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Anchor Marco Werman speaks with the BBC’s Duncan Kennedy, who covered the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway today.
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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. President Barack Obama picked up his Nobel Peace Prize today. The award ceremony took place at City Hall in Oslo Norway. In his speech, Mr. Obama said he accepted the honor with gratitude and humility: “It’s an award that speaks to our highest aspirations. For all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not … We are prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of Justice.” The President went on to say that sometimes war is justified as part of that process. We’ll hear more about that in a few minutes. First, we turn to the BBC’s Duncan Kennedy, who is in the Norwegian capital. Duncan, it seems like a day of “pomp and circumstance” there?
DUNCAN KENNEDY: Certainly was. The Norwegians know how to do this sort of thing. They’ve been doing it since 1901, and it was a very beautiful ceremony. It all went very smoothly here in the City Hall, here in the center of Oslo. The President and the First Lady, Michelle Obama, arrived. It all went “like clockwork,” and it literally timed-down to the last second. Of course, they were hosts of the King and Queen of Norway (members of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, themselves). A beautiful setting, here in the ornate City Hall, here in Oslo. Mr. Obama, the President, making his speech that was well received—both inside the hall and outside—among the people of Oslo themselves.
WERMAN: Mr. Obama’s ratings have been dropping-off here in the U. S. Were there any protesters?
KENNEDY: One or two. We saw people trying to unfurl banners saying, “I know you’ve been awarded it (this Nobel Peace Prize), let’s see you put it into action.” But it was only one or two. No great demonstrations. I think the city was just welcoming to this president. The opinion polls you were just mentioning, there, are pretty low for him here, too, in terms of the righteousness of him receiving this Nobel Peace Prize. It went down to something like 35 percent in the latest opinion polls. And not too many Norwegians are happy that he’s been getting this prize. They are unhappy that a man who’s committing more troops to the war in Afghanistan simply shouldn’t be getting the world’s most prestigious peace prize, and that’s been reflected in the polls; but generally, a warm enough welcome for the First Couple when they came to claim their award this morning.
WERMAN: The BBC’s Duncan Kennedy in Oslo. Thanks very much.
KENNEDY: You’re welcome.
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