Two Champions of Children Are Given Nobel Peace Prize

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By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

updated 3:25 PM EDT, Fri October 10, 2014

CNN) -- The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to India's Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai for their struggles against the suppression of children and for young people's rights, including the right to education.

Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said, "Nobel Peace Prizemust go to school, not be financially exploited."

Yousafzai came to global attention after she was shot in the head by the Taliban -- two years ago Thursday -- for her efforts to promote education for girls in Pakistan. Since then, after recovering from surgery, she has taken her campaign to the world stage, notably with a speech last year at the United Nations.

Through her heroic struggle, Yousafzai has become a leading spokeswoman for girls' rights to education, said Jagland.

According to the Nobel committee, at 17 she's the youngest ever peace prize winner.

Yousafzai said that the award is a "great honor for me," and that she's honored to share it with Satyarthi.

The late Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel left the bulk of his fortune to create the Nobel Prizes to honor work in five areas, including peace. In his 1895 will, he said one part was dedicated to that person "who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly in 1901 to Jean Henry Dunant, founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and French peace activist and economist Frédéric Passy.

Malala Yousafzai split the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with India's Kailash Satyarthi for their struggles against the suppression of children and for young people's rights. Yousafzai came to global attention after she was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 for her efforts to promote education for girls in Pakistan.

"I'm proud that I'm the first Pakistani and the first young woman or the first young person getting this award," she said in Birmingham, England.

Yousafzai learned she won the award while she was in chemistry class in England on Friday morning, she said. She wasn't expecting to get the award, and at 10:15 a.m., she was sure she hadn't won. But soon afterward, a teacher called her over and told her she had.

Yousafzai said she continued to attend classes, and it was a "normal day," besides teachers and fellow students congratulating her.

She said she doesn't believe that she deserved the award but considers it an encouragement to continue her campaign and "to know that I'm not alone," Yousafzai told reporters.

New beginnings.

Her award will not mark the end of her campaign to advocate for girls' education, she said.

"I think this is really the beginning," she said, adding that children around the world "should stand up for their rights" and "not wait for someone else."

Yousafzai spoke with Satyarthi by phone Friday, and they agreed to work together to advocate that every child is able to go to school. She said they also decided to try to build a stronger relationship between their countries, which are longtime rivals.

She said she wants the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan to attend the December ceremony where she and Satyarthi will receive their awards. Peace between the two nations, Yousafzai said, is important for their progress.

Awarding the Peace Prize to a Pakistani Muslim and an Indian Hindu "gives a message to people of love between Pakistan and India, and between different religions," Yousafzai said. The decision sends a message that all people, regardless of language and religion, should fight for the rights of women, children and every human being.

The Malala Fund, set up to promote girls' education, said via Twitter that Yousafzai called the prize "an encouragement for me to go forward. It means we are standing together to ensure all children get quality education."

Committee commends Satyarthi's courage

Meanwhile, Satyarthi, age 60, has shown great personal courage in heading peaceful demonstrations focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain, the committee said.

Satyarthi told reporters that the award was about many more people than him -- and that credit should go to all those "sacrificing their time and their lives for the cause of child rights" and fighting child slavery.

"It is a great honor for all those children who are deprived of their childhood globally," he said.

"It's an honor to all my fellow Indians who have got this honor -- it's not just an honor for me, it's an honor for all those fighting against child labor globally."

'She has made her countrymen proud'.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif congratulated Yousafzai.

"She is (the) pride of Pakistan, she has made her countrymen proud," he is quoted as saying in a statement. "Her achievement is unparalleled and unequaled.

"Girls and boys of the world should take lead from her struggle and commitment."

His Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, congratulated both Nobel laureates via Twitter.

"Kailash Satyarthi has devoted his life to a cause that is extremely relevant to entire humankind. I salute his determined efforts," he said, adding that "Malala Yousafzai's life is a journey of immense grit (and) courage."

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, via email called Yousafzai a "beloved servant" of "infidels" who was awarded the Nobel "for her services to them." The Islamist group, which has intimate links to the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda, unabashedly confirmed two years ago that it tried to kill the teen activist as she rode home from school in a van.

The spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said she was targeted because of what he called her "propaganda against Islam."

The Nobel committee said it "regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism.

"It has been calculated that there are 168 million child labourers around the world today. In 2000 the figure was 78 million higher. The world has come closer to the goal of eliminating child labour."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated both winners, describing Yousafzai as "a brave and gentle advocate of peace who through the simple act of going to school became a global teacher" and Satyarthi as having carried out heroic work to combat child exploitation.

"The true winners today are the world's children," he added.

Opinion: Malala is the new symbol of hope

'Absolutely thrilled'

Nigel Chapman, chief executive of the Plan International aid organization, said the award brought a "fantastic glow" to his heart.

"I think anybody who's interested in campaigning for children's rights is absolutely thrilled by this news," he said, speaking to CNN from New York.

"It's often hard to get these issues at the top of the agenda, and the fact that these two really important figures have been honored today is terrific news."

Chapman praised the Nobel committee for its smart move in awarding the prize jointly to Yousafzai and Satyarthi, who are "two major heroes" in their countries.

The issues of education and child labor are intimately linked together, he said, "because one of the reasons that girls in particular don't go to school is because they are working, often in difficult and dangerous circumstances, trying to earn money for their families."

There are still 65 million girls worldwide who are not in school, he said. Millions start lessons but drop out for reasons including having to work or being forced to marry very young.

He said it was also a great boost for campaigners on the eve of the International Day of the Girl.

Pakistani campaigner: Hard work is needed

Mosharraf Zaidi, a Pakistani education campaigner and former adviser to the Foreign Ministry, welcomed the award but cautioned that there is still a long way to go in his country.

In Pakistan, he told CNN, there are 25 million children ages 5 to 16 who are not in school, more than half of whom are girls.

"So there's a huge need for a campaigner and a voice like Malala's," he said. "Unfortunately, that voice hasn't been welcome in Pakistan in the way that we would've hoped and the work that needs to be done to fulfill the dreams that Malala has, has not yet begun.

"Pakistan's politicians have become very good at paying lip service to the needs of Pakistan's children without doing any of the hard work that's needed."

Pakistan needs to dramatically increase its spending on education and improve how that money is spent, he said, and it "needs to get serious" about giving every child a good education.

Courage, determination and vision

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is the U.N. special envoy for global education, described the two winners as "the world's greatest children's champions."

They "deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for their courage, determination and for their vision that no child should ever be left behind and that every child should have the best of chances," he said.

"Kailash's life-long work in India fighting child labour -- which I have had the privilege to see at first hand -- complements Malala's work standing up for girls' rights to education from Pakistan to the rest of the world."

European Union leaders Jose Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy said the prize was a victory for all the children around the world who aspire to go to school.

When the European Union won the peace prize in 2012, they said, it decided to use the money for the same purpose, through an EU program for children in conflict zones.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the award sends an important message of support to all those working for children's rights and rewards "two extraordinarily inspirational human rights defenders" who "have demonstrated tremendous courage in the face of powerful adversaries."

He said he hoped it would bolster the political will of countries and institutions worldwide to uphold the rights of children.

Salil Shetty, secretary general of Amnesty International, hailed the pair's work as representing the struggle of millions of children around the world.

"This is an award for human rights defenders who are willing to dedicate themselves entirely to promoting education and the rights of the world's most vulnerable children," he said.

Prerequisite for peace

The Norwegian Nobel Committee makes the point that 60% of the current population is under 25 years of age in the poorest countries of the world.

"It is a prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of children and young people be respected," it said. "In conflict-ridden areas in particular, the violation of children leads to the continuation of violence from generation to generation."

Yousafzai was among the favorites for the prize last year, which instead went to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, for its longstanding efforts to "do away with a whole category of weapons of mass destruction."

The Norwegian Nobel Committee received a record 278 nominations for the 2014 prize, 47 of which were for organizations.

Each prize carries with it a monetary reward of 8 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million) to be divided among the winners.

CNN's Ray Sanchez, Lindsay Isaac, Alexander Felton, Sophia Saifi and Radina Gigova contributed to this report.

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Farewell to our Friend Patti Wagner Counter

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Goodbye Patti

It's not often that one gets to walk with an angel.  Yet, if there are angels surely we shared one named Patti Wagner.  She was just a country girl from an Iowa farm who came to the city for school and taught all the kids a thing or two about life.

In my little world I was a late bloomer when it came to girls.  I was far too busy in grade school to give them much notice.  There was adjusting to a new town, new friends, an overwhelming sports schedule, learning to play rock and roll, trying to keep up the grades, and being a model alter boy among many pressures.

Add in paper routes, caddying at the golf courses, Cub and Boy Scouts, working for my dad and practicing thousands of hours at baseball, basketball and golf and time was a very precious commodity.

All the time I expected to be attending Walsh High, an all boys school at the time.  Then came the Ottumwa Heights fire that destroyed the girls high school.  Suddenly everything changed and the boys and girls were thrown together for the first time at the old Navy Base.  Our class of '64 would be the first co-ed class to graduate.

It was tough being a new freshman with those upper classes determined to put us in our place.  In addition, the freshmen came from three different schools and were together for the first time far from town.

That was where I first noticed Patti and before long we became great "secret friends."  Over the next four years we would run in to each other at different events and times and if neither of us had a date, which was quite often for me but not so often for Patti, we would talk and talk and just enjoy each other's company for hours on end.

There were times others would be with us like Edith Tray, Curt Trilk, and Mary Ann Conroy and we wound up in some rather odd places as we talked through the night like graveyards, houses under construction, and even just sitting along the side of the river.

Like I said, the times were not often but we made up in hours for the lost opportunities.  Patti could talk about anything and everything and to me she was a stabilizing force because she could laugh about my wildly fluctuating passions for world affairs.  Yet we chose to keep our occasional meetings a secret.

After graduation, our lives changed but our friendship didn't and Patti was the only person in the class I stayed in touch with for every decade of our lives.  First it was by letter and phone, then email and phone.

We counseled each other through our problems, disappointments, dreams, and hopes and it seemed whenever either of us needed a friend the other was always there.  That was Patti.  Solid as a rock and always ready to help out a friend.

After she got sick we talked and emailed often as she moved from Colorado to Maryland to North Carolina and my only regret was five years ago when I got sick and was not able to go see her these past few years.

My many adventures over the years gave her a lot of laughs but she was genuinely interested in them and wanted to hear every detail of the good and bad.  Then she always encouraged me to keep pursuing dreams.

We talked a few times about how it might have been if we had been together all those years but Patti was never one to dwell on lost opportunities.  Besides, she would point out, had we been together we would not both have our wonderful children.

She was very special and will be missed by family and friends.  But, she would never let her own health problems stop her from living, from loving and from inspiring others.  I was one who found her shoulder always there to lean on whether I was in Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Arizona, or California.

Another empty chair

I was honored to know and cherish Patti Wagner and will always remember her smile, strength, adventurous attitude, curiosity, and genuine interest in everyone who knew her.  Mostly, because she was so connected to her faith in Jesus and strength in God, I will know she is home and one day we will see her again.

Farewell Patti

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Obamaville October 1 - When do the lies stop?

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Today the CDC became the newest government agency to lie to the public in a long list of institutional lying the past two years alone.  When they announced the first Ebola case in the United States they said there was no chance of anyone else being exposed.  Then 12 hours later they said the patient was refused Ebola treatment the first time he went to the hospital because they didn't test for Ebola even though he told them he came from Liberia.  He was given the great American cure all, antibodies, which have no effect on Ebola, then sent home.  For the next two days everyone he encountered in Dallas, Texas was exposed to Ebola.

What does it mean to citizens of the USA?  More important, who can you believe?  Did I mention there is no cure currently available?

Of course we are also facing a nationwide epidemic of the D68 virus in children and numerous cases have mutated from a very dangerous virus to paralyzing the victims and no cure is in sight for this either. 

Then there is the MERS coronavirus virus that has spread to the USA from the Middle East and again there is no cure.  If the victim has a strong immune system they may live.  Here in the land of addictive prescription drugs, dozens of required vaccinations, and the explosion of antibiotics prescribed, to both the humans for every little cause and in the food supply through massive doses in the animal feed, we have destroyed much of our immune system thanks to our government regulation.

The biggest lie of all is that we have a good health care system.  Right now the only thing healthy about American health care is the massive wealth being accumulated by the doctors, pharmaceutical corporations, health care providers, insurance companies, health equipment manufacturers, stock holders in health care companies, and banks financing the maze of activity designed to keep you sick, not make you healthy.

To this day our government does not allow medical practices that have been in use around the world for thousands of years that prevent people from getting sick.  Why are proven Chinese health practices such as herbal treatment and acupuncture not approved for health insurance and Medicare?

Did I mention the agency scandal of the week, this time the Secret Service, forced to admit the president has been in danger more than once and if the most recent fence jumping person who made it over the fence, across the lawn, and inside the White House to the private quarters of the first family had been carrying plastic explosives instead of a knife, there might not be a White House.  Thank God an off duty officer finally tackled the intruder.

This comes on the heels of two more disclosures of failures to protect the president, which was preceded by a prostitution ring that was serving the Secret Service agents some kind of security.  Today the Secret Service director was fired or resigned depending on whose lie you care to believe.

Not to prolong the discussion, but we are also still trying to find out what really happened in the IRS scandal that also cost a director her job.

Bringing up the rear in our cavalcade of institutional lies is the National Security Agency tale of woes thanks to whistle blower Edward Snowden.  Now these lies have echoed throughout the world and seriously damaged our credibility.

And that, my friends, is all the ink I will devote to the avalanche of lies we are being spoon fed.
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