THE award of the Nobel Peace Prize to US president Barack Obama is arguably one of the most absurd the committee has ever made. There has rarely been an award that is so partisan and political in its intention.

The award is apparently an encouragement to America's first black president and a way of saying: 'We hope there is going to be a new direction in Washington's policy.' However, all of this undermines the point of the prize.

Obama has only been in office since the beginning of the year, and while his foreign peace aims are noble, his achievements are rather few. He's done nothing in the Middle East and nothing to improve relations with the Russians. To award a prize simply on hope suggests a naïvety and a blindness that I think will only damage the prize and diminish its value to all previous winners.

Tom Richardson,

Parnell St, Dublin 1