The Nobel Peace Prize makes no favourable impression on me. When one looks back on the list of former recipients, such as Yasser Arafat, Kofi Annan, Mohamad El Baradei and Jimmy Carter in recent times, the award can’t be taken seriously.

Whilst some of the recipients like Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa are worthy, it is very difficult to accept organisations such as the United Nations and its futile peacekeepers as Peace Prize candidates. If ever there was a group that reflects the pettiness of mankind, it’s the U.N or the D.U.N (the disunited nations) as I prefer to call it.

In one form or another the U.N has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize about 12 times and the only ones who deserved it were those idealistic pioneers who set up the League of Nations. Admirable as would be the concept of a united group of nations whose purpose was to get together and solve international conflicts without fighting, the whole thing has degenerated into cliques divided along racial, religious and economic lines. The Africans and the Arabs vote together against the West. Russia and China don’t give a damn about world peace and it’s ironic how the U.N has become a platform for militants who preach hatred.

So if the U.N can win a prize over and over again, then anybody can win. And this is where Al Gore comes in. Global warming may be an issue for some people but I cannot see how this topic has anything to do with Peace. As a matter of fact, I predict that in the future nations will go to war over the environment. Not because it’s something worth fighting about but because “researchers” such as Al Gore will foment divisions.

I regard the entire subject of global warming as a form of mass hysteria like Paul Erlich’s Zero population theory, the Millenium Bug and the imminent ice age ideas of the 1970s. It really doesn’t matter what the latest craze is, there will always be a Doomsday theory of some kind.

By all means, look after the planet and don’t pollute it. Save energy if only to become less dependent on oil from rogue nations. But don’t become fanatical about it as Al Gore did. Hysteria fuelled by the unreliable media who live for scoops rages like an epidemic and infects those who are vulnerable. Those gullible souls looking for a cause that feels good and pleasant will latch onto it. They need something which will take their minds off the realities of life like war, famine, disease, and terrorism.

Switching off their standby appliances and carrying their green shopping bags in the boot of the petrol guzzling S.U.V will make them feel better and that’s what it’s all about.

The Norwegians defended their widening of the criteria for the Peace Prize so that Al Gore could receive it. No doubt, Shane Warne could receive it for his services to telecommuncations and Paris Hilton for her services to the hotel industry and mankind in general.

The whole thing is so meaningless that one even imagines the Olympic Games being awarded a peace prize when what they really achieve is further rivalry between nations. On the other hand, the Olympics could be ideal candidates for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Watch this space…