Irena Sendler

[Tiffany]

This was posted on Facebook, I found it rather interesting/appalling.

There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena Sendler. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' . She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the to...ol box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises..

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming

At first I was a bit in disbelief. I mean yes Global Warming is important... but surely they wouldn't choose that over someone who helped save 2500 children, would they?

So I googled, found a Wikipedia entry on her. It is fairly accurate to the above quote, take a look see if you want. Here's the Snopes entry too.

Thoughts? Do you agree with the awarding of Al Gore (part of it was his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth")?

Here's a blurb as to how they deem who gets to be a Nobel Peace Prize Laureates:

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma, and a cash award.

[Dodie16]

There was a similar thread about this not too long ago. It was about Obama winning the Noble Peace prize. A lot of people thought that he didn't really do anything special to win it (myself included).

I think that Irena definately should have won it, but there have been people throughout history that have been nominated for the award and didn't get it. Mohandas Gandhi was one of these people. I forget how many times that he was nominated, but he never won. I remember reading that the commitee that chooses the winner regrets not ever awarding him. They should be, imo.

I really don't see what the big fuss over this prize is anymore (after doing a bit of research on it).

Oh, and I never watched "An Inconvenient Truth".

[Tiffany]

I've watched An Inconvenient Truth. It was well done, IMO, but also had some agendas in it too. He touches on his loss of the election to George Bush. How exactly does that have anything to do with Global Warming? Its been awhile since I've seen it, I *think* he was relating it to just personal experiences... but I could be mistaken.

Wow. I am SO out of touch with events. Barack Obama won a Peace Prize? I was under the impression that he hasn't done much, aside from reuniting pride/faith in the united states?

Again, could be wrong on that point too... feel free to correct me.

[Victoria]

I accessed that thread with my phone and it some how got closed. I had to use my phone to open it back up. I need to post that it was accidentally closed and that it is open again but if i do it will probably close the thread again. Could you post for me?

So there you have it. It's back open now, so continue discussing at your leisure. Although as a note for Dodie, I couldn't find a similar thread about Obama winning a peace prize in the ID forum.

[smurphy]

The nobel peace prize smacks of politics. Obama and global warming were both relevant at the time and that is why they won. Its only to pick the "marquee" names which the voters think will add to the prestige of the prize. On a side note Obama really hasnt done anything to deserve it and "manmade" global warming hasnt been agreed on by the majority of scientists so Al Gore is just a conman. And one with a very big CO2 footprint at that.

The choice between someone who risked life and limb to save others or a bandwagon jumping egotistical idiot. Seems a simple choice really but obviously not for those who vote

[Alpha]

I think, as Smurphy says at the start of his post, that Global Warming is a contemporary challenge, as opposed to the actions of a woman more than 60 years ago. Yes, she deserves all the praise she can get, but a person who campaigns to increase the level of public consciousness about climate change is also quite someone.

Not to downplay the actions of this remarkable woman, action on climate change would actually save more lives, in more places, while also protecting ecosystems (which service humans in turn, though never picture humans as non-natural).

They're both amazing, but here and now, that award was fully deserved by Al Gore.

[Tiffany]

Good point, Alpha!

I guess in time we'll see if the Global Warming movement will actually get somewhere. I hope it does, mainly because I'm a tree hugging hippie at heart... and for reasons like you stated. If more people become conscious about Global Warming, more people will be saved in the long run.

I still think it should've gone to Irena though.

[Pete]

While her story truly is remarkable and pretty damn awe-inspiring, I think it was right for her not to win the prize. Her actions did not necessarily benefit the world as much as Gore's did, but to those 2500 and their surviving families, it meant the world. Surely she should be awarded with all of the laurels and praises that civilians can receive, to the highest degree.

And shit, she deserves it over Obama.

[SOLDIER #819]

Rather than try to measure which achievement is greater, we should all just be happy that people like that exist in this world. She probably wasn't thinking about what kind of reward she would get when she put her own life on the line to save other lives, and the lack of an award shouldn't lessen the impact it had.

[Unknown Entity]

I'm sorry. A Powerpoint presentation which probably stated information about Global Warming which we already knew about won over a woman, who had both her arms and legs broken saving 2500 children during WWII?

What?

Al Gore might have deserved a prize, but there was always a next year for his discoveries, and even more research could have been done in that year. But Irena Sendler is a hero, and deserved it more than him.

Rather than try to measure which achievement is greater, we should all just be happy that people like that exist in this world. She probably wasn't thinking about what kind of reward she would get when she put her own life on the line to save other lives, and the lack of an award shouldn't lessen the impact it had.

True... still, she deserved it more.