The Nobel Peace Prize Award is a noble, global program that was initiated by Alfred Nobel as from March 1901 to date. The industrialist, innovator, and manufacturer of armaments had a significant rationale behind the award with reference to fields such as Physiology, Chemistry, Medicine, and Literature. The individuals who were accorded the prize must have contributed significantly to humanity in the field of innovation or peace-keeping among warring parties. The humanitarian act of alleviating other people’s plight could suffice as to one becoming a candidate for the selection process. The controversial award of the prize to Liu Xiaobo in absentia, while he was in incarceration in China, was kind of conflicting due to the bilateral relations that existed between the proponents and opponents of the move. The Nobel Peace Prize committee based in Norway and it is composed of members chosen by the Norwegian parliament (YouTube, 2018). The reflective essay will strive to investigate the function of the 2010 Nobel Prize award as a means of mediation discourse and the resultant impact to the international community.
Liu Xiaobo is depicted as a revolutionary visionary who harboured noble thoughts of seeing a transformed China where every individual mattered in the issues of national interest. The kind of transformative activities that he engaged himself him earned him tremendous recognition. The animated love for education enabled him to study in various institution both home and in the diaspora. The marriage of the various cultures and systems during his studies gave him the capacity to develop rational arguments that could foster change to his people. The need to trigger a change in his homeland China took him back. The establishment of the Charter 08 was evident of the commitment and conviction to see a change in the system that would enable the country to be at par with other developed nations such as the US. The Chief Speaker in the Nobel Prize Award convention in 2010 alluded to the black activist movement that was pioneered by the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He said that most of the Americans were opposed to the idea of conferring a Nobel Prize to Dr. Martin Luther since the civil rights among the black Americans had not been embraced. It was after the signing of the Civil Rights encapsulating the Black American population that the US skyrocketed in the various facets of economic and scientific development. In that token, the Chinese economy is expected to grow at an even higher pace when the citizens will be granted the freedom to express and associate with one another in an open atmosphere (Link, 2018). By so doing, the various individuals with diverse capabilities could pool their efforts and enhance innovation.
The Chinese government seems justified to undertake the desperate measures given the desperate prevailing situations in order to ensure stability and progress. The fact that the international media is dominated by the Western views validates the act of the government to censor or literally block the people from subscribing to such material. Otherwise, anarchy and pollution from the revolutionary feed from such media will derail progress and then undo the fabric of the society that has kept the Chinese fraternity intact for ages (Globaltimes.cn, 2018). The uniformity in thought and action among the Chinese is perceived to have translated to the exemplary economic milestones that are reflected in the national performance in the global arena.
The fact that the Chinese government could not allow the Nobel Laureate to attend the auspicious occasion confirmed the nature of the totalitarian regime that was in power. The determination of the members of the award committee to address empty seats allocated for the noble laureate and the relatives depicted the determination to address the humanitarian crisis in China. The element of gagging the media and the oppression of the people who are fighting to foster good and open governance as shown by the Liu move represents a retrogressive system which is stuck in the past (Sautman and Hairong, 2018). Modernization that is crucial to development in the contemporary world cannot be manifested in such a debilitating environment.
Conclusion
The 2010 Noble Peace Prize Award process which chose Liu Xiaobo who was considered a criminal in his homeland was a litmus test to China and to the committee in charge of the awards. The program served a good purpose of trying to air the grievance of the Chinese people by bringing their plight to the public limelight. The focus atrocities and the progress of the government of China will enable the stakeholders in the system to revisit the policies that will help strike a balance between governance and humanity.
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References
Globaltimes.cn. (2018). Oslo puts on a farce against China - Global Times. [online] Available at: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/600648.shtml [Accessed 22 Aug. 2018].
Link, P. (2018). China’s Charter 08. [online] The New York Review of Books. Available at: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/01/15/chinas-charter-08/ [Accessed 22 Aug. 2018].
Sautman, B. and Hairong, Y. (2018). Do supporters of Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo really know what he stands for? | Barry Sautman and Yan Hairong. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/15/nobel-winner-liu-xiaobo-chinese-dissident [Accessed 22 Aug. 2018].
YouTube. (2018). Nobel Peace Prize 2010 Presentation Speech. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCKq_8ECvs [Accessed 22 Aug. 2018].
