Friday, October 20

Peace, Economy and Nobel

"The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
Signed 111 years back in Paris by Alfred Nobel. Unknown was the real reason why he left most of his wealth to establishing such a prize. Something which his relatives did not agree and which got delayed by 5 years to get implemented after his death.

May be Nobel is a happy man this year. When the Peace prize went to Yunus and his Grameen Bank. After all, the "explotion", which he invented and made most of his wealth from, has been a technological upper hand for a lot of nations to create and maintain a power and trade imbalance. Looking at the recent history, this trade - economic disparity has been one of the key factors in many of the wars on earth. At macro and micro levels, the economic disparity was strong enough to sustain iteslf and in time re-defined peace as security.

There are now debates on Micro credit and its effects. Whether this is really against capitalism or if this is derived from capitalism. I am not an expert on economics. The prize here is not for the economist Yunus. This is for the pacifist Yunus. Appreciate that. Just look at the earlier pages in Nobel Peace Prize. Great names you can see there. Shimon Peres, Yasir Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, Jimmy Carter, UNO, Kofi Annan.. Oh man....where is the world these people stiched in peace? Where was a day in peace for any of the societies they represented? Now go to the customers of Grameen bank and ask them. The huge shift from statesmanship, diplomacies and boardroom handshakes to real work on the street. Kudos.

How much money now goes into creating psuedo security and safety? Why think globally - let us look at the micro level. Even in a small town, if we pool all the expenses for maintaining the dogs, men and technologies that guard the big houses and cars, and use this through a micro-credit group, may be the very need of these will get questioned?

When I sleep heavily guarded, I sleep in security. When I sleep not bothering any of these, I sleep in peace.

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