And the prize goes to....

POTUS Obama.

Like (probably) everyone, I was incredulous at his award of the Nobel Prize for Peace. I thought of past winner's (such as Dr El Baradei from the International Atomic Energy Agency, who has done everything that he can to navigate the intense poltical pressure from the West and still speak the truth about the Iranian nuclear project) and I became a little bit outraged.

Because, as we know, Obama has done nothing to further world peace since taking power. He's merely let things silkily slide in direction the powers around him are pulling, towards more conquest and bloodshed in the Middle East and Eurasia.

I pulled my head in though, realising this was a odd step for the Nobel committee. I remembered George Bush was nominated for the same award, oddly, on at lest one occasion... And I think I figured it out.

Meanwhile the TV1 & TV3 news were sounding off on the issue, in a very unusual way.

They were asking questions.

The whole news item was pitched as a question, questioning whether the POTUS Obama was a worthy recipient, and was canvassing this doubt in every way possible with footage from all over the world.

Now, this stood out because, well - the news never asks questions. They have an angle on the story, they take it; then allocate token time for some opposition viewpoint. There, balance. Most often this angle favours the centre of power, where the current NZ government resides. Certainly they never take an angle against the centre of Western power.

Not unless the question has already been raised elsewhere.

So dismiss the NZ news agencies. All their coverage and questioning has not come from within our media establishment. Certainly we can blink and imagine them covering the same story in a very different way, with Obamam lauded as the first black president and bringing US power back to the international community in a spirit of multilateral cooperation.... All bullshit, but it's always bullshit. They are nothing but stories, pulled over the facts on the ground.

So this angle, these questions, have been imported, like all our news, from the centre of the global media establishment. Reuter, AP, the US outlets...

And why then, would the global media take this angle on the leader of the free world, when there is easily a positive, celebratory angle they could have taken? Why is it that "even" US commentators are.... displeased their president has been awarded this honour? Sure, even now he's talking of sending more troops into Afghanistan, rasing the stakes against Iran... but it's all for world peace. It's such a turn, after all this "fresh face" talk to see him so insidiously criticised, undermined with doubts and aspersions... That's what we'e been told. Why doesn't he deserve the award?

It's because it's not an award, the committee are conferring. It's a mantle.

They're not saying "good job". They're saying, "now go do a good job".

They have given Obama a huge yardstick to measure his own actions against, possibly the only honour greater for an American than actually becoming president. What we hear in the media is the wailing and gnashing of teeth as they know - I believe - Obama is a man of honour, being pulled into a foreign policy against his will. He has been allowed his "socialist" healthcare policy so long as he doesn't interfere with the strategic designs of global American power. But now that has been counter-balanced. He will always be thinking, "but - I have an obligation to everyone". He has a history of past winners and a legacy to keep in mind. Not just for the next year; hopefully he is reminded of it in every press article from here to the next election.

Big boots to fill. I have no doubt he's facing his own little "imposter syndrome", but I think the committee made an excellent choice.