NOBEL PRIZE 2010
Celebrated December 10th!
As soon as they arrive in Oslo and Stockholm, the 2010 Nobel Laureates will participate in an extensive programme of events, including press conferences, receptions, Nobel Lectures, concerts and a royal banquet. On 10 December, the Laureates will receive their Nobel Prizes during Award Ceremonies that will be webcast live in full at Nobelprize.org. The evening ends with magnificent Nobel Banquets.
Margaret Ward reports from Beijing on the day the Nobel Peace Prize
was awarded in absentia to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia.
It’s a fairly anonymous street in the western suburbs of Beijing, but today it was the focus of the world’s media attention.
When we arrived security men were still nailing up a blue fence to prevent TV crews getting a clean shot of the home of China’s most famous dissident, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
Liu Xiaobo wasn’t there of course, and he wasn’t in Oslo either: he’s in jail in Liaoning province serving the first year of an 11-year sentence for what’s called the subversion of state power.
He was one of the main authors of Charter 08, a manifesto calling for sweeping reforms of the Chinese political system. Liu was arrested just before he and others were due to launch it.
All day long, policemen filmed us and the other crews, and old ladies wearing red armbands patrolled the streets around the complex. Inside Liu Xiaobo’s wife Liu Xia is a virtual prisoner – she has no phone or internet access – and police control her every move.
Nobel rules mean that only the winner, or close family, can pick up the prize so there was no one there to receive it. The prominent artist Ai Weiwei, one of the designers of the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium, tried to leave China and was stopped at Beijing airport, apparently because of concerns he might try to attend.
Other activists were sent out of town or placed under house arrest.
Some have been told it will end on 12 December.
The Chinese authorities appear to believe that the world’s news cycle will have moved on by then.
And they may well be right. There’s only so much room for stories about Chinese dissidents. The authorities knew they would have a difficult few days around the ceremony, but they’re prepared to weather that storm internationally.
Because their main concern isn’t what the outside world thinks of them: it’s what the Chinese people think of them.
Hence the need to get other countries to boycott the ceremony so China can tell its own people that it’s not the only one that thinks giving the peace prize to Liu Xiaobo is a bad idea. The Communist party’s version of events is basically that the award is a western plot to upset China because it doesn’t like China’s growing importance in the world.
But if China were so confident about its system and its place in the world it could afford to brush off the award and let anyone who wants go along. Instead it feels the need to bully countries into staying away, stop people attending the ceremony, block international TV coverage and erect blue fences so cameramen can’t film.
None of this helps China win the PR battle internationally: but the authorities obviously believe it will help them win the battle at a national level, or at least limit the damage.
However while most people in China still don’t know who Liu Xiaobo is, still less know what he stands for, the prize has undoubtedly raised his profile.
Four other Nobel peace prize winners were unable to pick up their prize in person. Three of the regimes that made that impossible were Nazi Germany, Soviet Communism and Polish Communism.
They all once looked invincible, and are all now gone. There’s no immediate threat to the Chinese Communist party but these are three good reasons for it to be afraid of Liu Xiaobo.
Margaret Ward
Video Here: http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1210/china.html
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Nobel Prize Awarded Women
The Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to women 41 times between 1901 and 2009. Only one woman, Marie Curie, has been honoured twice, with the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This means that 40 women in total have been awarded the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2009.
The Nobel Prize in Physics
1963
Maria Goeppert-Mayer1903
Marie CurieThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry
2009
Ada E. Yonath1935
Irène Joliot-Curie1911
Marie Curie
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
2009
Carol W. Greider2004
Linda B. Buck1995
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard1988
Gertrude B. Elion1986
Rita Levi-Montalcini1983
Barbara McClintock1977
Rosalyn Yalow1947
Gerty Cori
The Nobel Prize in Literature
2009
Herta Müller2007
Doris Lessing2004
Elfriede Jelinek1996
Wislawa Szymborska1993
Toni Morrison1991
Nadine Gordimer1966
Nelly Sachs1945
Gabriela Mistral1938
Pearl Buck1928
Sigrid Undset1926
Grazia Deledda1909
Selma Lagerlöf
The Nobel Peace Prize
2004
Wangari Maathai2003
Shirin Ebadi1997
Jody Williams1992
Rigoberta Menchú Tum1991
Aung San Suu Kyi1982
Alva Myrdal1979
Mother Teresa1976
Betty Williams1976
Mairead Corrigan1946
Emily Greene Balch1931
Jane Addams1905
Bertha von SuttnerThe Prize in Economic Sciences
2009
Elinor Ostrom
The History of Nobel
Alfred Nobel
The Man Behind the Nobel Prize
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honoring men and women from all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace. The foundations for the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize. But who was Alfred Nobel? Articles, photographs, a slide show and poetry written by Nobel himself are presented here to give a glimpse of a man whose varied interests are reflected in the prize he established. Meet Alfred Nobel – scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, author and pacifist.
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NOBEL PRIZE.ORG: http://nobelprize.org/
NOBEL’S WOMENS INITIATIVE: http://www.nobelwomensinitiative.org/
A Celebration of Women
sends our blessings and greatest regards, held in high esteem to all Nobel Laureates.
Bravo Nobel!
NOBEL PRIZE DAY- December 10, 2010 *Special Feature incl. ALL Women Nobel Laureates.
December 10, 2010 by
