Nobel Peace Prize winner - Barack Obama

The Nobel Peace Prize winner I'd like to introduce is Barack Obama. He was once the president of the United States of America. Also, he was different from previous presidents in that he was the first Afircan-American, person of color, and Hawaiian-born president.

Although he was once out-ranked by former First Lady Hillary Clinton in terms of name recognition, his skillful speeches and charisma attracted people, and he gained supporters as he continued to campaign.

While his policies are criticized for lacking specificity and being largely abstract & idealistic, his speeches have been described as the reincarnation of John F. Kennedy for their persuasiveness. In his speeches, he employs a technique of layering short phrases with frequent use of "we" and "you". In particular, two phrases "Change" and ""Yes, we can" were frequently used as catchphrases during the election campaign.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. All media reports cited Obama's diplomacy as a victory for the prize, due to his vision of promoting international cooperation toward nuclear abolition, which he announced in Prague in April 2009, and his call for reconciliation and dialogue with the Islamic world, which he made in Cairo in June.

However, if we see only Obama's diplomatic ideals as the driving force behind his Nobel Prize, we are only seeing half the truth. There is another half which is not clear from the surface. That is the change in the US's security strategy that took place in the 2000s. behind this Nobel Prize lies the foundation of the cold, realistic US's security strategy, which is the globalisation of the use of advanced conventional warheads and the promototion of nuclear non-proliferation. 

Furthermore, Obama's visit to Hiroshima. the first by a sitting US president, was an historic opportunity of great inportance to commemorate the war dead and to revive international momentum toward a world free of nuclear weapons. At the same time, it symbolized the strength of the US - Japan alliance, an "Alliance of Hope", that has been built up over the 70+ years since the end of World War Two.

Posted for Eleanor

A Nobel Laureate I admire - Mother Teresa

I would like to introduce about Mother Teresa.

Her real name was Agnes, and she was born in Skopje, in the Republic of North Macedonia.

When she was eighteen years old, she wanted to go to Bengal, India. That year, she was named Teresa as a nun, and she taught about monasticism to poor people.

Teresa decided to work in the slums of Calcutta, and she went out the monastery when she was 38. After a while, she collected the poor children who can’t go to school, and she opened air -classes at the slum in Kolkata.

In 1950, she moved to her nationary to India, and built monastery, school, hospital and so on. Many people thought wonderful that Teresa’s action. Finally, In 1979, she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Posted for Youna

Believing in the power of sport - Nelson Mandela

The Nobel Peace Prize winner I most admire is Nelson Mandela. He was born in 1918 in South Africa. Even after the apartheid system ended, discrimination and conflict remained. He thought that supporting the rugby team, the Springboks, would bring the country together. In 1995, the Rugby World Cup was held in South Africa. In the final match against New Zealand, the Springboks won the championship with everyone in the stadium, black and white, cheering for the Springboks. This victory meant a lot to the people and was a moment when the nation felt united. This is one of the many achievements of Nelson Mandela.

Posted for Moeka

The big father of the nation

 

Nelson Mandela was a social rights activist, politician and philanthropist who became South Africa’s first Black president from 1994 to 1999, after spending 27 years in prison for political offenses. Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in the tiny village of Mvezo, in Transkei, South Africa. His father was a local chief and councilor to tribal chiefs. Mandela's African name "Rolihlahla" means "troublemaker." He studied at Wesleyan College, University of London, Clarkebury Boarding Institute, University College of Fort Hare, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

At the start of his career, he believed in only peaceful and non-violent protests. In 1942 Mandela became actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress. In 1961 he led a three-day national workers strike. For this, he was arrested. He was accused of treason against the government and put in prison. He was released 27 years later, in February 1990. 

 For 18 of his 27 years in prison he was on Robben Island, which is now a very famous tourist attraction. He lived in a small cell with no bed and no plumbing. He had to work very hard breaking limestone all day. While in prison he caught tuberculosis, but he received the worst kind of treatment and medication, being a black prisoner. In prison he continued his political work, corresponding with a worldwide audience. During this time, a global movement to have him released grew. There were demonstrations and protests in many different countries and the international community became more aware of the South African government’s apartheid laws.

In 1990, the new, non-racist South African president, Frederick de Klerk, ordered Mandela’s release. Mandela was at last a free man. The symbol of opposition to the repressive South African regime was welcomed by throngs of supporters - over half a million people, in Cape Town.

In 1993, both Mandela and de Klerk, won the Noble Peace Prize. Eventually, in 1994, South Africa held its first fully democratic election which was the first-time people of all races could vote. It was also the first time Mandela had ever voted in his life. Mandela became the first black president in the country on May 10th, 1994 at the age of 77. He tried to reconcile a united South Africa. In 1996 he signed a law which guaranteed and protected the civil rights as well as protecting the freedom of speech for all minority ethnic groups, and all races. He helped South Africa become more democratic, helping to give citizens a voice.

After he had retired, he raised money through his foundation to build schools and hospitals across the country. The foundation also tried to fight poverty and HIV. Additionally, he founded an organization called “The Elders “, which was a group of world leaders who worked publicly in trying to find solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

 Mandela died on December 5, 2013 at the age 95 in Johannesburg. In South Africa. He is revered by people today as the “father of the nation”.

Teruki

Martin Luther King - American Conscience Martin Luther King Jr. Dies at 39

Martin Luther King, an American Baptist minister as an activist fell caused a gunshot head wound on 4 April in Memphis. Just after 6 o’clock in the evening, he went out of his hotel room to fresh air. Suddenly there was the sound of a gun, his friends told. They ran outside and found him lying on the ground. An hour later Martin Luther King died in a Memphis hospital. He was thirty-nine years old.

He was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia as a child of a minister in an Atlanta church. He became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using the tactics of nonviolence and civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs and inspired by nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and helped SCLC.

On October 14, 1964 King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. Recently he expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty and the Vietnam war. There were several famous speeches were given. “ I have a dream” “ Beyond Vietnam” and so on. It is certain that we have lost a great person.

Posted for Naoko

After reading - Amelia Earhart

Inspiring woman

I write about Malala Yousafzai as a woman who is the one I was inspired.  She was ranked second as woman who was respected in the world following Angelina Jolie.

She was born in Pakistan in 1997.  Her father ran a women’s school and she studied there to become a doctor.  In the meantime, Taliban started conducting a region of terror in 2007.  They deprived women of their right to take education and sought the life of women who tried to take education or pushed ahead with the action.  Malala criticized those activities by Taliban and continued to emphasize the need of women’s education and the peace.  When she was a junior high school student, she was attacked by Taliban and seriously injured.  She miraculously recovered and was released from a hospital after two and a half months.

Six months later, she made a speech at the United Nations headquarters and insisted on the importance of education.  In 2014, she got Nobel Peace Prize.  At that time, she was seventeen and the youngest person who got the prize.  She said that it was start, not end.

I am very inspired by her extraordinary bravery and hope the chance of taking education is given to everyone in the world.

Film Festival in Matsumoto - promo

Mother Teresa

What did Mother Teresa do in these years?

:: 1910-28 ::
Agnes Gonxha(=Mother Teresa) was born on 26 August 1910.
Mother Teresa's father died in 1918. Then she was good Christian.
She wanted to be a nun in India in 1923. On 25 September 1928, she went to the home of the Loreto nuns in Ireland to become a nun in India. After thirteen weeks, she reached in India.

:: 1929-31 ::
1929-30, she became nuns' school teacher. And she moved to one of the Loreto nuns' schools in Calcutta. She was very busy, and there was no entertainment. But she was happy, because she lived for God, and she remembered his love.

:: 1932-48 ::
1932-44: She was a teacher at Loreto Entally.
1944-48: She was the head teacher.
1943-46: The years were very bad years for Calcutta. 3,000,000 people died of famine. So, she wanted to work for a poor people.

:: 1948-65 ::
She got permission to work for poor people by head of the Catholic Church in Calcutta. She began to work alone. First, she became to teacher for street children. And she worked for dying people.
There were twelve nuns with her in 1950. In 1952, the government Calcutta gave her a big building, and she started a home for dying people there.
1952-1962: They worked only in Calcutta.
1962-1972: They started to work away from Calcutta too.

:: 1965-97 ::
In 1969, there was a TV program about her. So, she became very famous person.
In 1979, the Nobel Peace Prize went to her.
In 1980s, there were Missionaries of Charity in 100 countries.
In September 1997, she died at the home of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. Many poor people and important people came to her home to see her and say goodbye to her.

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