TEHRAN – In the eastern region where I live and teach as a university professor, there is no doubt that Gandhi, Mandela and their allies are symbols of peace. I hold this person up as an example for my students and children to learn from.
This year, the Nobel Prize Selection Committee awarded the Peace Prize to Maria Colina Machado, a right-wing Venezuelan politician who fully supports sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies.
These sanctions led to drug shortages, runaway inflation, the flight of millions of Venezuelans, and destroyed the peaceful daily lives of ordinary, apolitical citizens.
Before she could rest her laurels on her head with the extravaganza of absurd exposure, she reached out to her son and declared that she would dedicate her award to him, apparently not wanting to offend the grumpy man named Trump.
She then sent a message to President Trump himself. She promised that if Trump helped remove President Nicolas Maduro, privatizing the country’s oil companies would open the door to Venezuela’s vast natural resources for the United States.
She then called Netanyahu, who has been accused in international forums of atrocities in Gaza and other parts of the Middle East, pledging her wholehearted support for what he is doing to confront what she claims is Iran’s “malign influence.”
Alfred Nobel, the troubled inventor whose creation dynamite helped massacre tens of thousands of people and whose conscience created the prize as a form of atonement, set out the clear criteria for the Peace Prize in his will:
“This award shall be given to the person who has done the most or best work in promoting fraternity among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, or the organization and promotion of peace conferences.”
For this reason, I call on the committee tasked with selecting the winners to abandon all shame and restraint for next year, and this time to name the devil himself as the final recipient. I swear to you. No one of sound mind would gasp in amazement and scream in protest.