 |
|
Press Misses Big Story, As Green Party Member Beats Bush and Blair -- for the Nobel Peace Prize. |
|
GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES Contacts: PRESS MISSES BIG STORY, AS GREEN PARTY MEMBER BEATS BUSH AND BLAIR -- FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party members called attention to the lack of mention in the U.S. media that 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai is a Green Party politician in Kenya. "Reporters missed a stunning upset -- Dr. Maathai, a Green, beat out nominees George W. Bush and Tony Blair for the Peace Prize," said Julia Willebrand, co-chair of the Green Party's International Committee. "Of course, the notion that President Bush and Prime Minister Blair should win the Peace Prize is ludicrous, if not offensive, given the deceptive reasons they gave for invading Iraq and the current breakdown and violence in Iraq resulting from the occupation." Most U.S. coverage of the award failed to mention that Dr. Maathai founded the Mazingira Green Party in Kenya and was elected to the Kenyan parliament on the Green Party ticket in the first free elections held in the country in decades, before she was named Kenyan Deputy Environment Minister. "It's like an article profiling Nobel laureate Jimmy Carter that never mentions he's a former Democratic President," said Greg Gerritt, national secretary for the Green Party of the United States. Greens continued to celebrate Dr. Maathai's Peace Prize, noting that the Kenyan activist for ecological sanity, peace, and women's rights exemplifies the Green Party's principles and mission. "It does my heart well to hear that an environmentalist, peace activist, and woman of African descent was honored," said Sundiata Tellem, co-chair of the national Black Caucus of the Green Party of the United States. "I'm really proud of her and of the Nobel nominating committee." MORE INFORMATION search: pce, gbl, prty |