When in a peace process you cannot award both sides a Nobel Prize, you should know you should refrain entirely

Sir, Andres Schipani writes: “coming to Oslo represented a closing chapter for me too. I stood as the victims of the conflict Mr Santos had brought with him received thunderous applause. Oddly, there was no Farc presence. Instead, there was Ingrid Betancourt, a former hostage who has acquired celebrity status” “A Nobel Prize and the struggle for peace in Colombia” December 13. 

Let me be clear. I wish for peace in Colombia as much as anyone else, but the current peace proposal, and this Nobel Prize, represents way too little of a closing chapter for many Colombians than what it could represent for irrelevant outsiders, like Schipani and me.

And since Schipani brings up Dylan, again I must speculate on the possibility of secretarial errors at the Nobel Committees in Oslo and Stockholm. Perhaps Bob Dylan, with his "how many times must a cannon ball fly?" was more worthy of the Peace prize, while Santos of the literature one. The latter because for Santos to have presented to his people a 297 pages long document for referendum, must surely represent an outstanding moment in required reading. Would anyone in Britain have dared to do such thing? I doubt it.

That said, I also do not agree with the Nobel committee’s prize to Santos, for the very simple reason that if in a peace process, if you do not find yourself capable of giving both sides the same prize, then you should know that you should better abstain altogether.

Besides even if one could argue that had he proposal won the referendum, Santos would have been worthy of the prize... now, going "fast-track", over the peoples heads, clearly puts the whole process in a much less favorable light. 

And, if the prize was a sort of domestic consolation for the role Norway played as an observer in the negotiation, then it could have been more transparent to give that prize directly to Norway. Why not? Do observers not very often have to play the most difficult role of total neutrality while utterly disliking one or the other side, or both?

@PerKurowski

Was there not some secretarial mix-up with this year’s Nobel prices to Dylan and Santos?

Sir I refer to Ludovic Hunter-Tilney’s “Dylan is a deserving Nobel laureate” October 14.

Absolutely (I belong to those of the 60s who are currently living out their 60s). Yet I must ask: could there have been some mix-up with this years Nobel prices?

I mean could not the Peace one have been intended for the “...how many times must the cannon balls fly” Bob Dylan, while the Literature one was for Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos, for his 297 pages long fiction book on peace?

@PerKurowski ©

When in doubt just announce a Nobel Peace Price Objective

Sir personally I am convinced that Obama got the Nobel Prize for Peace by default since the committee could not really find someone else. That said I would not suggest for Obama to return the prize as Clive Crook does in “It is too early to land Obama – or to be disappointed” October 12, as that would be an unnecessary slap in the face of the Norwegians who must find themselves going through much pains anyhow trying to come up with a worthy winner each year. May I suggest to them the following alternative?

Those years when they do not find thee natural candidate why do they not declare an objective and that if accomplished would automatically give right to a Nobel Peace Prize sort of placing the carrot more explicitly before any possible candidates. As is it is not really sufficiently clear whether Obama got it for past or future achievements.