February 6, 2024
Regrettably, the world’s allegedly most prestigious prize has been awarded to many who did not qualify according to the will of Alfred Nobel. I want to direct your attention to the most important book written about the peace deception called the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his last meticulously researched book, “The Real Nobel Peace Prize. A Squandered Opportunity to Abolish War,” my friend and TFF Associate Fredrik Heffermehl (1938-2023) showed that only 36 out of 134 awards would qualify according to Nobel’s clearly anti-militarist intentions.
Here is how Nobel himself formulated, in his will, that this prize should go “to the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses” and that this prize for the “champions of peace” should be awarded “by a committee of five persons to be selected by the Norwegian Storting.”
Clear to everyone, it is not a prize for human rights, the environment, food security or for armament or warfare. And it is not a general do-good prize.
Instead, it is for things like disarmament, de-militarisation, peace negotiations, mediation, peace journalism, civil conflict resolution, peace-making in a broad sense and whatever other activities that would help reduce armament, armies, weapons arsenals, warfare and militarist thinking. And it shall be awarded ‘peace champions’ – not the advocates of ‘security’ based on conventional and nuclear weapons.
Conspicuously too, Nobel did not state that the Committee – as it does – shall consist of members of the Norwegian parliament, former or present. He said its members should be selected by the Storting. When it comes to peace, is anyone an expert? Is there any convincing evidence that MPs are automatically knowledgeable about peace? Or, put differently, could we imagine that a bunch of retired MPs would decide the prizes for, say, physics, medicine, economics or literature?
Of course not. Official Norway hijacked the Committee authority from Day One instead of selecting a qualified body of globally respected experts on peace in a broad sense.
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I’m proud to have played a tiny role in Heffermehl’s determined and urgently important campaign to alert people to this ongoing Nobel Peace Prize fraud. While I was a visiting professor at Nagoya University in 2007, he and I shared our consternation over Al Gore being awarded the prize for his environmental engagement. Due to many factors, Fredrik has done 99% of the work since then – research, writing, books, homepage, outreach, etc – but we talked frequently, shared more consternation and strategised.
TFF has published quite a few pieces in support of Frederik’s immense work – 17 posts if you search “Heffermehl” and 103 if you search “Nobel Peace Prize.”
We talked at length over the phone on December 17, 2023, only four days before he died. As usual, he was full of energy and ideas; and he was very happy about the Oslo book launch a month earlier that coincided with his 85th birthday. Had I not been in China during all of November, I would have been there. We also confirmed that next year, he would come to visit us here in Lund which he knew quite well since he had once lived here. And he signed the TFF Statement on the Genocide in Gaza.
The last thing I told him was to take good care of his health, with which he was less happy, and not work to such an extent that he put it at risk. “You’ve done a tremendously important pioneering job, more than most, Fredrik, now enjoy life more…”
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Please now visit these two websites to learn more:
Nobel Peace Prize Watch – What Nobel Really Wanted: To liberate all nations from weapons, warriors and war – where you’ll get all the background.
Real Nobel Peace – where Fredrik’s last book is presented and reviewed, where you can experience the book launch on his 85th birthday, the Lay Down Your Arms Association he co-founded with Tomas Magnusson and – not the least – see all the candidates that would qualify for the – real – Nobel Peace Prize.
NATO Norway’s Nobel Committee shall not forever get away with what is clearly – in numerous cases – a blatant, scandalous violation of Alfred Nobel’s very clear will.
Fortunately, a more modest and more serious implementation of Nobel’s will exists in Sweden: “Folkets fredspris i enlighet med Nobels testament” – The People’s Peace Prize in Accordance With Nobel’s Will. It was Fredrik who inspired TFF Associates Erni and Ola Friholt, leaders of the Orust Peace Association on the island of Orust northwest of Gothenburg, to institutionalise this alternative prize. It has been awarded to 11 people since 2013.
We – friends around Fredrik – will now discuss how best to promote his truly seminal peace research and activism and spread further awareness about how peace people worldwide – the far majority of humanity – have been deprived of the world’s, in principle, most important prize.
Note
You may like to learn more about Fredrik Heffermehl and his devoted research by reading Peter van der Dungen’s excellent obituary at World Beyond War.
Please support TFF, which continues to deliver truthful, pro-peace public education based on decades of research by some of the world’s most experienced professionals.
Press this read peace button. Thanks!
Bonus video by the author “Painted Peace Prize Protest”
