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Thunberg’s name has come up in connection with the peace prize, possibility, most likely with other activists.
STOCKHOLM – Press freedom groups and climate activist Greta Thunberg are ringing the Nobel Peace Prize ahead of next week’s award announcements, in a pandemic year that has highlighted the importance of science and research. .
The Nobel Prizes for Literature and Peace, to be announced on October 8 and 9 respectively, usually arouse the greatest interest from the public, occasionally awarded to well-known individuals or organizations.
But the medicine, physics, chemistry, and economics awards are usually given to research teams working hard for decades away from the spotlight, perhaps stars in their fields, but rarely known to the public.
This year, the new coronavirus has put science on center stage.
“The pandemic is a great crisis for humanity, but it illustrates how important science is,” said the director of the Nobel Foundation, Lars Heikensten.
No prizes are expected this year for work directly related to the virus, as Nobel Prize-winning research often takes many years to verify.
However, the virus could influence the various committees that select the winners.
“The pandemic has changed us as thinking beings for the foreseeable future,” Bjorn Wiman, culture editor for Sweden’s largest daily Dagens Nyheter, told AFP.
For the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize for Literature, “it is clear that the pandemic will have some kind of effect on the reflections of the members of the Nobel committee (of the Academy). They are also simply people.”
“Other things may seem more important now than they did six months ago,” Wiman said.
– ‘Without real strides of peace’ –
Meanwhile, experts at the Nobel Peace Prize pointed to the lack of a clear leader this year.
“There is no great progress for peace or peace accords,” Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told AFP.
Nobel historian Asle Sveen said Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was his favorite for the award, a choice echoed by the director of the Oslo Peace Research Institute (PRIO), Henrik Urdal, who also mentioned the Committee for the Protection of Journalists.
“During conflicts, it is extremely important that journalists contribute to providing information about what is happening, both to hold the parties to the conflict accountable for their actions and to provide information to the outside world,” Urdal told AFP.
Smith and Sveen also named Greta Thunberg, who has repeatedly urged world leaders to “listen to the science” on climate change, as a potential winner, likely alongside other activists.
“I think the committee can go beyond a narrow definition of peace,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, other experts have suggested that the World Health Organization could take the award home.
Last year, he went to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for ending a 20-year post-war stalemate with Eritrea.
– Literary brouhahas –
Meanwhile, a number of names have been mentioned for the prize for literature, awarded by the Swedish Academy that has been embroiled in controversy for several years.
His 2016 Nobel pick of American rock legend Bob Dylan was a controversial choice, followed the following year by the emergence of a rape scandal near its members that ripped through the Academy, forcing the award to be postponed to 2018 , a novelty in 70. years.
The Academy was revamped and, just when everyone thought it would avoid controversy, it presented the 2019 award to Austrian novelist Peter Handke, known for his pro-Serbian support in the Balkan wars.
“If the Academy knows what is good for them, they will choose Jamaica Kincaid,” Bjorn Wiman, cultural editor of Sweden’s largest daily Dagens Nyheter, told AFP.
The Caribbean-American author is known for exploring colonialism, racism, and gender.
“Kincaid and his stance on various moral and political issues are absolutely worth listening to today,” he said.
However, the Academy could also “dust off some old candidates” like Peter Nadas from Hungary, Ismael Kadare from Albania or Mircea Cartarescu from Romania, he said.
Meanwhile, Madelaine Levy, a literature critic for the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, said she was waiting for American writer Joan Didion.
Canadian poet Anne Carson was also seen as a possible winner, along with “usual suspects” Ngugi wa Thiong’o from Kenya, French novelist Michel Houellebecq, American authors Joyce Carol Oates and Marilynn Robinson, Israeli David Grossman and the Canadian Margaret Atwood.
British novelist Hilary Mantel, who is rarely mentioned in Nobel speculation, has also appeared.
This year, the traditional December awards ceremony in Stockholm has been canceled due to the pandemic, replaced by a televised broadcast showing the winners receiving their awards in their home countries.
However, the Peace Prize ceremony, which will be held separately in Oslo, will be held albeit in a reduced version.
The medicine award begins with announcements on Monday, followed by physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday, and peace on Friday. The economics award ends on Monday, October 12.
