Nobel 2022 prize season under shadow of war in Ukraine
SWEDEN: The world will celebrate peace and mankind’s do-gooders next week when the winners of the Nobel prizes are revealed in a string of daily announcements – as war rages in Ukraine.
Not since World War II has a conflict been waged between two countries so close to Stockholm and Oslo, where the prestigious awards for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace have been announced since 1901, and the newer Economics Prize since 1969.
The highlight of the week’s announcements, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, will be revealed on October 7 in Oslo and will hold special significance this year, experts say.
The deadline for Peace Prize nominations was on January 31, prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee can propose their own choices at their first meeting of the year, held at the end of February after the invasion.
The list of nominations is secret, but it is known that the names of 343 individuals or organisations have been submitted this year.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee could decide to not award the Peace Prize if it deems there is no worthy recipient. The last time that happened was 50 years ago.
Othe choices could be jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny as would Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.
Last year, another thorn in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s side, journalist Dmitry Muratov, was honoured together with his colleague Maria Ressa from the Philippines in the name of freedom of information.
Other possible contenders this year, experts say, are anti-corruption group Transparency International and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, with other environmental activists such as Nisreen Elsaim of Sudan, Chibeze Ezekiel of Ghana and tireless British campaigner David Attenborough also potentially in the running.
The Nobel season opens on Monday with the announcement of the Medicine Prize, followed by Physics on Tuesday and Chemistry on Wednesday. Literature follows on Thursday and Peace on Friday, with the Economics Prize – the only one not created in Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel’s will – winding up the season on October 10.
Each prize comes with a cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor (S$1.3 million), to be shared if there are several laureates in a discipline.
– THE STRAITS TIMES