Barack Obama strikes again

Barack Obama strikes again, showing that his sparkling global image has not been damaged despite growing unpopularity at home.

Today, October 9 at 11 CEST time, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, responsible for handing out the Nobel Peace Prize, announced that this year’s winner was Barack Obama.

 “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” announced the Committee website.

The statement is believed to make direct reference for Barack Obama’s efforts in repairing relations with the wider Muslim world.

Here is a piece of his June 4 speech which he made to an audience of Muslim world intellectuals and academics at the university of Cairo and for which he received a standing ovation.

“We have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world we seek – a world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes; a world where governments serve their citizens, and the rights of all God’s children are respected. Those are mutual interests. That is the world we seek. But we can only achieve it together.

I know there are many – Muslim and non-Muslim – who question whether we can forge this new beginning. Some are eager to stoke the flames of division, and to stand in the way of progress. Some suggest that it isn’t worth the effort – that we are fated to disagree, and civilisations are doomed to clash. Many more are simply skeptical that real change can occur. There is so much fear, so much mistrust. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward. And I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country – you, more than anyone, have the ability to remake this world.

All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort – a sustained effort _ to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.”