Nobel laureate bags peace prize

ECONOMICS Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has been awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, organisers announced yesterday.

Sen was chosen because he had “been dealing with issues of global justice as a thought leader for decades”, the jury said.

His contribution to the fight against social inequality was more relevant today than ever before, the jury added.

The award ceremony, like most events at the book fair, was streamed online, with Sen joining via livestream from his home in the US city of Boston.

The Peace Prize, endowed with € 25 000 ( about R485 000), is awarded to those who make a contribution to literature, science or art in the name of peace.

“Who deserves this award more than someone whose work, for all its intellectual brilliance, distinguishes itself through one thing above all: humanity?” said German President Frank- Walter Steinmeier, who had to cancel his in- person attendance after being exposed to the coronavirus.

This year’s book fair, usually a massive exhibition attended by large numbers of international visitors, was held almost exclusively online, with 4 400 digital exhibitors from 110 countries.

The publishers’ trade fair is billed as the most important of its kind worldwide. Its history stretches back to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century.