Due to the vast controversy surrounding the nomination of Vladimir Putin for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, the question of “who deserves a Nobel Peace Prize?” was put to the general public.
The vast majority of people all had differing opinions on who would make a deserving winner. Only Malala Yousafzai received more than one public nomination.
James Franklin said, “the girl who was shot by the Talaban. She is a modern version of Martin Luther King Jr. She is a role model for women’s rights in a backwards country.” Gary Kinsella was short and sweet in his nomination, saying “Malala, for being shot for wanting to learn!”.
Theology student Jason Doran also voted for Malala Yousafzai saying, “I think she showed great courage and bravery in the face of extreme adversity. She could bridge the gap between real people of that part of the world and Europe. Not every muslim is a terrorist.”
The New Pope got in on the action too. Jason Shaw said “Pope Francis. All the other world leaders have alot of blood on their hands but he seems to be doing alot more for world peace then the rest by his constant calls for acceptance of all people – and that is coming from someone who would not consider themselves religious by any means.”
There were two nominations for people from Ireland.
Tessa Fleming and Derek Goulding said that they would like to see Michael D. Higgins and Ian Paisley win awards, respectively. Tessa felt that Higgins deserved the award “because of his work for equality, culture, and ethics”, while Derek said despite being a controversial choice Paisley “was one of the cornerstones in ensuring that peace was at least a possibility in the North.”
There was a lot of discontent towards the prize and what many deemed it has come to resemble presently.
“Does anyone deserve to win it?, said Joseph Reid. “Peace is only temporary at best, there will always be war, it’s human nature.”
Kieran O’Driscoll summed up the apthay towards the Nobel Peace Prize claiming, “they support the war on terror”.
He explained, “in recent years, the prize has been awarded to Obama, while he was in the midst of escalating military presence in Afghanistan, and the E.U., soon after a number of European countries had intervened with force in Libya. This seems to me to go against the idea of peace-making and could be seen as approving of military action/force, while ignoring those who may be working on the opposite side of a conflict, attempting to work towards peace in these scenarios.”
“At the moment, I hope the prize is awarded to someone for humanitarian work, someone who embodies the ‘champions of peace’ that the award strives to be bestowed upon.”