Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The Good
Now that we have looked at the accomplishments of Mother Teresa (1979 winner) and Jody Williams (1997 winner), assess their impact on peace. Did they deserve it? Mother Teresa is a role model for the world. But does helping the sick, needy, and hungry of Calcutta really get us closer to world peace? She may temporarily alleviate suffering and give some hope to people, but it does not come close to solving the issues of conflict in the world. Jody Williams managed to organized several groups to get a treaty banning landmines, but there are so many other weapons and weapons systems that are just as deadly or more deadly (think nuclear bombs, drone strikes, automatic guns, etc.) that are not banned. Does this really get us to stop the violence of war? Shouldn't political leaders who hold real political power (Clausewitz) be the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize? After all, they are the ones who can really stop wars! Please post your comments by Tuesday, May 28.
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Mother Teresa and Jody williams definatly deserved the nobel peace prize. It doesn't matter that it stops us the violence of war, Mother Teresa helped tons of poor nations, helped sick and dieing people, have somewhat better lifes. Politcal leaders shouldn't get it unless they actually can stop something, most politcal leaders take advantage over their power, thats why people like Jody Williams and Mother Teresa get the Nobel Peace Prize and not corrupt political officials.
ReplyDelete-Connor Lanoie
It does not matter that Mother Teresa and Jody Williams did not do anything politically to bring about world peace, there overall mission in life was to bring peace to everyone they touched. Mother Teresa helped ever sick, poor, and dying person she came across. She showed love and compassion for all, and helped as many people as she could during her life and never asked for anything in return. She without a doubt deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Jody Williams made it her goal to try and help reduce violence and death tolls by banning landmines. Although there are other weapons out there it is not the duty of one person to create world peace. She tried to do what she could to help make the world a better and safer place. Therefore Jody Williams too deserves a Nobel Peace prize. The people who really do not deserve this prize are the politicians sitting behind there desks having people blown up overseas for their own personal gain. They do not want peace and if they do, they do not want to create peace for the right reasons.
ReplyDelete-Sarah Kennedy
Mother Teresa and Jody Williams are more than deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. No single person will make a change to bring the whole world to peace. However, we can all have our own impact on the world which is exactly what Mother Teresa and Jody Williams managed to do. With Mother Teresa's work with the sick and needy there is no one more deserving of the prize than her. Landmines are an awful weapon that should never be used. Jody Williams saw this two and created a treaty banning them. In my eyes she is a hero for all the life's she may have saved. Without a doubt both these women are deserving of the prize.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Brehio
Mother Teresa and Jody Williams completely deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Mother Teresa's work in Calcutta was only a minor thing in her impact in the world. Her real accomplishment was in helping the sick and the needy in Calcutta inspired others from around the world to give humanitarian aid to those in need. While her work may have only slightly alleviated the problems in Calcutta what is most important is the groundwork and the legacy she left behind for others to follow. Jody Williams helped ban landmine use around the world. While this may not stop war it will be helpful in reducing non-military casualties due to landmines. There are about 2,000 landmine casualties every month. If she can just stop 1 casualty she is a hero. But her contributions go beyond the one casualty because every day more and more land mines are being disarmed and not being replaced due to her work. This means as time goes on her affect on the world will grow as the number of landmines shrinks. For these reasons Mother Teresa and Jody Williams definitely deserved there awards.
ReplyDelete-Colin Krohto
There are many ways to spread the idea of peace, you could actually do something about it if you have the political power or working to spread your views to get people to think peacefully is another way. I believe that even just spreading what you believe and being an example for people to follow is the first step. The good have really stepped up and given their lives to teach people how to respect each other and they deserve everything that is given to them. Yes having the power to act when you see fit is the best solution, but others also have impacts on getting peace because their following will support them and a lot can be done with masses. Peace can be achieved though a variety of ways and none is less respectable than the others.
ReplyDeletePamela Whatley
Both women totally deserve the nobel peace prize. I have been told many times that to achieve world piece you must start with one act of kindness at a time. Alleviating the suffering and giving some hope to people does make a difference in the world even if it is just temporary. It may not solve the issues of conflict in the world but it is a start. Every thing has to start somewhere, and world peace starts with one person at a time. Jody Williams may not have banned all the horrible weapons in the world. It won't stop the violence in the world but its a start. I like the fact that you do not have to be a political leader to win a peace prize because it shows that you do not need to be in a position of power to make a difference in the world.
ReplyDeleteGilisa Paternina
I believe that both of these women do deserve the award. No matter what is done in this world, there will be conflict and there will be violence among us. There really is nothing that can be done to completely rid the world of fighting. There will always be extremists that are able to rally up people and send them out to bring terror to the world. These women both deserve the award because they help. They help people and mean no harm. They both did what they could to help save lives. Like Colin said, if you can save one life, you are a hero. This world will never see complete peace but there will be people that do whatever they can to help others.
ReplyDeleteThe actions of these women do deserve praise and awards. They went went above and beyond to help other people. They may not have been able to stop war and all of these terrible weapons for example, but atleast they went out and put a stop to what they didnt like. Even that one ban is going to make a huge diffrence and could save aton of lifes, even if its only one life saved it is well worth it. Both of these women fully deserve what they got for their actions of peace.
ReplyDeleteTommy Janicki
I believe that these two women deserve recognition for what they've done. Although mother theresa had controversial means of caring for the sick she was still there when nobody else was. She also set an example for other selfless people to hopefully follow in the future. The ban on land mines is also a great accomplishment. Land mines are a terrible trap that no person friend or foe should ever walk over. On the hand of other weapons being banned I believe some should. But that takes hard work and hard evidence to prove that it must be banned. Hopefully in the future some of the catastrophic deadly weapons will be banned along with mines.
ReplyDelete-Ben Guyette
i think mother teresa did deserve the peace prize. even if she did something that had nothing to do with peace she still helps countless amounts of people. she saved countless amounts of lives. if you were on the verge of dying and mother teresa saved you woulsnt you want her to win some type of award to acknowledge her effort and determination. As for Jody williams, she completely deserved the peace award. absolutely she deserved it becausr it made a difference. her struggle to band mines kept going on and on and if it werent for her then maybe not 1 country would be mine free. even if its the smallest country and later on a mine would only kill 1 person it still counts. what if you were that person. you would count on jody williams to save you. she saved alot of people from future destruction and without her the worlds death toll would be a significant amount higher because every life counts no matter what race, gender, nationality or ethnicity. if you can save one person you deserve an award.
ReplyDeleteHamzah abdi
Without a single ounce of doubt Mother Teresa is a rightful recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her outstanding achievements in helping to make the world that much of a better place. With regards to the claim that Mother Teresa “doesn’t solve the issues of conflict today” the truth is actually the inverse of this statement. Without the good and selfless deeds of people like Mother Teresa the people that they helped may have, as Phil pointed out, resort to violence in order to get the help they need for themselves and their people. Mother Teresa lives to serve others and is even so humble as to say that it is really the people she is helping that are helping her. Thus, it does not matter if Mother Teresa is black or white, a political leader or an ordinary citizen, a nun or a Muslim; she makes the world a better place in the largest scale she knows how; caring for those who have no way to take care of themselves and instilling hope back into the hearts of those deprived.
ReplyDeleteJody Williams is perhaps the fastest person to make the world a better place because over the course of just five years she was able to get the support of 161 countries to sign her treaty with the ultimate goal of banning all landmines everywhere. Not only did this Treaty save the countless lives of the youth as well as adult populations in numerous countries but it promises hope for the future because now children will no longer live in fear that one day they could be playing in a field and the next day they could have their bodies sprinkled across that same field. Jody Williams may not have banned weapons such as the nuclear bomb but she took the first and most important step; the first one. Jody Williams serves as a testament to the fact that if all those who believe in a cause ban together (no pun intended) then there is no limit to what that group can accomplish. Therefore, simply because Jody Williams didn’t single handedly save the entire human race and doesn’t hold occupy a seat in congress does not mean that she is not a worthy recipient of perhaps the most coveted prize known to man.
---Nick Palumbo
It is impossible for a person to single handedly save the world but Mother Teresa and Jody Williams are definitely stepped in the right direction. Helping the sick, needy and hungry of Calcutta helps us to become closer to achieving world peace. I believe that peace begins with small acts of kindness. Mother Teresa dedicated her life towards loving those in need and served as an inspiration to the world to do the same; a definite step towards achieving world peace. Jody Williams organized a treaty to ban landmines, which kill thousands of innocent civilians. Yes, there are more deadly weapons out there, but her activism reduced violence and promoted peace and safety throughout the world. In order for political leaders that hold the real political power to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, they must do the most/best work for fraternity between nations and promote worldwide peace. If they do so, then yes, they could be recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.
ReplyDelete- Jillian
Nicholas, I agree that Mother Teresa was deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize, however, I would like to consider and evaluate the opposing side’s argument. For starters, the conditions of her missionaries were found to be far from sanitary. The moderately sick were placed with the terminally ill and equipment such as needles was often reused. For as many lives as she saved, she may have endangered just as many. Thousands of deaths can possibly be traced back to her allowance of such practices. Also, probably her worst offense of all was accepting money from un-peaceful people. The money that Mother Teresa accepted was through the thievery of innocent Haitians. Baby Doc’s profits came from oppressing the Haitian people, robbing them of their goods, and stealing any money that went to the aid of Haiti. By accepting the money that Baby Doc gives to her, Mother Teresa basically condones these acts of terror. She is no longer Mother Teresa the peacemaker, but the terror supporter. Also, since Baby Doc gave her so much money, some may think of him for being a charitable person instead of a tyrant. This good publicity may have aided in the continuation of the oppression in Haiti. Does this not make her somewhat selfish? She as well receives good publicity for helping out so many people, but no one realizes that she is technically advocating the continued reign of Baby Doc. She is seen as a saint (well she is going to be one) because she helped so many people, and the link between her and the misfortune of so many others is overlooked.
ReplyDeleteMother Teresa and Jody Williams are both every deserving of the Noble Peace prize because they understand that they need to fight for peace, no matter how big or small the action. Yes, their actions don't impact the world at large because there are still even greater threats to the world out there, but their actions are a start. Peace has to start everywhere in order for the world to fully adapt to a peaceful society. These two women won the Noble Peace Prize because they realize this, they realize that actions of peace don't have to be huge, but they have to start somewhere.
ReplyDelete-Ian Borzain
I believe that both Mother Teresa and Jody Williams are both fully deserving of winning the Noble Peace prize. While their efforts did not impact the world what they did still effected people in a positive manner. Peace doesn't come easily, it starts small and can build up to a larger scale. What these women did was an act of peace and while it may not have impacted the entire world it was still deserving of recognition.
ReplyDelete-Wyatt
Of course Mother Teresa's work will not bring world peace that is a given. However her work provides an example to the world. She has influenced many to make a change in the world. This gets the gears moving towards a more peaceful world. The same with Jody Williams, land mines are not the world biggest problem but she serves as an example of what could happen. If you could apply her work to nuclear weapons then yes it would absolutely bring peace. It is also more than anyone else is doing. Just because they didn't solve the worlds problems doesn't mean that they shouldn't be recognized for their accomplishments.
ReplyDelete-Zack Shepherd