JUST IN: The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize Was Awarded This Week

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded this week.

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate “activist” extraordinaire, was considered a frontrunner for the prize.  I put activist in quotes because Greta hasn’t actually done anything to help the planet: mostly she just  angrily yells at adults and tries to shame them into action.

Personally, I don’t think that’s doing much to promote peace.  But maybe that’s not as much of a requirement for the Nobel Peace Prize as you’d think – remember 2009, when President Barack Obama won (after being in office for less than a year) for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples.”

Right….

Anyway, the 2019 winner has been announced, and it’s not Greta.  Instead, it’s someone who has Actually Done Something to promote peace: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.  Abiy, 43, won the award for his work in ending a 20-year military stalemate with Ethiopia’s neighbor Eritrea over a border dispute.  He’s also brokered other peace deals in east Africa, most notably in Sudan, freed opposition activities from jail, and appointed women to several prominent positions in Ethiopia.  And he’s only been in office for a little over a year.

His background is as impressive as his recent achievements:

Mr. Abiy was born in Ethiopia in 1976 to a Muslim father and Christian mother.

He has several degrees, including a doctorate degree in peace and security issues and a master’s degree in transformational leadership.

As a teenager, he joined the armed struggle against the former Derg regime – a Communist military junta that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987.

He later served as a UN peacekeeper in Rwanda.

During the 1998-2000 border dispute with Eritrea, he led a spy team on a reconnaissance mission into areas held by the Eritrean Defence Forces.

He joined politics in 2010, becoming a member of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization, before being elected as a member of parliament.

His time as MP coincided with clashes between Muslims and Christians.  He devised a lasting solution to the problem by setting up a “Religious Form for Peace.”

Talk about someone who has actually made a career of promoting peace in his region.