The Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2010

The
The Norwegian Nobel committee decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese political activist who is currently serving a 11-year prison sentence in China for trying to push for human rights for the Chinese. There was an angry reaction from the Chinese government when this award was announced.. They went on to boycott the award presentation held on 10th Dec in Oslo and pressured some other countries to do the same. China hinted at souring diplomatic relations with Norway and even launched their own alternative prize to the Nobel. You can see some of the details in the videoclip below.

I for one think it is rather sad how this whole thing unfolded. Being of Chinese origin, I am proud of what China has achieved in the past decades in economic and social development. The rise of China clearly reflects the ascent of the East to balance the dominance of the West. Which is exactly why I think the Chinese leadership needn't have taken such an extreme position. If they had simply stated that they disagreed with the Nobel Peace Prize this year and stayed away, the whole thing would have blown over very quickly. But their reaction actually called more attention to the award.

Of course, I also believe the Norwegian Nobel Committee is fully entitled to choose whichever recipient they like. And I must say they have been rather good at picking controversial candidates ... like in 2009, they chose Barack Obama as the Peace Prize recipient - a thinly veiled rebuke of George W Bush's regime.

But let me hasten to add that this blog is not meant to be a political commentary. What I really wanted to highlight here was the musical extravaganza of the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. Cisco has been a global sponsor to this event for the past decade, and in conjunction with our Public Services Summit, we invite senior level customers to attend this.

The hosts for the 2010 Concert, held on the evening of 11th Dec at the Spektrum arena in Oslo, were Denzel Washington and Anne Hathaway. And the artistes performing included: Sivert Hoyem, Florence + the Machine, Colbie Caillat, India Arie, Jamiroquai, Robyn, A R Rahman, Herbie Hancock and Barry Manilow.

Here I was just before the concert started ...

Other shots of the audience before the concert  ...

The Norwegian royalty arrive, together with the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Then came the two superstar hosts, Denzel and Anne ... let the show begin !

Here are a few videoclips showing a few of the performances I liked ...


First ROBYN ...



Next we had FLORENCE + THE MACHINE ...

Then we had JAMIROQUAI ...

Then A. R. RAHMAN with his "Slumdog Millionaire suite" ... I love the energy of " Jai Ho" !




Finally the highlight by BARRY MANILOW ...

and another one by Barry ...

Well, hope you liked those as much as I did.

...

Snippets from Scandinavia

I had the opportunity to visit Stockholm (Sweden) and Oslo (Norway) last week, as part of a global Public Services Summit my company Cisco organized and sponsored. It was my first visit to both of these cities, and a most enlightening and enjoyable time in terms of insights and experiences. This entry touches on some of the highlights ...

The Summit was in Stockholm and we had a few hundred public sector officials from all around the world attending, hosted by Cisco and the City of Stockholm. A panel of world-class speakers - including Lawrence Lessig, Charles Leadbeater, author of book "We-Think", and Prof Carlotta Perez, author of the book "Technology Revolutions & Financial Capital" (picture left) - shared ideas over two days. Intellectually riveting stuff.

I also had a chance to see some of the City of Stockholm, and was particularly impressed by the Vasa Museum, which housed a remarkably well-preserved ship "Vasa" from the early 17th century, the old city Gamla Stan, which looked like a small town right out of a history book, as well as some of Stockholm's environmental conservation projects. It was a fascinating city and quite a pity that I had limited time to see the sights. Definitely worth a future visit to this "Capital of Scandinavia", as Stockholm calls itself ...

On day 3 we took a private train to Oslo, and attended the Nobel Peace Prize dinner and concert. This year's Peace Prize laurette was Martti Ahtisaari, who was honoured for his peace-negotiation efforts in Africa, Europe and Asia.

As a musical tribute to him, the star-studded concert had performers such as Il Divo, Jason Mraz, The Script, Robyn, Marit Larsen and musical legend Diana Ross. The hosts for the night were movie stars Scarlett Johansson (wow!) and Michael Caine. A most impressive line-up and a night of great entertainment!

The picture on the left shows (from left to right) Michael Caine, Nobel laurette Martti Ahtisaari and Scarlett Johansson.

From Oslo, I flew to London for a week's break, from where I posted this entry - well, kind of ... some of the pictures were added later.