Established by the ‘merchant of death’ Alfred Nobel (it is said that in 1888, Alfred Nobel was astonished to read his own obituary, titled The merchant of death is dead, in a French newspaper, which was actually meant for his deceased brother; but, anyway, that changed his mind to make him write his Will of 1895 to institute this prize) the Nobel Prize comprises of five separate prizes that are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." However, many controversies have been raging over these decades since 1900 about the prizes awarded in Literature and Peace fields particularly, though there may be some discontent against such awards made in the other three fields – of Physics, Chemistry and Physiology (or Medicine) – too. We find many such awards in Literature or Peace mired in serious disputes. Especially, some of the Russian awardees like Pasternak or Solzhenitsyn seem to have been given those prizes mainly out of an anti-communist/anti-Soviet bias and consequent to imperialist manipulations; it is well known that Solzhenitsyn was a staunch supporter of the fascist Right. In the field of Peace Prizes, we can notice more shocking developments. War criminals like Henry Kissinger and Barrack Obama were awarded these prestigious prizes, filling disgusting hatred in the hearts of all humanists and democrats. Now come the latest awards of these Peace Prizes to Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa, Russian and Philippines journalists little known outside till now, and obviously both Russia and Philippines are now not in the good books of the US-NATO-Israel evil axis. May be these two are very competent and diligent journalists famous in their countries and fields to an extent but these Prizes contemplate and require universal importance and relevance. And it is quite sad that they are being used as pawns in political chess games. On the contrary we see genuine fighting journalists like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden who have taken so many troubles with daring and sacrifices for the protection and promotion of human rights the world over by their startling revelations of the US-NATO genocidal atrocities, etc. are languishing in prison/exile and very much suffering. Actually, such pioneers and activists deserve the Nobel Peace Prize very much and not any yes-persons or locally relevant activists. So, this editor is certainly not happy with these awards made mainly with an eye on the political equations of the day, that too to favor the imperialists and adversely affect the interests of not just the two sovereign states of Russia and Philippines only, but in fact, of the entire humanity. §§§
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