The Peace Prize! Slurp!

Wow! Finally, on 5th December 2025, during the Final Draw for the World Cup 2026, held at Washington DC, President Trump received a peace award that he so craved for,  the FIFA Peace Prize, from the FIFA President, Gianni Infantino. The Peace Prize consisted of a medal, a trophy; a little similar to the World Cup, and a certificate.

Trump portrays himself as the most powerful yet peace loving  president. I can say he seems to be the most powerful of the USA presidents of this century, but many may beg to differ, of course. Still, nations bend over backwards to please him, to be in his good books. Looks like FIFA  had bent more backwards and created this peace award to please him. And boy, was he pleased, looking at the way he grabbed the Peace Medal from the tray held by the lady and put around his own neck, so promptly. It showed. A speech followed, like he had saved tens of millions of people from being killed, done so, by his peace initiative and actions in Congo, India vs. Pakistan, South East Asia, and blah, blah, blah. What a modest man he was, is, President Trump! I am sure many in the audience or TV watchers swallowed the lumps in their throats. Yikes!

 It all adds up now, why President Trump was eager  to meet up with Christiano Ronaldo when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman brought him together with his troupe on 18 November  2025, to the White House for an important visit. Do you think it was merely a coincidence for President Trump to be jovial with CR7 telling him that his son was a fan of his and was proud of his acquaintance. So President Trump has  a jolly chat with Ronaldo to show the world that he, President Trump, is into football also! How nice! 

Come to think it, correspondingly, other organisations can also device their own peace prizes to please the most powerful man of the world! Tennis's ATP can conjure the ATP Global Peace Award! And golf! Yes golf! Trump likes golf so much. The IGF can create for him the IGF World Peace Prize! That would thrill the president!

As things stand now, the president, being the all daring and unabbashable person he is, expects the next, all prestigious, Nobel Peace Prize to be given to him. Otherwise, he may call the Nobel Foundation  a 'fake organisation' or the people in it are all frauds! Get it? Good!

Anyway,  coming back to the current gibe, one thing is for sure. In the future, President Trump's name will always be mentioned  in football quizzes, 

"Who is the first person  to receive the  FIFA Peace Award?"

"President Trump!"

Look who is nominating whom for the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

On July 7 2025, in a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had already been deep in neck with a horrible war with Hamas, in which thousands of innocent  people had been and are being killed and maimed, submitted a letter of nomination of President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump himself, who, he himself, had a strong part in that war! I, who was watching the TV, was really taken aback! I did not know if I was supposed to laugh hilariously or to cry solemnly! 

Maybe I should have laughed solemnly, failing which, should have cried hilariously! It should be really a novel peace prize!

Anyway, at the moment of writing, peace is not there; not in the middle-east (Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria),  not in Europe (Russia, Ukraine), not in the Africa's (Sudan, Congo, Somalia), nor in Asia (Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand).

Israel - a superpower?

 

You know who is the real superpower of the world right now? Israel, of course. No one dares to touch it. It keeps on making attacks on Gaza like nobody's world. The United Nations, NATO, or the European Union, you name it Israel just ignores it. Russia and China are also cautiously calm. Those who are touching it, like Lebanon or Iran, for that matter, are just making token touches. Nothing as  devastating as the Israel's attacks on Gaza. All nations are afraid to touch israel, afraid of one thing or another. Only they know the best. But afraid.

When the 9/11 devastation of 2001 happened in the USA, then President George Bush made the battle cry of  "Us against the world" Now when on October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel and killed more than 1200 Israelis,  Israel took the same "Us against the world" stance. Netanyahu is said to have ranted as such.  May be, this could be the reason why nations are distancing themselves. Even the USA is afraid of antagonizing Israel. This can be seen when Israel is not following the advice or request of Joe Biden on the matter of civilians being continuously killed by its attacks on Gaza.

Israel is a small nation of just 22,775 sq.km, but a superpower! Acts like one, anyway.

The humble King of Malaysia

 

Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta'in Billah. This is the full official name of the present Yang di-Pertuan Agong, or, the King of Malaysia,  If you add in to his name, all the titles accorded  to him by various state rulers and other dignitaries, that will take a few more lines! Phew! Here is a  person with so much weight and power. Yet His Majesty is so humble, simple, and kind! So much down to earth that he will drop by a roadside-stall to eat his favourite meal, much to the worry and panic of the body guards and the entourage that accompany him! Ha ha!

Tengku Abdullah, as His Majesty is fondly and respectfully called by the media and the people alike, truly loves and cares for his subjects. This can be seen by one of his gestures of asking reporters and journalists waiting outside his Palace, on certain errands or events, whether they have eaten, and then arranging food for them.

Now, mostly, if not all, VVIPs will follow a strict protocol on official functions, and everyone expects it. No, not His Majesty, the King. I watched on TV, with gaped mouth, when at the end of the Merdeka (Independence Day) national parade, when His Majesty was ushered to his car by the dignitaries  and body guards, His Majesty sidestepped the car and ignoring protocol went to the people in the stands to shake hands with them. Oh, the people were so overjoyed! Many of them rushed to have selfies with him, and His Majesty freely obliged! Maybe he, being a former president of the Football Association of Malaysia, and mixing with players and fans alike, has given him a chance to feel people's yearnings.

Sadly, His Majesty's tenure of the five years is coming to an end. He wiil be going back to his state of Pahang to be it's ruler once again. But not to worry, another ruler of uprightness and integrity,  and with a heart towards the welfare of his subjects  - the Sultan of Johor, Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, will be taking over the role of the new Yang di-Pertuan Agong on January 31, 2024. "Daulat Tuanku! Daulat Tuanku!" (Long live Your Majesty!)