Let’s take a look at the countries that refused to attend the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Venezuela, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Sri Lanka and the Palestinian Authority
A collection of enlightened governments, no doubt about it. Standouts include Afghanistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The US has spent, what? a trillion dollars on these guys either “fighting for democracy” or paying for oil, yet Beijing economic clout is enough to sway all three to rebuke the Nobel Peace Prize? Is it really cash?
Probably. I find the idea that government do things based on principle or moral laughable anymore. Sure, all of these countries have repression as their middle name, but really is that a function of morals or more a function of power and the ability to use it? ie cashmoney.
But i think its more than cash, its a form of derivative trading. The US is just fucking up left and right, so it pays to hedge against risk these days — the risk being that the US falls on its face in the middle of a speech condemning something, finger still pointed up at the sky like the statue of a righteous statesman, pulled down by a people deluded into thinking statue-pulling has a greater effect than banker-killing.
where is wikileaks when ya really need them? All the cables about Israel and Iran are boring to anyone masochistic enough to have read the news … the cables between China and the Dissenting 17 would be very very interesting indeed …
Also interesting to see is that, along with the Confucius Peace Prize (allright everybody together now: roflmao!), this bloc of governments is also coming up with an alternative to the warlike element of Western society: CSTO, the alternative to NATO.
It would be a big joke, wouldn’t it? If the eventual consequences of such geopolitical power politics weren’t so damn predictable.
