On Nobel Prizes

On Nobel Prizes
26th Oct. 2006
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2006/10/26/nobel-prizes.html

I have often felt that the late Alfred Nobel must be turning in his grave whenever some of the Nobel Peace Prize winners are announced. However, I am sure this time he smiled.
The Peace Prize is the only prize which most of the common people understand (or, at least, claim to understand), in terms of the worthiness or otherwise of the recipients. (Remember one of Parkinson's Laws?) Who, after all, understands the worthiness of winners of Nobel prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, economics and literature, except those who understand these subjects?
The Peace Prize, on the other hand, is understood by the common man, and he feels that quite often it is given to controversial people and not to those whom he would consider deserving candidates. Sometimes it is given to those who have the blood of innocents on their hands from their past actions, while some get the prize for apparently political reasons. Some notable non-recipients, like the apostle of peace and the Father of India, Mahatma Gandhi, can also be pointed out.
I wonder whether Grameen Bank and Muhammad Yunus should have received the Nobel Prize for Economics rather than for Peace, because economics is the area where they made their mark. In fact, I personally felt let down when the President and Prime Minister of Indonesia and Finland did not win for bringing peace to Aceh.
See? I, a common man, have an opinion only about the Peace Prize and don't know anything about the works of Phelps (Economics), Kornberg (Medicine), Fire and Mello (Medicine), Mather and Smoot (Physics) and Orhan Pramuk (Literature)!
K. B. KALE, Jakarta