A refugee is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Not really... sure, Martti Ahtisaari was born 1937 in Viipuri, when it still was part of Finland, and due to the War he had to be "relocated" in another part of Finland, because Russia grabbed that piece of Finland. Sure, he WAS one of the Karelian refugees and "internally displaced person", but as the UNHCR says, "the durable solutions to refugee populations are: voluntary repatriation to the country of origin; local integration into the country of asylum; and resettlement to a third country", and he and his family were given home in "the country of origin", Finland, and they were "locally integrated" and "resettled" to a new place, they are refugees and IDPs no more.

Nevertheless, I believe that this fact has influenced him and his way of thinking a lot. I am very proud of my home country. Not many know, but Finland was dragged into the WWII 1939 by Russia (Soviet) who attacked us. We asked for help from Sweden, England, USA, and no-one was willing to help. It was in the beginning of WWII and no-one thought it would be that big. Also, people didn't seem to care if tiny Finland was swallowed by huge Soviet or not. Germany was the only one willing to help, and that is the reason to why we were on the "wrong" side in WWII.
Because of this Russia demanded heavy reparations, and tried to finger our politics - we had to make all kinds of deals with Russia, and because of that USA thought we were Soviet's satellite during the Cold War...
Not many know that Finland was the only "enemy" country that was not occupied and that we also are the only country that has paid the reparations in full - and we did that 1952, the same year when we also held the Olympics and a Finnish woman was crowned the first Miss Universe.

All this has influenced the whole Finnish people - we knew that the world is not to be counted on if we ever are attacked, that the world will not care for the troubles of tiny peoples, that the Big Actors only care about how they can exploit us, and that no price is too high for independence, sovereignty and peace...

Martti Ahtisaari gets the prize "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts".

"For the past 20 years, he has figured prominently in endeavors to resolve several serious and long-lasting conflicts," the citation said, mentioning his work in conflicts from Namibia and Aceh to Kosovo and Iraq. "He has also made constructive contributions to the resolution of conflicts in Northern Ireland, in Central Asia, and on the Horn of Africa," the citation said."

-- CBS

I am very proud of being Finnish right now.

Crisis Management Initiative