization, and build a democratic political system? This is a major decision that cannot be avoided.[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_08
..because everybody should be able to be king!
What I find funny is the universal values part.
There are no universal values.
Was the medieval knight’s code of chivalry any universal value? Was the Ottoman millet system any universally applicable value?
boniek
October 9, 2010, 8:05pm
8
Deserving what? Replacing communist state with democratic state is hardly a solution to a world peace and that is what he is advocating.
I guess it’s evident enough that he got it for being a UN type.