For
over a century, Nobel
Prize has been the ultimate
acknowledgement of excellence,
ingenuity, curiosity,
and the will to go where
no man or woman has
ever been before. This
year's winner Dr. Muhammad
Yunus and his masterpiece
Grameen Bank have created
such a new frontier
for Bangladesh. Such
acknowledgement profoundly
boosts Bangladesh's
international image
worldwide, and takes
Bangladesh to a magnificent
and inspiring level.
Evidently it depicts
an impeccable overall
story of all the solid
work taking place at
the grass-root level
in Bangladesh that eventually
generates substantial
positive impact for
the poor people in a
sustainable manner.
And all credit goes
to Dr. Yunus and his
brainchild Grameen Bank.
His initiatives turned
him into a global brand,
an icon, and a towering
legend with profound
tenderness in a very
short time. According
to the prevailing hypothesis,
we speculated Dr. Yunus
would get the Nobel
Prize sooner or later,
and it would be in economics.
Out of insatiable curiosity,
I wonder why Dr. Yunus,
being an economist,
receives Nobel Prize
in peace and not in
economics. Interestingly
enough, 'Losing its
luster', an article
published in Economist
on October 13th addresses
a similar concern. The
author of the article
critically goes on,
"There is a risk
that its worth is being
eroded as the institute
scrambles to find an
eye-catching recipient
every year … This
year's winner is an
admirable anti-poverty
campaigner, but it is
a stretch to call him
or the Grameen bank
peacemakers …
But the Nobel committee
could have made a braver,
more difficult, choice
by declaring that there
would be no recipient
at all."
The article further
states, "The organizers
could recall that on
19 occasions since the
prize was first given
out in 1901, the institute
declared that it could
find no fitting winner.
During much of the first
and second world wars,
for example, no winner
was named. But the last
time the institute dared
to do that was in 1972.
I disagree to such point
of view. I think it
is pretty silly and
a bad argument. The
committee's job is not
to choose saints. I
wonder why the author
says what he or she
says. Figured I would
dig deeper on the basic
house rules for Nobel
Prize for both economics
and peace categories.
For economics, according
to the Nobel Prize Foundation
site, the award was
instituted by the Bank
of Sweden (the world's
oldest central bank)
at its 300th anniversary
in 1968. Prize is awarded
by the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences
in accordance with the
same principles as those
for the other five Nobel
Prizes. Although it
was not one of the awards
established in the will
of Alfred Nobel, the
economics laureates
receive their diploma
and gold medal from
the Swedish monarch
at the same December
10 ceremony in Stockholm
as the Nobel laureates
in physics, chemistry,
physiology or medicine,
peace and literature.
Nominations of about
one hundred living persons
are made each year by
qualified nominators
and are received by
a five to eight member
committee, which then
submits its choice of
winners to the Nobel
Assembly for its final
approval. As with the
other prizes, no more
than three people can
share the prize for
a given year and they
must be living at the
time the prize is awarded.
The final award is made
in Stockholm and is
accompanied by a prize
(as of 2006, roughly
1 million euros).
In February 1995, it
was decided that the
economics prize be essentially
defined as a prize in
social sciences, opening
the Nobel Prize to great
contributions in..
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