Putin: Sepp Blatter deserves Nobel prize:

[Thanas]

Source, citing Reuters

FIFA boss Sepp Blatter deserves a Nobel Prize for his stewardship of soccer’s governing body, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview aired by Swiss broadcaster RTS on Monday.

On Saturday, at a meeting with Putin in St Petersburg, Blatter said that FIFA, facing a major bribery scandal, had passed a resolution offering full support for holding the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

“We all know the situation developing around Mr Blatter right now. I don’t want to go into details but I don’t believe a word about him being inolved in corruption personally,” he said.

“I think people like Mr Blatter or the heads of big international sporting federations, or the Olympic Games, deserve special recognition. If there is anyone who deserves the Nobel Prize, it’s those people.”

Blatter announced he was quitting in June over a bribery scandal being investigated by U.S., Swiss and other law enforcement agencies that plunged FIFA into the worst crisis in its 111-year history. Officials have been indicted though Blatter himself has not and he denies any misconduct.

Putin, always good for a laugh.

[Welf]

They gave Obama the prize before he did anything and Kissinger after he did everything. Irony is dead since the latter.

[Grumman]

Blatter's not corrupt. It's a complete coincidence that Putin wants Blatter to be paid 1.5 million dollars immediately after he said he supports giving the World Cup to Russia.

Clearly.

[Rogue 9]

I'm pretty sure Putin's just been trolling everybody for at least the last four or five years.

[blowfish]

I'm pretty sure Putin's just been trolling everybody for at least the last four or five years.

I want his job *comes down with a sudden case of food poisoning*

[Thanas]

I'm pretty sure Putin's just been trolling everybody for at least the last four or five years.

I want his job *comes down with a sudden case of food polonium poisoning*

Fixed for accuracy.

[Vympel]

Last Week Tonight had the best comment on this meeting - Blatter saying Putin made him feel very comfortable, which is the only time that said words have ever been spoken in relation to Putin.

[mr friendly guy]

Its only funny if you think Nobel Prizes (presumably Putin is referring to the Peace prize and not the science prizes) is given to worthy candidates.

Personally if Blatter hypothetically wins a Nobel prize somehow, it can't be as bad as
a) Kissinger - how many Vietnamese died from bombing runs over North Vietnam,

b) The Dalai Lama - for a peace plan which involves ethnic cleansing of millions of people of the wrong ethnic group in areas they have been living in for hundreds of years deportation of millions of people who are really really "new colonists,"

c)Liu Xiaobo - an Iraq war fanwhore who felt John Kerry needed to provide more support for such an awesome endeavour

On the other side of the coin Blatter would be somewhat worse than Obama (at the time he won it) because Obama hadn't done jack and shit yet (unless there was something I don't know about from the time he was an Illinois politician), although he later started killing American citizens without trial in drone strikes and continued running the Gitmo, which I can't imagine Blatter achieving ever.

The West gets to nominate bullshit candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, so yeah, Putin can join in the farce fun. At least Blatter would fit somewhere in the middle compared to previous winners.

[Thanas]

Usually western heads of states do not nominate joke candidates.

[mr friendly guy]

I am not sure why that makes a difference since the comittee invites "qualified people" to nominate, of which includes "members of national assemblies and governments," while the committee itself is appointed by the Norwegian parliament. Are you saying it would make a big difference if the Russian parliament suggested Blatter gets a prize rather than just Putin by himself?

[Thanas]

Well, when is the last time a head of state/government made a joke nomination?

[K. A. Pital]

Well, when is the last time a head of state/government made a joke nomination?

When is the last time a head of government joked? The Peace Prizes aren't worth the title, with the Kissinger one being one awarded to a person complicit in war, kidnappings, murder and being an accessory to genocide. It is a travesty much worse than suggesting a joke candidate.

[FTeik]

Last Week Tonight had the best comment on this meeting - Blatter saying Putin made him feel very comfortable, which is the only time that said words have ever been spoken in relation to Putin.

I have little trouble believing that, considering that Blatter has probably met people, that were a lot worse compared to Putin.

What was this about the Dalai Lama and ethnic cleansing (sorry to ask, but in most media I've read he's presented as holier than Mother Theresa)?

[K. A. Pital]

What was this about the Dalai Lama and ethnic cleansing (sorry to ask, but in most media I've read he's presented as holier than Mother Theresa)?

His officially outlined idea of Tibetan independence includes (1) restoring the historical territories of Tibet, which includes territories that have lots of Muslim and Chinese people who lived there god knows how long (2) deporting all Chinese settlers from these territories. One is easily deduced by the fact that Dalai Lama claims the Tibetans are in minority. They're not, even if we take the abstract "historical Tibet", but if we take the present TAR borders, Tibetans are a majority with over 90% of the population. Although recently in a similar situation when the Myanmar Buddhists were basically conducting very brutal ethnic cleansing against their Muslim minority, the guy spoke out against it, so you could think that his doctrine is only a propaganda ploy, loud words about nothing. I am personally thinking that this is the case, but considering how deeply religious Buddhist places are both brutal and archaic at the same time - Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal... a bit of wariness isn't out of order.

That was the short explanation, everyone's free to add something to that or correct me.

[mr friendly guy]

Last Week Tonight had the best comment on this meeting - Blatter saying Putin made him feel very comfortable, which is the only time that said words have ever been spoken in relation to Putin.

I have little trouble believing that, considering that Blatter has probably met people, that were a lot worse compared to Putin.

What was this about the Dalai Lama and ethnic cleansing (sorry to ask, but in most media I've read he's presented as holier than Mother Theresa)?

http://www.dalailama.com/messages/tibet ... peace-plan

That's his five point peace plan.

Basically the relevant section goes

1. What the Chinese call the Tibet Autonomous Region (ie Tibet) isn't really the whole territory of Tibet. Its only central and western Tibet.

2. He also references the eastern provinces of eastern provinces of Kham and Amdo. Anyone looking on a map of China can figure out those include regions in the provinces of Sichuan and Qinghai which border the TAR.

You can actually see just how much more are this claims, than just the TAR using this map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tibet-claims.jpg (the yellow corresponds to the TAR, the orange is what else he claims is "Tibet") and then find a standard map of China with the provinces.

3. Chinese settlers outnumber Tibetans - they do not in the TAR, although obvious in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Qinghai, aka Eastern Tibet they do. One should note, Tibetans don't just live in the TAR, they have also lived traditionally in other parts of the PRC.

What he doesn't mention, is in these other areas the Chinese aren't exactly recent, and to call them "Settlers" is just a tactic to imply some form of colonialism in areas where Chinese have been living in for centuries.

4. He pretty much unambiguously stated these "Settlers" should be returned to China (presumably he means deported to other parts of the PRC after the Tibetan government in exile takes over all these territories). He is even quite forthcoming that these "Settlers" number in the millions (its actually tens of millions) but you get the gist.

The following year he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Grumman]

(sorry to ask, but in most media I've read he's presented as holier than Mother Theresa)?

That's not difficult, Mother Theresa was an asshole who felt that the suffering of the weak glorified her god.

[Thanas]

The counterpoint of course to the Chinese Propaganda claims is that there is colonialism ongoing in Lhasa with chinese settlers being enticed to settle there and that the Dalai Lama has always argued against using violence. So the program, which is an idealistic program, should not be taken any more serious than any of the Chinese territorial claims - different is that they are actually enforcing them.