The Unclear and controversial Nobel Peace Prize...

Nobel Peace Prize is the most intriguing and unclear award...it seems...

At best...it is awarded to people who are 'merely doing' their jobs...There are a few 'good' awardees....but by and large....it is given ' as if to a janitor to do his routine work of cleaning wash rooms '....nothing more !!!

There have been GLARING omissions as well...MK Gandhi being the most obvious...

Nominations pour in till February each year....for that year...and in 2009....it is anybody's guess....how much of PEACE EFFORT the winner had been able to achieve ....being in office for a few months....not to talk of the fact ( again) that it was his job....in the first place !!!

According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded to the person who:

“ during the preceding year shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. ”

Alfred Nobel's will stated that the prize should be awarded by a committee of five people elected by the Norwegian Parliament.

Nobel died in 1896 and did not leave an explanation for choosing peace as a prize category. The categories for chemistry and physics were obvious choices as he was a trained chemical engineer. The reason behind the peace prize is less clear. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, there's significant evidence his friendship with Bertha von Suttner, a peace activist and later winner of the prize, may have profoundly influenced his decision to include peace as a category. Scholars who studied Nobel have said it was Nobel's way to compensate for developing destructive forces (Nobel's inventions included dynamite and ballistite). None of his explosives, except for ballistite, were used in any war during his lifetime, although the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an Irish nationalist organization, did carry out dynamite attacks in the 1880s and he was instrumental in turning Bofors from an iron company to an armaments company whilst he owned it.

It is also unclear why Nobel wished the Peace Prize to be administered in Norway, which was ruled in union with Sweden at the time of Nobel's death. The Norwegian Nobel Committee speculates that Nobel may have considered Norway better suited to awarding the prize as it did not have the same militaristic traditions as Sweden. It also notes that at the end of the nineteenth century, the Norwegian parliament had become closely involved in the Inter-Parliamentary Union's efforts to resolve conflicts through mediation and arbitration.

Is the aspect clear ???Who should get it ????

A fact to ponder upon....take a look :

Nobel Peace Prize Winners in the last twenty years...

1989  14th Dalai Lama Tibet "[for] his struggle for the liberation of Tibet [and] consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people."[86][87]
1990  Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev Soviet Union President of the Soviet Union, "for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community"
1991  Aung San Suu Kyi Burma "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights"
1992  Rigoberta Menchú Tum Guatemala "[for] her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples"
1993  Nelson Mandela South Africa "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa"
 Frederik Willem de Klerk South Africa
1994  Yasser Arafat Palestine "to honour a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East."
 Yitzhak Rabin Israel
 Shimon Peres Israel
1995  Joseph Rotblat United Kingdom "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms"
 Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs Canada
1996  Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo East Timor "for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor."
 José Ramos-Horta East Timor
1997  International Campaign to Ban Landmines United States "for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines"
 Jody Williams United States
1998  John Hume United Kingdom "for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland"
 David Trimble United Kingdom
1999  Médecins Sans Frontières Switzerland "in recognition of the organization's pioneering humanitarian work on several continents"
2000  Kim Dae Jung South Korea "for his work for democracy and human rights in South Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea in particular"
2001  United Nations  "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world"
 Kofi Annan Ghana
2002  Jimmy Carter United States "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development"
2003  Shirin Ebadi Iran "for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children."
2004  Wangari Muta Maathai Kenya "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace"
2005  International Atomic Energy Agency Austria "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way"
 Mohamed ElBaradei Egypt
2006  Muhammad Yunus Bangladesh "for advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor, especially women, through their pioneering microcredit work"
 Grameen Bank Bangladesh
2007  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Switzerland "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"[105]
 Al Gore United States
2008  Martti Ahtisaari Finland "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts"
2009  Barack Obama United States "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation.

( source: wikipedia)