Comments on Nobel Prize

One of Parkinson's Laws states that whenever a committee convenes, deliberates and makes a few decisions, the time spent on each issue is inversely proportional to its importance. He gives an example of how a decision about whether or not to build a nuclear reactor is taken in about five minutes in favor of building one, whether to build a cycle stand for employees' two- wheelers is decided in 30 minutes and whether only tea should be served at such (committee) meetings or some snacks also should be added takes two hours. This, Parkinson explains, is because while no committee member knows exactly what a nuclear reactor is, except in terms of believing that it is an "in" thing to have, everyone understands tea or snacks only too well and hence, have an opinion which, they think, should be expressed and given the due weight.

Within a span of one week, half a dozen Nobel Prizes were announced. While it would be interesting to look at the log recording the amount of time spent by the Nobel committee to study which of the prizes were decided in a jiffy and which took a lot of time for deliberation and review (the Peace Prize did happen to be the last one announced), this letter is about Vox Populi or the response of the rakyat to these prizes through the Letters column. I find that there is no discussion on the prizes for Physics, Chemistry, Economics and Medicine. This may perhaps be because -- amongst the laymen -- there are not many who know what these prizes are for.

Among the enlightened few who do understand what they are for, hardly anybody knows whether there were any other deserving candidates who have been neglected. And the pundits of these subjects never seem to express any opinion -- at least in the mass media -- regarding whether they think the decision was fair and deserving or biased in favor of one particular person or the other. These "technical" prizes are more or less accepted as fait accompli by all and sundry. For a person like me, the only interesting point is to check whether any of these new laureates happens to be a part of the "brain-drain" from my country 20 or 30 years ago.

But the moment the "non-technical" peace prize is announced, viola! Everyone -- irrespective of whether it is an office boy, a career woman, a young secretary or a well-traveled executive -- not only has an opinion, but also a list of candidates who, according to them, would have been more deserving. Sometimes I feel that had Mr. Alfred Nobel realized that he would be turning in his grave almost every year when the "Peace" prize is announced, he probably would have desisted from instituting it.

Thus, it is not at all surprising to see the Letters column in The Jakarta Post full of comments on the Peace Prize and an almost total silence about the other prizes, whether in the Letters column or anywhere else.

Common sense is quite a rare commodity. On occasions like this, I fondly remember C. Northcote Parkinson and his inimitable "Laws" which are common sense par excellence and so wittily (and convincingly) presented. And although there are only three or four Parkinson's Laws, so much is said by so few of them (laws) to so many of us! How well they cover almost all the areas of human weakness.

K.B. KALE

Jakarta