Whoopee Tayyip-Oh!

Even though there are no human rights to speak of in Libya and the country is currently embroiled in a spot of bother as it desperately tries to unload its despot, the other day the Gaddafi "human rights" prize was awarded without a hitch. This year the highly-coveted (hah!) honour went to Turkey's Islamist prime minister for his work in rolling back decades of secularization dating back to Ataturk. Way to go Tayyip!

Update: Previous prize-winners (or losers, depending on your perspective) include everyone from Nelson Mandela (recipient of the first GHRP back in 1998) to "the children of Palestine" (winners of the second prize) to Louis Farrakhan to Fidel Castro to Hugo Chavez to Daniel Ortega. (No doubt that's part of the reason why Castro and Ortega still have warm feelings for the Libyan wackjob--because he bought them off with a shiny prize and a cool 250 Gs U.S.)

Update: This one, from back in March '08, just about says it all re the Gaddafi prize and UN-style "human rights":

To the sound of cheers, and by an overwhelming majority of 40 out of 47 votes, the UN Human Rights Council Wednesday elected Jean Ziegler, the co-founder of the "Muammar Gaddafi Human Rights Prize," as an expert advisor representing the Western world. And for its new Palestine expert, the council chose Richard Falk.

Falk was approved by consensus. Canada afterward made a statement dissociating itself from the choice. The US, a non-voting observer, also took the floor to criticize Falk's published writings.

Falk often accuses the US of being responsible for many of the world's ills and condemns Israel's actions against the Palestinians.

Ziegler earned more votes than any of the other candidates...

Prize-winner Erdorgan in the spell of his bright, shiny wheely-thing