| 刚好一个礼拜前，踌躇满志的奥总才在哥本哈根遭受芝加哥奥运申请的华铁卢；一个礼拜后，却获得了诺贝尔和平奖的意外荣耀！真是冰火两重天啊！ 今天晚上上课可有得讨论了： )。下午学校还有一个讲座，请来奥总的健康问题顾问做有关医疗改革的讨论。本来因为这两天太忙太累(连着做了两天campus interview 的host,加上上课和其他的“例行工作”)，不打算去参加的。现在想想，还是去听听，看看这个最新进展会不会shed some new lights? 尽管医改是国内政策，和平奖主要是国际事务，但总归是一个“whole package”，对奥总支持者的士气肯定是有不小的鼓励作用。也许真能借此东风，一鼓作气，把阿富汗撤军问题，中东谈判，国内医改都一起解决罗，那可真是大大的好事呢。 至此，先后有四位在职和前美国总统获此殊荣 (罗斯福，1906， 威尔讯，1919，卡特，2002)。当然还有前副总统戈尔在2006年因为全球环境保护方面的贡献而得到这个奖。 尽管不太明白奥总的和平贡献到底有多significant (阿富汗撤军？中东谈判？还是北韩救记者？不对，那应该是克卿啊？)，这个奖给他至少比给达赖和热比亚，王丹什么的强，呵呵。 Interesting quotes: "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the worlds attention and given its people hope for a better future," Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee said. "In the past year Obama has been a key person for important initiatives in the U.N. for nuclear disarmament and to set a completely new agenda for the Muslim world and East-West relations." My interpretation: Its the "intention", "efforts", and "hope" of ones action that matters, not that much about his or her actual achievement in peacemaking. This is a new emphasis of the prestigious award in recent years.
Official story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33237202/ns/politics-white_house?GT1=43001 | 
