Saudi’s King Abdullah wins first Lech Walesa Prize for his charity and humanitarian work

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2008/December/middleeast_December43.xml§ion=middleeast

(AFP)

3 December 2008

GDANSK, Poland - Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is to receive the very first Lech Walesa Prize to recognise his charity and humanitarian work, the prize’s organisers announced Wednesday.

A letter from Walesa to King Abdullah received by AFP Wednesday asks him to accept the award for his contribution towards ‘inter-faith dialogue, tolerance, peace and international cooperation’, as well as for his charity work.

Walesa devised the award to mark the 25th anniversary of his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, which he received in 1983 to honour his non-violent struggle against Poland’s then communist regime.

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Is there a beheading award, too?

He could win that.

[Critters2]

2. And the award for not letting women have even the most basic of human rights,

or the one for actually outlawing all but one religion in his country.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Right. Those, too.

[JerseygirlCT]

12. One small sect of one religion... nt

[Captain Hilts]

3. I thought this was a joke when I first saw it. nt

[htuttle]

4. This story was listed right above "Methane Bursts From Frozen Tundra" on my Latest Page...

...and for some reason just assumed that they were related somehow.

:shrug:

[JerseygirlCT]

6. Rendering the prize meaningless from now on. nt

[ColbertWatcher]

8. No doubt. n/t

[BeFree]

7. Aw c'mon

Yall are slanted against the King? He got the award for charity and for international (read: not homeland) donations. In other words, he bought the award. Paid big bucks for it too, I'd bet. See, all those extra dollars we forked over for oil these last few years is going to good use, all the while giving a bad guy a terrific makeover. He looks good now, right?

[JerseygirlCT]

9. Yeah, I suppose the least we can demand from Bush are some

big bucks from the personal stash to clean up his image... but true to form, that's happening on the tax-payer's dollar.

[BeFree]

10. bush is toast.

No amount can make him over. He's hated worldwide. The King, on the other hand, is not well known, and ya know, he coulda ripped us off even more than he did. And been worse to his subjects. Say if I were one of his subjects: why he'd a had to kill me to keep me from talking. Then, of course, I'd be dead, like so many other of his subjects who talked wrong. And then we wouldn't be doing this, now would we?

[Generic Other]

11. kissenger got a nobel peace prize

these prizes impress me about as much as the ones in cracker jacks boxes.

[Critters2]

13. Bush got a PEACE prize. Just yesterday. Don't mean a thing. nt

[Douglas Carpenter]

14. Actually there have been absolutely dramatic changes in Saudi Arabia over the past two decades.

Actually there have been absolutely dramatic changes in Saudi Arabia over the past two decades.

By far Saudi Arabia is the strictest and most archaic society in the Middle East - much, much more so than Iran.

Still, if I contrast the first time I was in Saudi Arabia in 1986 to the most recent time - only weeks ago -- 22 years ago I recall reading the most prominent local English language newspaper. And frankly it was like a joke. All articles relating to the government or the society itself were filled with nothing but praise. Everything was great and getting better. The local media was only one step above Radio Albania in the outrageousness of its own propaganda.

Now I can pick up the same newspaper and read open although admittedly somewhat restrained criticism of the government and of the society itself - but articles and openness that would have been unimaginable 21 years ago. Opinion pieces by Saudi woman calling for more rights for woman are now in the paper all the time. Articles calling for more openness from the government and criticizing the state for a lack of openness don't even raise an eyebrow anymore. Articles criticizing the society itself and the excessive influence of religious hardliners are normal. They are so common now. Even the former Israeli Knesset Member Uri Avnery's column - calling for the two-state solution and a mutual acceptance between Israel and the Arab world is now a regular in the same paper which once wouldn't even mention that columnist country's name.

More importantly is the dramatic changes in human consciousness. Twenty-one years ago most Saudis seemed barely aware of the world just over the hill. Collective awareness outside their own tribe and province was minimal. Now most younger generation Saudis can converse and debate rationally and critically not only about the affairs of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East - but show an awareness of International issues and debate that I doubt most young Americans have. I know this is hard to believe. But I am absolutely certain that the average young Middle Eastern high school graduate is far more aware and far more critical thinking about international issues outside their own borders than the average young American.

I get the impression that most Americans have a fantasy that the whole of the Middle East is like a cross between Disney's Aladen and life under the Taliban. This is no more accurate than believing the old colonial image of Africa of cannibal wild savages throwing spears and cooking their captured white people in large pots while they all danced around the fire.

Is the change happening fast enough? No! Do they still have a long ways to go especially when it comes to issues of woman rights? Absolutely! Do horrible acts of barbarism still occur in the remote tribal regions? I'm afraid so. But they are making progress. They are moving forward. And I would dare say that they have moved forward more in the past 20 years than most societies have done over centuries.

[Renwiick]

15. nice response

[UTUSN]

16. This is a JOKE?!1 n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

17. File this under "Things That Make You Go .....

:wtf: