Why Obama, not Asterix?

According to the official Nobel website, Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, got this year's Nobel Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

Fair enough.

But then why has another man, two years older than Obama and just turned 50 the other day, been ignored?

Have the efforts of Asterix the Gaul been anything less than extraordinary to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples? What has Obama done that Asterix hadn't already outdone?

Obama is supposedly the champion of the underdog. But Asterix, leading his tiny Gaulish village with his burly friend Obelix and Dogmatix (an underdog if there was ever one), has held out against the mighty Roman Empire.

Okay, the Gauls have been a bit harsh with the Romans a few timesu00e2u0080u00a6may be they've pasted the Romans unprovoked or entirely for fun a couple of times, especially in that forest where Obelix goes to look for menhirs.

But there are still thousands of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, right?

Also, if Obama has been graceful enough to extend the olive branch to Iran and the Islamic world, Asterix has been noble enough not to compete at the Olympic Games after downing druid Getafix's magic potion. While on olive branches, Asterix got one from his arch enemy, the baap of olive branches, Julius Caesar himself.

Must we also ignore the international cooperation that the tiny, mustachioed man promoted in Europe by helping Spain, Britain, Goths and others against a rampaging Rome? The ungrateful ladies and gentlemen from these lands on this year's Nobel committee have a lot to explain on why they backed Obama.

If the degree of fear one invokes in enemies is a criterion of greatness, I would like to know how many from Kandahar to Palestine or Cuba to Moscow would play a game of musical chairs to decide who's going to spy on much less attack the US? The Romans always do, and kick the weakling off to spy on the Gauls. Ask a chap called Caligula Minus.

Some would argue that certain environmental violations would go against Asterix. His friend does a bit of quarrying for menhirs, and the Gauls tend to over-hunt wild boars. Does that even compare to Americans over-fishing the cod in New England, its heavy carbon footprints (the US has 4 per cent of the world's population but produces about 25 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions)?

Has Obama done anything about the shattering noise pollution in US cities? Asterix and his bunch might be raucous, but at least they diligently gag and tie-up Cacophonix before every feast, celebration or farewell.

And Asterix has better taste. If Obama has checked out the butt of Mayara Rodrigues Tavares, a Unicef representative from (where else) Rio, Asterix has sized up the rarest rear that of the great Cleopatra.

Bottomline: Nobel for Asterix. Till then his fans won't sleep in peace.

abhijit.majumder@mid-day.com

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Abhijit Majumder is Executive Editor of MiD DAY