Wangari Maathai: woman of peace

This year's Nobel Peace Prize took everyone by surprise when the head of the IAEA didn't win.

Wangari Maathai is many things: deputy minister to the environment, Kenyan Green Party member, professor, founder of the Green Belt Movement, defender of women's rights and green space in Kenya. Now, she can add the first African woman Nobel peace prize winner to that category.

Some have wondered why an environmentalist was chosen for this prestigious award when past winners have included such people as Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama and Kofi Annan.

The Nobel committee chose her for her role in promoting biodiversity, job creation and empowering women in society by helping them out of poverty through her programs of forest stewardship and management (thousands employed in the Green Belt Movement), family planning and nutriiton (This is one of the most concrete examples of sustainability in action if I ever saw one, and that's definitely a rarity). She and her grassroots movement have stood up to Kenyan government corruption and advocated for others' behalf, even if it got her in harm's way.

Some have criticized the Nobel committee for expanding the criteria in which recepients are eligible, most notably Carl Hagen of the far right Progress Party in Norway, "A peace prize should honor peace, not environment."

What Mr. Hagen has failed to understand is that poverty and scarcity of resources are always factors in inciting violence and war (umm...*cough* Oil *cough* Water *cough*). The Nobel committee are among the first to recognize the link between global security and the state of our natural environment (I'm not saying the factor to global security, but one of). Ms. Maathai's programs instead help reforest Africa (rehabilitation) while lifting people out of poverty (prevention). Plus, she's been fighting her own government's corruption and for her fellow citizens' rights before being elected. I would say she's trying to promote peace, even if it is on a smaller scale than one would expect.

As much as the environmental movement latches on to her win to milk it for its publicity value, this prize goes to her and her organization alone. Her work should be lauded as an example how sustainability principles can work, not should work. Although, I would be really interested to see if she received any help from any western organizations (besides the universities she attended, of course).

Two more points of interest. One, some have said that previous peace prize winners (Carter, Annan, etc.) have provoked criticism against Bush and his politics and that it was reasonable to take a 'break.' Now, I find that insulting and would diminish the prize given to Maathai if that was the case. But in a sense, it is still a backhanded criticism at Bush (for me anyways) because Maathai's rehabilitating the environment AND promoting job growth at the same time (hint, hint).

Second, Maathai is deputy environment minister on the Green Party ticket in Kenya. What the hell is going on in Canada? How many reps do we have in a cabinet position? Wait, zero? What about in legislature? Wait, zero? Anywhere in Canada? What, zero again? What the deuce? 6% popularity? Are you kidding me? It looks like the Kenyans can teach us a few tricks. Or maybe this is another backhanded way for me to push for proportional representation some more?

In any case, congratulations to Ms. Maathai. I hope her work continues to lift the country of Kenya into a greener, brighter future.