Rewarding ahead of time

Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

What I write is in no way related to my color affiliation. While my wife believes that everyone is good, and some turn bad; I believe that everyone is bad, and some turn good. In the math world (and for the Java guys in ANT) we call it inclusive or exclusive principles. Anyways...

There is nothing surprising in Obama winning the peace prize. We have seen over the past few years that people are not rewarded for what they did, but for what they would do. A couple of examples.

The mortgage meltdown was induced by bonuses to traders/investment managers who would possibly make money in the future. Their bonus was not tied to how much they made in "real" profit today, but how much they would make tomorrow.

I have heard of a web company where bonus was tied to increased user visits to the web site. This made the web architect/designer break a page into multiple page transitions. Obviously more page hits leading to a secured bonus. It is rumored that the company vanished into the cyber-recycle-bin soon after.

Of course there are instances where rewarding for work to be done in future has helped. We learn this all the time in the corporate industry. Promote to higher role even though the person does not deserve it for current work. But hey, once promoted I have known people who plunked their wavering ass, worked their butt out and really fulfilled the responsibility that was thrust on them.

These examples would not be common place in the days of yore. At least during my childhood I had to "burn the midnight oil" (a favorite saying for us Indians) to get what I wanted.

Events always reflect the sign of the times. One should read Alan Moore's "From Hell" to see how our crimes and success reflect the sensibility of the society. So its no wonder that in this age of "rewarding ahead of time", Obama was given the peace prize.