Esperanto-USA

This is one Libera Folio story I'd take with more than just the proverbial grain of salt, especially when it comes to something as big as the Nobel Peace Prize.

From the summary paragraph:

Universala Esperanto–Asocio havas same grandan ŝancon gajni la Nobelan pac–premion kiel Umberto Eco gajni la literatur–premion… Surprize, laŭ la vetantoj la venko de UEA estas pli kredebla ol la venko de la mediprotekta organizaĵo Greenpeace aŭ de la rokstelulo Bono. Tamen… la ŝanco ke UEA efektive ricevos la ĉi–jaran pac–premion egalas al nur 2,5 procentoj, se kredi la prijuĝon de la retaj vetantoj.

Toño del Barrio has more on the messy scuttlebutt in the Libera Folio piece (including some links to news stories claiming that Esperanto itself was nominated for a Nobel).

As I said, this is one story I'd take with a grain of salt — or perhaps a full salt shaker. As much as we can all dream of the UEA or a similar entity being honored for keeping Zamenhof's dream alive, I'm left asking one question (bv. pardoni min, S–ro Bono): Is a Nobel really what we're looking for?

Or is it something bigger?

[UPDATE 2008.10.10: Everybody can exhale now: The BBC has reported that this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner was the former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, for his efforts to diffuse conflicts throughout the world, including hot spots such as Iraq, Namibia, Aceh, and Kosovo. That's that, and it's back to lernu! for me.]