Nobel Peace Prize laureates are often unknown revealing a hidden network working for the good–In a matter of days the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced. Although 164 individuals and 33 organizations have been nominated, including Vladimir Putin and Bob Geldorf, the runners up are:
Hu Jia with his wide Zeng Jinya the most well known Chinese dissidents
Thick Quanq Do, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk
Lydia Yusupova, a Chechen human rights lawyer
Morgan Tsvangarai, the opposition leader in Zimbabwe
Ingrid Betancourt, the Colombian former hostage
Since no one from china or related to China has won the prize since the Dalai Lama in 1989, Hu Jia is heavily favored according to Stein Toennesson, director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo and a close observer of the peace prize.
China has already made its view on such an award public, warning the Nobel committee not to give the award to the jailed dissident. A spokesman for the Foreign ministry said the award should go the right person. Their concern is understandable given that the prize not only comes with a large purse, but can also lift an individual out of obscurity and bring the light of the world press upon their cause, much as it did for Aung San Suu Kyi since 1991. It is doubtful of course that were the Nobel committee to chose Hu Jia that the warning of the Chinese government would stop them. What is remarkable about this list, however, is not the warning issued by China, but the fact that most of these runners up are people only known in very small circles.It does not diminish their accomplishment nor their worthiness to receive the prize, but it does point that beneath the radar of public scrutiny and knowledge there is a network of people sacrificing themselves–for their work usually entails some level of sacrifice–for causes that make us proud to belong to the human race.
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