Missing are the Peacemakers

On October 9th, the Nobel Committee set off a firestorm across the political spectrum when they announced that they had selected President Obama to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.  We won’t know who his competition was for fifty years (nominee lists are embargoed for half a century, probably to ensure that anyone on the list is dead when it’s released) but what we do know is that potential nominees were pretty thin on the ground in 2008, especially given the guidelines Nobel laid out for the Prize:

…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.

2009 has not been drastically different, and short of granting the award to Obama two years in a row or granting their version of a lifetime achievement award, the Committee seems to have fairly limited options.  With nominations due by the 1st of February, who might be in the running for the Prize?  I’ve come up with a few ideas:

Hearing Voices

One of the biggest events of the past year was the unrest in Iran that gained worldwide attention.  Media coverage faded quickly once it became evident that the Ahmadinejad regime was not facing imminent collapse, but the protests and unrest have continued, especially after the recent death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the most powerful dissident cleric in Iran’s government.  Civil unrest in Iran is nothing new and numerous figures are playing leading roles in the opposition to the Ayatollahs, but the increased pressure on Ayatollah Khamenei that followed the deeply flawed election in June would have abated long ago were it not for two individuals:

Jack Dorsey

Twitter creator, Jack Dorsey

I’m not a fan of Twitter.  I avoided it for as long as I could, but as a blog administrator and “content creator”, I had to bite the bullet and create an account, if only to publicize new entries on this site.  Jack Dorsey’s creation, however, proved to be more than just a tool for viral marketing and incessant narcissism.  The SMS service ably demonstrated its worth this past summer, when countless disenfranchised Iranians took to the streets and to their phones.  Iran’s draconian media controls proved to be completely useless when it came to stifling the texting that ensued following the hotly disputed election.

More than just developing a tool for communication, though, Dorsey and his company decided, during the protests and at the behest of the US State Department, to delay previously scheduled system maintenance that would have temporarily interrupted the service.  That decision not only allowed Western media outlets to continue passing along copious first-hand accounts of the violent government backlash against the protesters in Tehran, but also maintained, for people the world over, the ability to follow the events in real time.  We have become so acclimated to the sight of conflict and strife through media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that we tend to forget that, aside from the accidents of birth, Iranians are Americans.  They are lawyers and teachers and dock workers and shop owners.  They’re worried about keeping their jobs and paying their medical bills.  Twitter, by allowing us to follow the stories of specific individuals as they happened, in their own words, accomplished something that TV and radio have only pulled off on a very few occasions:  It showed everyone that those Iranians in the streets were people too.

Neda Agha-Soltan

The one person who captured the attention of the world more than any other in the Iranian uprising was Neda.  It is thanks to her, as well as two diligent cell phone wielders, that the contest for who did the most to humanize the conflict in the Iranian streets is still undecided.  For those who’ve forgotten or were living under a rock this past summer, here is the video in question (I warn you, it is graphic):

As an individual, Neda was no different than the other protesters flooding the streets of Iranian cities that week.  Setting aside her decision to join her fellow citizens at the rally that day, her inclusion on my list is thanks to circumstances alone.  Her death focused Western attention even more strongly on the brewing Persian conflict.  Neda was the Everyman (in this case, Everywoman) that forced us to identify with the innocent civilians compelled to take part in the peaceful marches.  She wore blue jeans and sneakers and we watched her die in the street from her wounds.  She bled from everywhere and we were horrified.  She wasn’t a militant or a cleric.  She could easily have had a latte with her breakfast.  And we realized that this was happening to people like us.

Her death became, and remains, a rallying cry in the streets of Tehran, Isfahan and countless other Iranian cities.  It is the well that the opposition returns to again and again to restore their will to keep fighting an oppressive, reactionary, theocratic regime.  And because it was through circumstances forced on her, circumstances that she certainly would rather not have faced, she deserves our praise and our respect.

Liu Xiaobo

Most American’s have never heard of Liu or his efforts in China, but those who have followed his career as a dissident and his arrest are acutely aware of what it means for the human rights struggle in China to have a leader in-country.  Expats can exert only so much pressure on a regime.

Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo

Liu was put on trial earlier today for “inciting subversion of state power” after spending a year in a jail cell.  Neither his detainment, arrest or ensuing trial are firsts for Liu, who has been speaking out against the Chinese government since before Tiananmen Square.  His current incarceration is the result of hiss contributions to Charter 08, a call for increased government accountability, free elections and human rights guarantees.  Liu’s arrest and highly secretive trial have already sparked a backlash.  An aide to ousted Premier Zhao Ziyang, Bao Tong, has stepped forward to call for greater freedom of expression in the People’s Republic.  Whether or not this trial alone will lead to greater sustained internal pressure on Hu Jintao’s government remains to be seen.  Liu himself has stated that change will come slowly to China, with increased freedom of expression coming “millimeter by millimeter.”

The verdict in Liu’s trial has been postponed until Christmas (perhaps in the hopes of burying the announcement in Western media outlets).  Some activists who have been found guilty of “subversion” are facing the death penalty.  Whether or not Liu’s trial gains widespread coverage in Western news sources is beside the point.  What matters is that China’s intellectuals continue their struggle to reform the Chinese government from within its own borders.  China is too big for reform to be imposed only from without.  Then again, it is also to big to be governed from the top down forever and small steps, even if they cover only millimeters, are better than no steps at all.

Who Else?

These three are only a selection of those who might be considered by the Nobel Committee next year, the ones I was able to drum in the last day that seemed the most promising and compelling.  There are countless others, and I want to hear their stories and learn about their causes.  If someone in particular came to mind as you read this, you know how to use the comments.