Chris Sutcliff

Acrylic

8 x 5.5 inches

2009

First and foremost, Congratulations to President Obama on winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. I happen to be a big fan and, despite what I am about to say, I truly believe he deserves it. I just don’t think he should have got it. Definitely not yet.

As a quick litmus test, the 205 nominations included Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the man who dared to stand against the most ruthless dictator in the universe Darth Mugabe. Thousands of people died to vote him into power; hundreds of thousands were saved when he got there. Also featured was the Chinese Dissident Hu Jia, a man who has dedicated his life to peacefully bringing true democracy to China as well as tackling environmental issues and the AIDS/HIV problem. He is currently in prison and is suspected to be slowly dying through poor nutritional and health care that the authorities are providing for him (or not as the case definitely is). He is 36 years old.

The award does two major things for the winner, gives them $1.4m and gives them a huge media platform to rally continuing support for their cause – two major things that Barack Obama already has in abundance and will continue to perpetuate for himself. He just didn’t NEED to win. Unlike the other 204 and probably thousands more after them.

Much as I love the guy and am 100% behind him, Guantanamo is still open, more troops are on their way to Afghanistan and he’ll never bring in his fair health-care bill because he is still pandering to right wing extremists who have a firm control of his agenda. Making it THEIR agenda. Again. On top of all that Israel still seem to be behaving like an un-leashed pit-bull terrier. In short – nice media friendly start to the Presidency – but a helluva long way to go.

The pleasantly-nutty Norwegian committee stated the reason for their choice was “Extraordinary efforts to promote diplomacy and nuclear disarmament”. No arguments there, providing you momentarily put aside the fact that the USA has the biggest stockpile of nukes in the world. So do as they say, not as they do.

You can’t help feeling that this is a token gesture for a man who is probably GOING to do a lot of good work but so far is only talking about it. Let’s be honest here, after Bush, President Charles Manson would have looked like a Saint. Of course it LOOKS like he’s doing a great job, that’s because every media company in the world is still dry-humping his trouser leg. He’s everywhere. His face is on everything but the transfers in bubble-gum packets, which will probably appear in the shops tomorrow to commemorate the bloody award.

Finally, I think that it’s a bit fluffy to allegedly bestow such a prestigious honour based largely on things that we expect to happen in the future. It’s like your four year old kid winning Olympic gold for Javelin, based on one throw of a Crayon because it looks like one day he’ll grow up to be good at it. Let’s see it actually happen first shall we? Or is it a bit obvious that we couldn’t wait to be seen to be giving him the award, all that remained was to create a reason for it?

Has the Nobel Peace Prize been de-valued by this move? No, of course it hasn’t. But it has been misappropriated and that won’t go down well all over the world. I sincerely hope it won’t hamper the President in actually affecting all the brilliant and necessary changes that got him the nomination in the first place.

Good luck Mr. Obama. I really mean it.

Acrylic, Wood Adhesive, Various Printed Ephemera including Bible Pages on canvas

40 x 30 inches

2009