SHARE
COPY LINK

NOBEL

Dalai Lama ‘not disappointed’ by Norway

The Dalai Lama said on Wednesday he held no grudges against Norway's government after they decided not to meet him on his trip to Oslo in order to avoid further damaging already fragile relations with China.

Dalai Lama 'not disappointed' by Norway
Thorbjørn Jagland at the lectern in Norway's Nobel Institute with Thorbjørn Jagland, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee . Photo: Heiko Junge/NTB scanpix
"Of course, if leaders like President Obama want to meet, I am glad, but I do not want to create any inconvenience for anyone," the spiritual leader of the Tibetans told the press as he marked the 25th anniversary of his Nobel Peace Prize.
   
Arguing that his real goal was to meet people not their leaders, the Dalai Lama said: "There is no reason to be disappointed. The more accusations from the Chinese government, the more popularity for me."
   
The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 in recognition of his non-violent campaign to end China's rule of his homeland. He was invited to Norway by pro-Tibetan groups.
   
The country's minister for foreign affairs, Børge Brende, said the government's decision not to meet the Tibetan leader was taken with regard to "the absolutely extraordinary situation between China and Norway" which have not had "any real political contact" for several years.
   
Following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo , who the authorities consider a "criminal", Beijing stopped all high-level contact with Norway, though trade has flourished between the two countries and stood at an all-time high last year.
   
Beijing considers Tibet an integral part of its territory and regards the Dalai Lama as a separatist.
   
Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said on Wednesday that it was watching the actions of the Norwegian government "closely".
   
"We follow closely how the Norwegian government handles this issue, because we believe that State-to-State ties should be built on the basis of equality and mutual respect," she said.
   
"We hope that Norway can really respect China's core concerns… and take concrete actions for the improvement of our bilateral ties."
   
However, the refusal by the Norwegian government not to meet the Dalai Lama did not go down well at home, with critics accusing the government of "cowardice", claiming leaders were willing to trade their values for economic interests.
   
"Norway loses face," exclaimed an editorial in the newspaper Aftenposten. "Now China dictates the foreign policy of Norway on the Tibetan question. This is sad. And pitiful."

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

NOBEL

US duo win Nobel for work on how heat and touch spark signals to the brain

US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian on Monday won the Nobel Medicine Prize for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch.

US duo win Nobel for work on how heat and touch spark signals to the brain
Thomas Perlmann (right), the Secretary of the Nobel Committee, stands next to a screen showing David Julius (L) and Ardem Patapoutian, winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Medicine. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

“The groundbreaking discoveries… by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world,” the Nobel jury said.

The pair’s research is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases and conditions, including chronic pain. Julius, who in 2019 won the $3-million Breakthrough Prize in life sciences, said he was stunned to receive the call from the Nobel committee early Monday.

“One never really expects that to happen …I thought it was a prank,” he told Swedish Radio.

The Nobel Foundation meanwhile posted a picture of Patapoutian next to his son Luca after hearing the happy news.

Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival, the Nobel Committee explained, and underpins our interaction with the world around us.

“In our daily lives we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived? This question has been solved by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates.”

Prior to their discoveries, “our understanding of how the nervous system senses and interprets our environment still contained a fundamental unsolved question: how are temperature and mechanical stimuli converted into electrical impulses in the nervous system.”

Grocery store research

Julius, 65, was recognised for his research using capsaicin — a compound from chili peppers that induces a burning sensation — to identify which nerve sensors in the skin respond to heat.

He told Scientific American in 2019 that he got the idea to study chili peppers after a visit to the grocery store.  “I was looking at these shelves and shelves of basically chili peppers and extracts (hot sauce) and thinking, ‘This is such an important and such a fun problem to look at. I’ve really got to get serious about this’,” he said.

Patapoutian’s pioneering discovery was identifying the class of nerve sensors that respond to touch.

Julius, a professor at the University of California in San Francisco and the 12-year-younger Patapoutian, a professor at Scripps Research in California, will share the Nobel Prize cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, one million euros).

The pair were not among the frontrunners mentioned in the speculation ahead of the announcement.

Pioneers of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which paved the way for mRNA Covid vaccines, and immune system researchers had been widely tipped as favourites.

While the 2020 award was handed out in the midst of the pandemic, this is the first time the entire selection process has taken place under the shadow of Covid-19.

Last year, the award went to three virologists for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.

Media, Belarus opposition for Peace Prize?

The Nobel season continues on Tuesday with the award for physics and Wednesday with chemistry, followed by the much-anticipated prizes for literature on Thursday and peace on Friday before the economics prize winds things up on Monday, October 11.

For the Peace Prize on Friday, media watchdogs such as Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists have been mentioned as possible winners, as has the Belarusian opposition spearheaded by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Also mentioned are climate campaigners such as Sweden’s Greta Thunberg and her Fridays for Future movement.

Meanwhile, for the Literature Prize on Thursday, Stockholm’s literary circles have been buzzing with the names of dozens of usual suspects.

The Swedish Academy has only chosen laureates from Europe and North America since 2012 when China’s Mo Yan won, raising speculation that it could choose to rectify that imbalance this year. A total of 95 of 117 literature laureates have come from Europe and North America.

While the names of the Nobel laureates are kept secret until the last minute, the Nobel Foundation has already announced that the glittering prize ceremony and banquet held in Stockholm in December for the science and literature laureates will not happen this year due to the pandemic.

Like last year, laureates will receive their awards in their home countries. A decision has yet to be made about the lavish Peace Prize ceremony held in Oslo on the same day.

SHOW COMMENTS