Lech Wałęsa - 1983 peace prize winner and Poland’s president from 1990 to 1995 commented to the New York Times on the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barak Obama: “Who, Obama? So fast? Too fast — he hasn’t had the time to do anything yet. For the time being, Obama’s just making proposals. But sometimes the Nobel committee awards the prize to encourage responsible action. Let’s give Obama a chance.”
President Obama said Friday that he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
The committee said it honored Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
Obama said he viewed the decision less as a recognition of his own accomplishments and more as "a call to action."
The Nobel committee recognized Obama's efforts at dialogue to solve complex global problems, including working toward a world free of nuclear weapons. "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said.
The decision was "unanimous" and came with ease. The committee wanted to promote the president just it had Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 for his efforts to open up the Soviet Union. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population," the committee said of Obama.
– Staś Kmieć
