“It’s as if the Nobel Prize in literature went to someone who published a book of poetry - a very interesting one, but just a debut,” he said. “For the first time the prize was given to someone who has plans, but no achievements. This is a purely political decision that could also be called a perverse verdict.”
So, why does Poland care whether or not President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize? They care because the prize is supposed to actually mean something, like it did when Poland's own Lech Walesa won the prize in 1983.
The article really ends with this stinging indictment:
When Lech Walesa received the honor in 1983, he had been an anticommunist dissident for more than a decade, kept in custody by the communist regime in 1981 and 1982, fired from his job, with his name banned by communist censors.
It was given to him in the darkest period of Poland’s 20th century history, at the height of the Cold War that could at any time transform into a very hot and nuclear conflict.
In 1983, the prize went to someone who was a global symbol of anticommunism with an impressive record, a complicated present and an uncertain future in a country oppressed by the Soviet tyrant.
And now? Poland feels the prize goes to a big question mark.
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