BATTLING TRIO SHARE NOBEL PRIZE

BATTLING TRIO SHARE NOBEL PRIZE

October 07, 2011

Nobel honours African, Arab women for peace

Alastair Macdonald And
Gwladys Fouche

fromhttp://www.realclearworld.com/news/reuters/international/2011/Oct/07/nobel_honours_african__arab_women_for_peace.html

 

OSLO (Reuters) – Declaring women’s rights vital for world peace, the Nobel
Committee awarded its annual Peace Prize on Friday to three indomitable female
campaigners against war and oppression — a Yemeni and two Liberians, including
that country’s president.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first woman freely elected as a head of state in
Africa, shared the award worth $1.5 million with compatriot Leymah Gbowee, who
promoted a “sex strike” among efforts to end Liberia’s civil war, and
Yemen’s Tawakul Karman, who called her honor “a victory for the Arab
Spring.”

“We cannot achieve democracy and
lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to
influence developments at all levels of society,” Norwegian Nobel
Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told reporters.

“This is to highlight an incredibly important issue all over the world
but especially in Africa and in the Arab world.”

Karman, 32, an Islamist journalist dubbed the “Mother of the
Revolution,” has been a key figure in protests in the capital Sanaa this
year. “This is a victory for the Arab Spring in Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Syria
and Yemen,” she told Reuters. “This
is a message that the era of Arab dictatorships is over.”

Typically, the mother-of-three was out demonstrating in a central square in
Sanaa for the departure of veteran Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh when she
heard the news.

Johnson-Sirleaf, 72, a former World Bank economist known as the “Iron
Lady” by opponents, called the prize a recognition of her nation’s
“many years of struggle for justice, peace, and promotion of
development” since a brutal decade of civil war.

“The credit goes to the Liberian people,” she said in the capital
Monrovia after hearing the announcement from Oslo.

Gbowee, 39, received the news belatedly when she switched on her mobile
phone after landing in New York on a book tour.

“All I keep hearing in my head is the song of praise to God,” she
said. “My work is for survival for myself and for other women … With or without a Nobel I will still do
what I do because I am a symbol of hope in my community on the continent, in a
place where there is little to be hopeful for.”

From: http://www.realclearworld.com/news/reuters/international/2011/Oct/07/nobel_honours_african__arab_women_for_peace.html

 

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and
belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or
acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends
forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different
centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down
the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Robert Francis Kennedy quotes ( U.S. attorney general and adviser,
1925-1968)

 

Tags: Nobel Peace Prize, Peace, pursuit of peace, winners

“A NEGOTIATED, HARMONIOUS AND PEACEFUL REVOLUTION”

“A NEGOTIATED, HARMONIOUS AND PEACEFUL REVOLUTION”

Here is a short extract from Craig’s novel ‘THE PRIZE’ that he currently writing…
or rather one that’s “writing itself”

…

The NationaL Council reunites the forces of the opposition
and the peaceful revolution to the huge problems – those in and facing our
country. We have an aim of uniting the political spectrum and represent the
movement for peaceful negotiations between the regime and forces of opposition,
both inside and outside the country. The Council works to mobilise all
categories of people in our country… and give the necessary support to forces
of positive change, a “revolution of thinking”. We MUST give the
necessary support for the ‘evolution’ and encouragement of human rights”
(in Syria) to progress and realise the aspirations of our people.”

As a group we embody the non-violent spirit of the
revolution. We are just “ordinary” people working hard at community
building, as everything starts from that seed… making a better  life for ALL. “Ordinary” people
playing an instrumental, yet effective role in the mobilisation of protests on
both the internet and on the street. The power of the masses as a catalyst for
change, encouraging efforts to make the world more peaceful, democratic and
respectful of human rights!”

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is
shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of
others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,
and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring,
those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of
oppression and resistance.”

Robert Francis Kennedy quotes ( U.S. attorney general and adviser,
1925-1968)

The important thing in life is not to triumph but to compete…not victory but
combat…not to have vanquished but to have fought well…not winning but taking
part.”
― Pierre de Coubertin (French Educator, primarily responsible for the revival of the Olympic Games in 1894. 1863-1937)
*****************

THE ENTREPRENEUR

“He was one of America’s greatest innovators, “He
transformed our lives, redefined entire industries and achieved one of the
rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the
world.  Steve was brave enough to think
differenty, bold enough to believe he could change the world and was talented
enough to do it.”

- President Barack Obama on the life and times of Steve Jobs

“The important thing in life is not to triumph but to compete…not victory but
combat…not to have vanquished but to have fought well…not winning but taking
part.”
― Pierre de Coubertin (French Educator, primarily responsible for the revival of the Olympic Games in 1894. 1863-1937)

For global peace to work, it needs to grow in ALL hearts: Garth George

peace begins within

From: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10747211

Rebel fighters pray during prayers in the rebel-held town of Benghazi,
Libya. Photo / AP

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tags;  Peace, pursuit
of peace, inner peace, Garth George, New Zealand Herald, Christianity,
Christian values

Another New Zealander dies in a far-off land in the service of his country
and I wonder again if the time will ever come when this world of ours will know
peace. Upon reflection, the answer has to be “never”.

Stick a pin just about anywhere in a map of the world and it will land on a
place which is racked by war of some sort or another – riots, rebellion,
internecine conflict, subjugation – or by plague, pestilence, poverty or
hunger.

For most people, peace means the absence of war, and invariably it’s
something that someone else ought to do something about: the Americans ought to
stop trying to impose democracy where it isn’t wanted; the Jews ought to stop
fighting with the Palestinians; the Sunnis with the Shi’ites, Christians with
Muslims, Libyans, Egyptians and Syrians with one another; the North Koreans
with the South Koreans and so on.

There are individuals, organisations, even governments which devote vast
amounts of time and money to promoting peace.

But there is no peace.

Why? Because peace is not just the absence of war. The Concise Oxford
Dictionary defines it also as being “in a state of friendliness or
quietness”. And that is personal – something that, in order to have it,
one must cultivate it diligently.

That is not easy. Personal peace – peace of mind and heart – requires first
that I be at peace with myself, because only then can I understand that, just
as I am fully entitled to be me, I am not the centre of the universe and others
have as much right to be what they are, do what they do and say what they say
as I have, no matter how different their being and doing and saying might be to
mine.

It requires that I learn to practise
patience and kindness and generosity and humility and courtesy and
unselfishness and good temper and sincerity and that I always believe the best
of others.

It demands of me, simply, that I learn
to love my neighbour as myself. And if you think that’s easy, just try it
for a day.

So long as husbands fight with wives, often to the point of divorce and
acrimonious battles over children and matrimonial property; so long as sibling
fights with sibling, sometimes to the point of lifetime alienation; so long as
neighbour fights with neighbour, sometimes to the point of violent
confrontation; so long as friends fall out and stop talking to one another, the
world will never be at peace.

World peace, you see, begins in YOUR heart and MINE.

                                    *

This week, incidentally, marks 15 years since this column began to appear
weekly which means I have finally achieved a target I set myself years ago – to
equal the continuity achieved by that venerable wordsmith, Gordon McLauchlan.

His weekly contributions graced these pages for that length of time, the
last one on December 18, 2004. The first of my weekly columns was published on
August 28, 1996, and since then there have been some 750 of them amounting to some
525,000 words.

When then editor Gavin Ellis asked me to write a weekly column, I asked him
“What about?” He said, “Anything you like”. “Do you
really mean that?” I asked. “Yes,” said he – and, for a man with
an opinion on everything, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

I am grateful he and his successors have stuck to that undertaking – and
still do – in spite of the criticism, and sometimes abuse, they have sometimes
taken from those who would have had this column canned.

My writings have always been markedly politically incorrect and often
unashamedly Christian and thus have often made angry some of those who count
themselves among the great and the good.

But the editors, bless them, have always had the courage to stick to the
fundamental democratic principle of free speech: that while they might disagree
- and sometimes quite vehemently – with what I say, they will ever defend my
right to say it.

Over the years I have received thousands of emails, hundreds of letters and
scores of telephone calls from readers. I thank you all because, since I write
on the basis of “love me or hate me, but please don’t ignore me” – a
tenet handed on to me by the first editor I ever worked for – I thrive on
reaction, be it positive or negative.

And I guess it goes with the territory that while many of those who disagree
with me write letters to the editor, a much greater number who agree send me
nice personal emails – except for the ones whose vicious, obscene and generally
misspelled and ungrammatical tirades are invariably anonymous.

My special thanks, however, goes to those Christian brothers and sisters who
have prayed for me over the years and still do. For without that, the most
effective and powerful of all support, this column would have ceased long ago.

God bless you all.

- garth.george@hotmail.com

From: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10747211

 

Tags: Christian values, Christianity, Garth George, inner peace, New Zealand Herald, Peace, pursuit of peace

THE SOUTH AFRICAN DREAM :

THE SOUTH AFRICAN DREAM :

LONG WALK TO FREEDOM AND PEACE: THE
“BRIDGE-BUILDER, THE RECONCILIATOR ,”

Tags (key words): South Africa, dream,
dreams, my young dream, ‘Long Walk to Freedom and Peace’,
hope, New books, soccer,

Web sites:
http://sawriter.wordpress.com and

http://longwalktopeace.wordpress.com/

 

Here is a short extract from ‘Long Walk
to Freedom and Peace’ that craig is currently writing (or perhaps
“it’s writing itself”)…

I don’t know how the story will end…

But I do know how it all began…

For Lynda and Sharon

#

PROLOGUE

THE DREAM

It was a cold dreary mid-winter evening
in 1975, a year before the Soweto riots that started a great upheaval
in the “beloved” country.

 

The young man was very excited as he
caught the bus to the soccer ground in Observatory to see a historic
football match between the Greek-based side Hellenic (from the other
side of the beautiful mother city) and the black team from Soweto
outside Johannesburg (Egoli, the city of gold). Watching his team
Cape Town City play at Hartleyvale was his usual Friday night
entertainment during the long rainy winter at the Southern tip of the
vast “dark” continent.

 

Even though it was a friendly soccer
match , this was to be the first time a black team had played against
a white team in the racially divided and rigidly repressed country.
The game went off without incident; in spite of prior apprehension by
many and was played in a great spirit. The young man marvelled at the
exceptional ball skills displayed by the black players, their
creativity, flair and finesse; but he also greatly valued the
discipline in defence, self control and the stategic and tactical
‘nous’ of the white players in the opposing teams. It was a great
contrast in styles, yet both added greatly to the spectacle through
different and yet diverse sets of skills. It was as if the whole was
greater than the whole.

 

Though relaxed, that night the
blonde-haired man had difficulty getting to sleep … as the thoughts
kept swirling around in his head. It hadn’t mattered who had won the
game (though he thinks it may have been a draw). And these thoughts
began to germinate in the days following. He always expressed himself
far better in writing than the spoken word, so the next day he
“penned” a letter to his beautiful girlfriend with the
jet-black hair, Lynda … in which he shared a vision of the
future…of what his “beloved” country could perhaps one
day become through encompassing the best of both white and black
cultures.

Sport for unity… as a tool in
advancement for equality and freedom.

 

And a celebration of diversity… two
worlds in one country…and one at peace with itself…at long last!

 

That was the young man’s dream in the
dark days of the year nineteen seventy five

 

And that night as he lay in bed, “young
whitey” recalled the words of former US senator, Robert Kennedy
who had visited South Africa about eight years earlier:

“ Look at things not as they are, but
what can they can perhaps one day become”

Then he fell into a deep sleep,
peacefully, blissfully…

*

“Few (of us) will have the
greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a
small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of
courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man (or
woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others,
or strikes out against injustice, (she or) he sends forth a tiny
ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different
centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can
sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

— the powerful and greatly inspiring
words of Robert F. Kennedy (with my little insertions in brackets)

 

“In the midst of darkness, light
exists”

from http://sawriter.wordpress.com and
http://longwalktopeace.wordpress.com/THE SOUTH AFRICAN DREAM :

LONG WALK TO FREEDOM AND PEACE:  THE
“BRIDGE-BUILDER, THE RECONCILIATOR ,”

Tags
(key words): South Africa, dream, dreams, my young dream, ‘Long Walk
to Freedom and Peace’, Craig Lock, hope,  New books, soccer,

Web sites:
http://sawriter.wordpress.com
and http://longwalktopeace.wordpress.com/

 

Here is a short extract from ‘Long
Walk to Freedom and Peace’ that craig is currently writing (or
perhaps “it’s writing itself”)…

I don’t know how the story will end…

But I do know how it all began…

For Lynda and Sharon

#

PROLOGUE

THE DREAM

It was a cold dreary mid-winter evening
in 1975, a year before the Soweto riots that started a great upheaval
in the “beloved” country.

 

The young man was very excited as he
caught the bus to the soccer ground in Observatory to see a historic
football match between the Greek-based side Hellenic (from the other
side of the beautiful mother city) and the black team from Soweto
outside Johannesburg (Egoli, the city of gold). Watching his team
Cape Town City play at Hartleyvale was his usual Friday night
entertainment during the long rainy winter at the Southern tip of the
vast “dark” continent.

 

Even though it was a friendly soccer
match , this was to be the first time a black team had played against
a white team in the racially divided and rigidly repressed country.
The game went off without incident; in spite of prior apprehension by
many and was played in a great spirit. The young man marvelled at the
exceptional ball skills displayed by the black players, their
creativity, flair and finesse; but he also greatly valued the
discipline in defence, self control and the stategic and tactical
‘nous’ of the white players in the opposing teams. It was a great
contrast in styles, yet both added greatly to the spectacle through
different and yet diverse sets of skills. It was as if the whole was
greater than the whole.

 

Though relaxed, that night the
blonde-haired man had difficulty getting to sleep … as the thoughts
kept swirling around in his head. It hadn’t mattered who had won the
game (though he thinks it may have been a draw). And these thoughts
began to germinate in the days following. He always expressed himself
far better in writing than the spoken word, so the next day he
“penned” a letter to his beautiful girlfriend with the
jet-black hair, Lynda … in which he shared a vision of the
future…of what his “beloved” country could perhaps one
day become through encompassing the best of both white and black
cultures.

Sport for unity… as a tool in
advancement for equality and freedom.

 

And a celebration of diversity… two
worlds in one country…and one at peace with itself…at long last!

 

That was the young man’s dream in the
dark days of the year nineteen seventy five

 

And that night as he lay in bed,
“young whitey” recalled the words of former US senator,
Robert Kennedy who had visited South Africa about eight years
earlier:

“ Look at things not as they are,
but what can they can perhaps one day become”

Then he fell into a deep sleep,
peacefully, blissfully…

*

“Few
(of us) will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of
us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from
numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is
shaped. Each time a man (or woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to
improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, (she or)
he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a
million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a
current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and
resistance.”
—
the powerful and greatly inspiring words of Robert F. Kennedy (with
my little insertions in brackets)

 

“In the midst of darkness, light
exists”

from http://sawriter.wordpress.com
and http://longwalktopeace.wordpress.com/

 

“The spring of  hope is eternal and will never run dry.”

“From the depth of  the valleys, in the deserts of despair, there is hope… as there is the
unquenchable oasis, the immense breadth and depth of the human spirit…
always.”

-
craig

“When (and where) love endures, hope
inevitably follows”

- “the writer”

 

Tags: dream, South Africa

HOPE, LOVE AND LIGHT: “THE UNKNOWN WRITER”

HOPE, LOVE AND LIGHT: “THE UNKNOWN WRITER”

From  http://newbooksbycraiglock.wordpress.com/
and thegrandprize.wordpress.com

“A Beacon of Light in a Sea (Ocean) of Despair”

Am writing the book as the story unfolds itself.

***************

I don’t know how it’ll end , but I do know how it all
began…

“

Full many a flower is destined to blossom unseen and waste its sweetness on
the desert air.”

- Thomas Gray (from ‘Gray’s Elecy’, I “tink”)

The unknown writer had been struggling for many years,
humbly living off mainly government hand-outs and a few part-time jobs in
“Sleepy Hollow”, where most jobs were acquired via “word of
mouth” in the closely-knit community. So with nothing much else to do, the
writer had written about twenty-five manuscripts on widely varied subjects
close to his heart, his passions.

His writing journey had started many years before in 1993
after being “successful” publishing his first five books with a UK
vanity publisher. But that episode had been a disaster…financially and even
more emotionally; the extreme stress had turned his and his family’s life
upside down. Nevertheless, even in the blackness he still felt a “calling”
to be a writer, to tell stories that touched and impacted the lives of
readers… so he kept writing and daily sent out his articles on the world wide
web. And his writings were widely published on the internet.

Anyway, he didn’t know what else to do with his life, but
trust God, the Ultimate Source of Life.

There were many hard days, especially in the depths of
winter. But then spring does follow… and then the glorious summer weather in
the small city where he lived.

However, even in his darkest days the “writer”
lived in hope that one day his writings would get out to the “real”
world in books… ones that impacted, uplifted, empowered and perhaps even
inspired people… as many as possible around the globe. And that was what he
felt his “life mission” to be.

He truly believed that God had a plan for every life and
even when he felt so alone and misunderstood in the deepest valley he somehow
knew that he had not been neglected, forgotten, yet he too had a
“purpose” in life.

And so he kept on writing… and in so doing his “eyes
lifted a little higher” with each long passing day.
*

Then one day in March of the year 2011, as the rays of the
bright morning light shone into the cluttered lounge…the writer’s  entire life, his world changed for the
better… far far better…

7th March 2011

“Aim at heaven
and you’ll have earth thrown in.

Aim at earth and
you’ll get neither.”

- CS Lewis

From  http://newbooksbycraiglock.wordpress.com/
and thegrandprize.wordpress.com

Tags: 'The Prize', the writing journey, writing

WRITING INTO THE LIGHT (from the novel s ‘Stirling’ and ‘The Prize’)

WRITING INTO THE LIGHT (from the novel s ‘Stirling’ and ‘The Prize’)

From  http://newbooksbycraiglock.wordpress.com/
and thegrandprize.wordpress.com

Tags: New books, books, ‘Stirling’, ‘The Prize’, writing, spiritual growth, faith, hope

Full many a flower is destined to blossom unseen and waste its sweetness on
the desert air.”

WRITE LIMITS

Writers challenge themselves and their readers in new ways,
They find new niches. I want to continually test my own writing
“limits”, the “boundaries of my imagination.”

*

WRITPEACE

DIFFERENT CHOICES, DIRECTIONS, DIFFERENT PATHS and DIFFERENT
OUTCOMES

evangelist??

author: writing about Jesus, peace??

ALL???!!!

THE WRITER

The CHOICE:

Whether to write about sport (his great passion), a true
story from his life (auto-biographical), or to write a story (true) about the
pursuit of peace… and in so doing, in some small way to advance the cause of
global peace.

And whenever c came to a cross roads in his life about which
path to take, he meditated and prayed and followed the voice within, the
indwelling Holy Spirit. What would Jesus do (WWJD) in this situation? Then he
usually followed, not his mind  (logic),
but his heart, as well as the highest thought, the highest possible choice. So
c chose to write about the road less travelled, the path of the pursuit of
PEACE. Through attempting in some small way to break down barriers and
divisions between peoples, one mind, one heart, one tiny step at a time.

And every great journey starts with a single small step.

The writer often doubted the journey, wondering whether it
would ever lead anywhere. As he often seemed stuck and lacking ideas
(“blocked”), spinning the wheels of life”. Then he turned to his
imagination, God, whatever you wish to call a Higher Power to guide him.

He viewed God as a “Co-creator or co-pilot”
(silently observing, yet pleased), with him each step along this epic journey,
this “road less travelled”… and the
Spirit of Jesus was his channel to connect to this Ultimate Source, the
Ground of All Being, the Essence, the Mystery of Life … or what is usually
simply known as God. His “best friend/life-partner”(in spirit), Jesus
would then be happiest. And so that’s just what the writer did. And his strong
faith never wavered for long!

30th April in the year 2011
*

WRITE FAITH

A NEW BEGINNING

And the writer too had been through the hard times of life.
Particularly through the late eighties and early to mid-nineties, when his
family moved amidst great trauma to the tranquil haven of provincial New
Zealand at the end of the earth. Amidst the turmoil of relocation, then with
many problems (seemingly insurmountable) in his rather eventful life, in the
depths of the blackness, he turned to writing. After what appeared to be a
promising start to a new direction in life, he then “got ripped off”
by a UK publisher, losing his life savings, marriage and most of all hope. With
all the change in the preceding years, the “writers” faith in himself
and his decisions, his entire self-image had been shattered, steadily broken
down during the past seven or so years of incredible stress… with a huge toll
on his beloved family. In this deep, dark valley…no, this pit of despair, he
met some good friends (even though they were Christian… but not too
“goody-goody happy clappy”!). And they helped greatly through sharing
their faith with him… and how the Infinite Spirit and love of Jesus Christ
had helped them in times of difficulty, even transforming their lives…and
“the writers” life was never the same again.

“When (and  where) love endures, hope inevitably follows”

- the writer

From  http://newbooksbycraiglock.wordpress.com/
and thegrandprize.wordpress.com

Tags: books, New books

Chinese official calls Nobel Prize award ‘blasphemy’

PEACE picChinese official calls
Nobel Prize award ‘blasphemy’                                                       from www.chopra.com

Tags: Liu Xiaobo, China, CNN

CHINA

October
08, 2010|By the CNN Wire Staff

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-08/world/china.nobel.react_1_liu-xiaobo-human-rights-ma-zhaoxu?_s=PM:WORLD

Chinese police stand outside the Beijing apartment compound of dissident Liu Xiaobo’s
home Friday.

Beijing blasted a Chinese dissident’s Nobel Peace Prize win Friday, calling the
decision to award Liu Xiaobo the honor “blasphemy.”

Ma

Zhaoxu, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said the award is supposed to
be given to those who “promote national harmony, international
friendship” and work toward peace.

Liu is
serving an 11-year prison term after being sentenced in 2009 for inciting
subversion of state power. He is the co-author of Charter 08, a call for
political reform and human rights, and was an adviser to the student protesters
at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

“Liu
Xiaobo is a convicted criminal sentenced to jail by Chinese justice. His acts
are in complete contradiction to the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Ma
said.

The
selection of Liu was made by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, whose president
said the dissident won for his “long and nonviolent struggle for
fundamental human rights in China.”

However,
Ma said that while China and Norway have recently had “good
relations,” the committee’s decision would harm future dealings between
the two countries.

The Nobel
Committee stood by its choice and said it had expected China to react strongly.

“We
have a very strong tradition of awarding the prize to human rights activists of
many different kinds,” Geir Lundestad, director of the Nobel Institute,
told CNN.

The
institute assists the committee in selecting the prize each year.

Lundestad
cited German pacifist and journalist Carl von Ossietsky in 1935, Holocaust
survivor Elie Wiesel in 1986, Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in
1991 and Iranian campaigner Shirin Ebadi in 2003 as examples of human rights
activists who have won the prize.

“This
is a tradition we are very proud of, and this is a tradition for which the
Norwegian Nobel Committee has received much applause,” Lundestad said.
“We felt that if we were serious about this tradition, we did have to come
to terms with the question of China in this perspective, and this is what we
then did this year.”

China’s
strongly worded response came in stark contrast to glowing reaction from around
the world.

Pu
Zhiqiang, a human rights lawyer who is Liu’s friend, said the prize indicates
that Liu will have a huge impact.

“I
doubt the Nobel will help Xiaobo right this moment, but in the long run, it
will leave a legacy that is sure to help bring democratic reform and freedom to
China, that will far outlast Liu’s life,” Pu said.

“Awarding
the Peace Prize to him is the international community’s recognition of the
increasing voices among the Chinese people in pushing China towards political,
legal and constitutional reforms,” said the Dalai Lama, who won the prize
in 1989. “I believe in the years ahead, future generations of Chinese will
be able to enjoy the fruits of the efforts that the current Chinese citizens are
making towards responsible governance.”

From http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-08/world/china.nobel.react_1_liu-xiaobo-human-rights-ma-zhaoxu?_s=PM:WORLD

The submitter is currently writing ‘The Prize’  and is posting
extracts on his blog at grandprize.wordpress.com

Tags: China, CNN, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel Prize, Xiaobo