Opinion | Ugly Russia-Ukraine conflict took a tiny turn showing human-heartedness
By Augustus K. Yeung
INTRODUCTION
What's the price of peace? This question could be partially answered when Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctions off his Nobel Peace Prize medal. The proceeds will go directly to help children displaced by the conflict in Ukraine.
Muratov, awarded the gold medal in October 2021, helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication's editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin's clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of conflict with Ukraine when they were expected to forge a united front against NATO, which is encroaching Russian territory.
It was Muratov's idea to auction off his prize, having already announced he was donating the accompanying $5000,000 cash award to charity. The idea of the donation, he said, "is to give the children refugees a chance for a future."
In an interview with The Associated Press, Muratov said he was particularly concerned about children who have been orphaned because of the conflict in Ukraine.
"We want to return their future," he said.
Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year with Journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines.
Typically, the two outspoken journalists, who each received their own medals, were honored for their efforts to preserve "free speech" in their respective countries, a Western political value that encourages individualism as opposed to nation building.
Muratov has been highly critical of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and the conflict that took place in February that has caused nearly 5 million Ukrainians to flee to other countries for safety, creating the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II.
In April, Muratov left Russian for Western Europe on Thursday to begin his trip to New York City, where live bidding took place.
Online bids began June 1 to coincide with the International Children's Day observance. The live bidding falls on World Refugee Day.
As of Monday morning, the high bid was $550,000. The purchase price is expected to spiral upward, possibly into the millions.
"It's a very bespoke deal," said Joshua Benesh, the chief strategy officer for Heritage Auctions. "Not everyone in the world has a Nobel Prize to auction and not every day of the week that there's a Nobel Prize crossing the auction block."
HISTORY OF THE NOBEL PRIZE AWARDS
Since its inception in 1901, there have been nearly 1,000 recipients of the Nobel Prizes honoring achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology of medicine, literature and the advancement of peace.
The most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA earned him a Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his medal for $4.76 million. Three years later, the family of his co-recipient, Francis Crick, received $2.27 million in bidding run by Heritage Auctions, the same company that is auctioning off Muratov's medal.
Melted down, the 175 grams of 23-karat gold contained in Muratov's medal would be worth about $10,000.
The ongoing war and international humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of those affected in Ukraine are bound to stoke interest, Benesh said, adding it's hard to predict how much someone would be willing to pay for the medal.
"I think there's certainly going to be some excitement," Benesh said, "It's such a unique item being sold under unique circumstances…a significant humanitarian crisis."
Muratov and Heritage officials said even those out of the bidding can still help by donating directly to UNICEF. (MDT/AP)
CONCLUSION
What's the price of war? The war time Chinese journalists would be able to answer this consequential question as they had witnessed China's eight-year war of resistance against the atrocious Japanese Imperial Army that had senselessly bombed their country, causing millions of deaths, destruction of homes, and disruptions of college education as the invaders were viciously and deliberately out to destroy the nation's culture and future by eliminating the next generation of elites.
Read Mary G. Mazur, an American historian whose book on Wu Han, Historian—Son of China's Times and you will get to under how laboriously that China as a nation had relocated its universities to the southwestern province of Yunan, and how treacherous the Japanese bombers had deliberately tried to burn their books, destroy their libraries, and kill their scholar-professors, especially the sinologists. That was real genocide, in every sense of the term, which has in recent years been maliciously misused when applying to the so-called "issues in Xinjiang".
Had telecommunications been advanced and popular in the war-torn China during this toughest period in the modern history of China, there would have been many Chinese Nobel Peace Laureates, telling their tales of great Chinese sufferings.
Perhaps, this understanding might have enabled the Americans and their Western allies to have a better understand of China, an oppressed nation under Japanese Militarism, leading to today's determination and efforts to strengthen, to rejuvenate its past glory, and to bring pride back to its people whose good earth and human dignity had been devastated beyond recognition.
Returning to Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, his acts of generosity and great concern for the war time Ukrainian children are to be appreciated and extolled. After all, Russia – with its great writers such as Leo Tolstoy and the rest – is a great civilization.
However, Western journalists must be roundly criticized for being too shallow, vocal and political and not holistic enough when commenting on issues-larger-than-life. Perhaps, a lesson or two in the history of a nation will help them to cultivate a sense of nationhood, and not so much on Western individualism or hegemony or their version of democracy, which is already on decline. Look at the incumbent U.S. president and his predecessor, their primary concern is not world peace, but "America First" narrow-mindedness.
The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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