The European Union!
What used to be a prestigious and honourable prize, has now become a complete mocking stick, to the point where Europeans themselves think of it as a big joke.
The award went out to the EU for the role it played so many decades ago - but awarding it today is completely out of context, since the European states are experiencing extreme tensions and conflict.
Here is what the EU recently has achieved in terms of promoting peace and harmony...
"It is debatable whether the EU contributed to peace from 1945 to 1990: the Cold War, the nuclear balance and mutual assured destruction were surely more decisive. The EU contributed nothing to the drawing back of the Iron Curtain or the reunification of Germany, and has unfinished business in Bosnia and Kosovo. Turkey's membership application has been stalled for decades. It has tamely endorsed the American line on Iranian sanctions and was initially on the wrong side of the Arab Spring.
With two nuclear weapon states, it has never taken any lead in disarmament, and some member states have played a far from pacific role in the world. EU protectionism has been hurtful to deve-loping countries. It could have never won any prize for internal democracy; it toppled elected prime ministers in Italy and Greece, and shrinks from referen-ces to the voting public. Ironically, its current president is Cyprus, which has endured conflict and partition for nearly four decades.
The originally well-intentioned eurozone has divided Europe's north from south, and is associated with pain, the blame game and outside interference through the instrumentality of the union. The rich northern economies, led by Germany, are hesitant in aiding the southern members financially strangled by public debt and draconian austerity measures that are creating a backlash in the name of democratic accountability and the resurgence of nationalism."
...Indeed, absolutely NOTHING.
Source: K. Srinivasan, 2012. Award with an agenda: The Nobel peace prize for EU is more about bolstering the European experiment than peace,
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-17/edit-page/34500354_1_nobel-peace-prize-european-union-franco-german-axi, consulted 18/10/2012
