October 11, 2013.

Chemical Weapons Watchdog Wins Nobel Peace Prize

"One of 'em pushed me once," said the old man. "I recollect it as if it was yesterday. It was Boat Race night -- terribly rowdy they used to get on Boat Race night----and I bumps into a young bloke on Shaftesbury Avenue. Quite a gent, 'e was -- dress shirt, top 'at, black overcoat. 'E was kind of zig-zagging across the pavement, and I bumps into 'im accidental-like. 'E says, "Why can't you look where you're going?" 'e says. I say, "Ju think you've bought the bleeding pavement?" 'E says, "I'll twist your bloody 'ead off if you get fresh with me." I says, "You're drunk. I'll give you in charge in 'alf a minute," I says. An' if you'll believe me, 'e puts 'is 'and on my chest and gives me a shove as pretty near sent me under the wheels of a bus. Well, I was young in them days, and I was going to 'ave fetched 'im one, only----"'

OSLO----The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the group overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, as the award committee's chairman emphasized the importance of disarmament in the pursuit of world peace.

A sense of helplessness took hold of Winston. The old man's memory was nothing but a rubbish heap of details. One could question him all day without getting any real information. The party histories might still be true, after a fashion; they might even be completely true. He made a last attempt.

The award, given Friday in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, comes as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons embarks on the highest-profile task in its 16-year existence: overseeing the destruction of Syria's arsenal amid a bloody civil war and calls for a cease fire so disarmament work can be done.

"Perhaps I have not made myself clear," he said. "What I'm trying to say is this. You have been alive a very long time; you lived half your life before the Revolution. In 1925, for instance, you were already grown up. Would you say from what you can remember, that life in 1925 was better than it is now, or worse? If you could choose, would you prefer to live then or now?"

The Netherlands-based watchdog was launched in 1997 when the Chemical Weapons Convention arms-control treaty took effect. The OPCW's mission is seen as being directly aligned with the will of Alfred Nobel, an advocate of disarmament who set aside millions to fund the Peace award and other Nobel Prizes shortly before he died in 1896.