The deserving and the not so deserving

The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. The Prize was established from Alfred Bernhard Nobel's will on November 27, 1895.

Every year, since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for outstanding contributions in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize.

All prizes are presented on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma, and cash award (more than 1 million Euros). For the past few decades, the Nobel Prize has been considered to be the most prestigious prize in the world.

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1866 in Krummel, Germany, and patented it later in 1876. He was also the founder of the Nobel Prize, chemist, scientist, inventor, engineer, entrepreneur, author, weapons manufacturer, and pacifist. After his death he left 31 million Swedish Kronor (the equivalent of US$103,931,888 in 2007) to fund the prizes.

That Alfred Nobel was a pacifist is highly contradictory, since dynamite was used not only in industry but also in many wars. Furthermore, he owned a company named Bofos, which was a major weapons manufacturer. Bofos was founded in 1873, but it originated from the iron and steel mill called Boofors, established in 1646.

From the first Nobel Prize awarded in 1901, this prize has had many criticisms and controversies in the proceedings, nominations, awardees and exclusions. Many individuals who really had conferred the greatest benefits on mankind did not win the prize, for instance:

Thomas Edison: an American inventor and businessmen who developed many devices such as the phonograph and light globe. He was the first one to apply principles of mass production to the process of invention.

Nikola Tesla: a Serbian inventor, physicist, electrical and mechanical engineer. He invented things that marked the modern era and is called "the man who invented the 20th century" and "the man out of his time". He is most known for alternating current (AC), the induction motor, the rotating magnetic field, wireless technology, among many others.

Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev: a Russian chemist and inventor. He was the originator of the periodic table of the elements.

Oswald Theodore Avery: an American physicist who is known for the discovery (along with his co-workers) that DNA is the material of which genes and chromosomes are made.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement. He is well-known to the world for non-violence and truth advocacy. His birthday, October 2, is a national holiday in India and is the International Day of Non-Violence. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize, but never received it.

Here are a few controversial individuals who won the Nobel Prize:

Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard: an Hungarian-German physicist. He is the winner of the Prize in physics for his research on cathode rays. Later he was adviser to Adolf Hitler, Chief of Aryan Physics and active proponent of Nazi ideology.

Alexander Fleming: a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He is the winner of the Prize (shared prize) in medicine for his discovery of penicillin. Many disagree with the fact that he was the first to discover penicillin.

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr: an American President and the first American to receive the Nobel Prize. He was the winner of the Peace Prize in 1905. During his presidency he played an important role in the suppression of a revolt in the Philippines.

Henry Alfred Kissinger (Heinz Alfred Kissinger): the US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser. He was the winner of the Peace Prize along with Le Duc Tho, however, Tho declined the award. There is evidence that he was involved in the secret campaign of bombing against infiltrating NVA (Vietnam People’s Army) in Cambodia and Operation Condor. He also supported the invasion of Cyprus. Kissinger is wanted for questioning by officials in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France and Spain for war crimes that he might have committed.

Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (Yasser Arafat), Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin: they are winners of the Peace Prize for the negotiations in Oslo. Arafat was accused of being associated with many violent acts. On the other hand, Rabin was an Israeli Military General who ordered the expulsion of Arabs from areas captured by Israel during the war in 1948.

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr: Vice President of the United States from 1993-2001. He is the winner of the Peace Prize (shared) "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change". During his service in the office under President Clinton, the US was involved in many military operations. Operations in which many people lost their lives and which had impacts on climate change, pollution, illness, among others. For instance, the NATO bombing of Bosnian Serbs; the US led bombing of Iraq; the US led bombing of Serbia. Al Gore is a fine actor, in fact he is an Academy awarded actor for his role in The Inconvenient Truth for which he won the Oscar.

There are people among us who dedicated their lives to make a valuable contribution to mankind in areas of physics, economics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace but it seems there are some individuals who deserve or deserved to win the prize but never got it, nor will get it.

In contrast there are many with dubious credentials and those who give just a few months of their lives for some cause who win or have won the prize.

If this trend continues, then in the next five years maybe we will see George W. Bush as a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace to all mankind by creating new wars in order to prevent wars and terrorism. And maybe as a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, for his overseeing of the global credit crisis and for making the war industry wealthier than ever.