Democracy Is Not An Instant Coffee.

Nuclear Proliferation Is On The Rise. Equipment, Material And Training Were Once Largely Inaccessible. Today, However, There Is A Sophisticated Worldwide Network That Can Deliver Systems For Producing Material Usable In Weapons.

When You Have Half Of Caironese In Slums, When You Don't Have Clean Water, When You Don't Have A Sewer System, When You Don't Have Electricity, And On Top Of That You Live Under One Of The Most Repressive Regimes Right Now... Well, Put All That Together, And It's A Ticking Bomb. It's Not Of A Question Of Threat; It Is Question Of Looking Around At The Present Environment And Making A Rational Prognosis.

At A Time When The Threat Of Nuclear Arms Is Again Increasing, The Norwegian Nobel Committee Wishes To Underline That This Threat Must Be Met Through The Broadest Possible International Cooperation. This Principle Finds Its Clearest Expression Today In The Work Of The Iaea And Its Director General. In The Nuclear Non-proliferation Regime, It Is The Iaea Which Ensures That Nuclear Energy Is Not Misused For Military Purposes, And The Director General Has Stood Out As An Unafraid Advocate Of New Measures To Strengthen That Regime.

We Have No Functioning Parliament In Egypt And Months Ago Mohammed Morsi Assumed Legislative Functions. Now He's Decided That There Should Be No Opposition To The Laws That He Makes And That He Is Authorized To Pass Any National Security Measure. It Is Difficult To Be More Absolutist Than That. And The Constitutional Convention - What A Sad Gathering; It Threatens To Send Us Back To The Darkest Period Of The Middle Ages.

I Am An Egyptian Muslim, Educated In Cairo And New York, And Now Living In Vienna. My Wife And I Have Spent Half Our Lives In The North, Half In The South. And We Have Experienced First Hand The Unique Nature Of The Human Family And The Common Values We All Share.