As Kim Jong-un gets a peace prize, the least-deserving recipients of awards in history

Earlier this week, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was awarded a prize for statesmanship from Indonesia, specifically the Bali-based Sukarno Centre.

Hmmm.

Rachmawati Soekarnoputri, the announcer of the news and the daughter of Indonesia’s founding president, said:

We will give the award to President Kim Jong-un because he has been consistent in carrying out the ideals of the great leader, Kim Il-sung, which is to fight imperialism.

So this will be a sequel, where we give the award to Kim Jong-un for his persistence in fighting neo-colonialism.

She dismissed consternation around the decision, saying, the “allegations about human rights abuses are untrue," and amount to "Western propaganda".

Revelling in this most bizarre decision, let’s take a look at some of the biggest award mis-steps in history.

1. The 1949 Nobel Prize for Medicine

In 1949, the Nobel Committee awarded the Prize for Medicine to Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz.

His breakthrough was that he oversaw the world’s first ever leucotomy - now usually known as a lobotomy.

Moniz arguably could have been awarded the prize in prior years for his advances in detecting brain tumours, a more favourable and more deserving reason.

However, he was instead awarded the 1949 prize for the barbarous surgical technique involving the scraping of tissue after drilling a nail into the skull.

Lobotomies gained brief popularity the world over in the 1950s as a technique for treating mental illness, particularly in the United States.

Despite calls for the committee to reclaim it or reissue it, the prize remains to this today.

2. The 1977 Oscars

It’s 1977.

Nominations for the Best Picture include Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece Taxi Driver, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman starring in All the President’s Men, and the well-received satire Network with Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway. Logan’s Run and Carrie didn’t make the cut.

The winner?

Yes, Rocky.

3. Time’s Man of the Year 1938

In 1938 Adolf Hitler was made Time’s ‘Man of the Year’ for the Munich Agreement.

OK, this isn’t really fair, and is actually often misunderstood and oft-quoted as an error - so lets set it straight.

Time awards their ‘Person of the Year’ to the public figure who has had the most effect on world affairs.

In this case, the cover and editorial were not approving of Hitler, and given the man’s importance to world events at the time, Time’s choice can be said to be justified.

So now you know.

4. The 1948 Nobel Peace Prize

To invert the criteria, Gandhi was nominated in 1948 for the Nobel Peace Prize following his death, but subsequently no prize was awarded that year.

Gandhi who famously led India to independence against the British, using nonviolent protest techniques.

Gandhi, the man who most people would think of if asked for connotations of peace, probably among the most deserving, never won a Nobel Peace Prize.

To their credit, the omission has been publicly regretted by later committee members.

Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 said:

The greatest omission in our 106-year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace prize.

Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize, whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question.

5. The 2009 Brit Awards

Duffy took four. Remember Duffy? We barely do either.

Meanwhile Radiohead were snubbed for In Rainbows and have still never picked up a Brit.

That's all we'll say on this.

6. Save the Children’s Global Legacy Award 2014

(Photo: Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Tony Blair was awarded the ‘Global Legacy Award’ by the charity, causing anger and prompting an apology in March of this year.

An internal letter signed by over 500 staff said the award was not only “morally reprehensible, but also endangers our credibility globally".

7. Nobel Peace Prize 2009

As you may remember, Barack Obama was given the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

A bit of a strange selection as he had only been in office a year, the prize was mostly seen as symbolic.

The president’s legacy isn’t too fantastic either as the recipient of the prize.

He has engaged in as many military actions as most presidents and in April 2012 the New York Times said that Obama:

has turned out to be one of the most militarily aggressive American leaders in decades.

The paper continued:

Mr. Obama decimated Al Qaeda’s leadership. He overthrew the Libyan dictator. He ramped up drone attacks in Pakistan, waged effective covert wars in Yemen and Somalia and authorized a threefold increase in the number of American troops in Afghanistan. He became the first president to authorize the assassination of a United States citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and played an operational role in Al Qaeda, and was killed in an American drone strike in Yemen. And, of course, Mr. Obama ordered and oversaw the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

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