SUDAN AND IRAN

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                    [Title] => At what prize peace?
                    [Summary] => 
President Aquino said it himself: The snub of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony was done for the sake of “national interest.” The Nobel boycott lends itself very well to personal disappointment. Liu Xiaobo languished in the prison cells of China in the name of things we Filipinos hold dear: freedom of speech, a working democracy, and political reform. Then again, the decision to back out of the Nobel ceremonies puts us in the league of some authoritarian regimes like Sudan and Iran, and countries that have opposite threads of governance as us, like Venezuela and Cuba.
Of course, what's done is done. We were, said Sen. Joker Arroyo, “engaged in a gamble;” it's just like saying we must concede and accede to those who support Liu Xiaobo's cause or not. The Nobel debacle looks like the necessary compromise. It's often said that the US is in the decline and it is in our best interest to support China. Or that the welfare of five Filipinos in jail in China for drug trafficking should be considered. Or maybe, just maybe, “we do not want to further annoy China,” as an unnamed diplomat mentioned: what with a broadband deal that went bust, and a hostage-taking incident, that forces us to make amends with our most powerful Asian neighbor.
                    [DatePublished] => 2010-12-20 00:00:00
                    [ColumnID] => 133272
                    [Focus] => 0
                    [AuthorID] => 1315291
                    [AuthorName] => Featured Blogger Marck Ronald Rimorin
                    [SectionName] => Unblogged
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At what prize peace?

By Featured Blogger Marck Ronald Rimorin | December 20, 2010 - 12:00am

President Aquino said it himself: The snub of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony was done for the sake of “national interest.” The Nobel boycott lends itself very well to personal disappointment....

Unblogged