Captain Future's Log

Nobels for Nobility That Works

Any given year, there are dozens of people fully qualified to receive the Nobel Prize in their category. Especially of late, the prize committee has used the Nobel to make a point. It's that kind of extreme world. For example, writers whose work and life include political activism and the championing of human rights as well as free expression have been awarded the Literature prize in recent years. This year is no exception: it went to Orhan Pamuk, a novelist whose work chronicles real people confronting the clash of eastern and western civilizations. It comes a year after he was prosecuted for ‘denigrating the Turkish state.’ (A charge later dropped.)

(I picked up one funny item in this report in a Turkish newspaper prior to the award, which noted that Pamuk was the favorite but mentioned that last year's winner, British playwright Harold Pinter, was a surprise. They reported that judges are so secretive that they speak of contenders in code: the code words for Harold Pinter? Harry Potter.)

The Nobel Peace Prize this year is the most conspicuous example. First, the idea that the granting of seed money (sometimes literally) to poor people in Bangladesh is the supreme act of peace to be honored this year merits attention. Alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Dalai Lama, there is now a former economics professor, Muhammad Yunus and the grandiose-sounding Grameen Bank, though he started it with loans of $27 to the very poor. This "microcredit" idea, still the work of this bank, has spread throughout the developing world.

These very small loans often make the difference to the families involved, from being barely subsistent and/or dependent on unscrupulous creditors who keep them in debt, to being autonomous. Here are some of the salient facts that have emerged: most of the loans go to women, and that alone has improved the status of women in the Third World. Most often the loans are promptly paid back. And the surplus money these families accrue goes most often into educating their children. (The PBS News Hour rebroadcast their excellent 2001 report on how this works.)

The message is crystal clear. Peace is about rising from imposed poverty, and being given a chance. Peace is about helping others, in creative, effective and very human ways. Social justice is the key to peace.