Peace!!

In Oslo again today, and after running an errand this morning, went on to visit the Nobel Peace Center. I didn't know this, but 4 of the 5 Nobel Prizes awarded every year are given out in Sweden, except the Peace Prize, which is given out in the Oslo Town Hall, which is right next to the museum. I found it fascinating, and spent a good couple of hours walking around. Watching, reading, learning. What some of these people have done to try to bring peace to this ever changing, ever violent world is astounding.

Apart from their permanent exhibits, the currently featured ones are of the IPCC (The Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change, and Al Gore, who were jointly awarded the Peace Prize last year. Also featured was a solo exhibit from Norwegian photographer Jonas Bendiksen. He traveled to four of the worst slums in the world, Kibera(Nairobi, Kenya), Dharavi(Mumbai, India), the Barrios(Caracas, Venezuela) and the Kampongs(Jakarta, Indonesia), and brought them to life in quite an amazing way to show the shocking deprivation that exists in these places. One third of people who live in cities, live in slums, which equates to around 1 Billion people. The UN forecast that this will double in the next 25 years. Shocking statistics!!

Most interesting (and ironic) fact of the day, was that the father of the Peace Prize, Alfred Nobel, made his fortune from war and destruction. He invented and distributed a more manageable Dynamite with the use of Nitroglycerin. Plus, if i remember rightly, smokeless gunpowder.