Heal the World, the Noble Way Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ghana

Kofi Annan and the United Nations shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 for their work in human rights, particularly in Africa, and focusing on the spread of AIDS in that continent. He served two terms in the job, retiring at the end of 2012, when he was replaced by Ban Ki-moon, from South Korea.

After retirement, he was involved in several humanitarian exploits, and he passed away in 2018.

Answer: Suez Canal Crisis

In 1956, the Second Arab-Israeli war broke out, after Egypt seized control of the Canal from France and Britain. Assisted by Israel, France and Britain invaded the Sinai Peninsula, in north-eastern Egypt. This action was widely condemned by many other countries, including USA and USSR. The United Nations issued a directive ordering the immediate withdrawal of the troops.

Pearson, who was Secretary of External Affairs of Canada, worked closely with the UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, to broker a peace in very difficult circumstances, and his efforts led to the foundation of the UN Peacekeeping Force. In 1963, he was elected as Prime Minister, a position he held until his retirement in 1968. He died from cancer in 1972.

Answer: French Equatorial Africa

Schweitzer was born in Kaysersberg, which is now in France, but was part of German Empire at his birth, in 1875. He was a theologian and musician, studying in Paris and Berlin. Later, he and his wife set off for Africa, setting up a primitive hospital in Lambaréné, in what is now Gabon.

His great work was funded by various foundations, and the prizemoney from the Nobel also helped to improve and extend his hospital. The good doctor died in 1965 but his legacy lives on.

Answer: Médecins Sans Frontières

Their name translates from the French as Doctors Without Borders, and they do their good work in many of the poorer and war-torn countries around the world. They are funded by donations, and are not reliant on any country's government. They formed as a breakaway from the United Nations, when French doctors saw the horrors of war in the Nigerian region of Biafra. Since then, they have provided medical assistance in such diverse places as East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), Nicaragua, Lebanon, Vietnam and South Sudan, after war or natural disasters.

UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) won in 1965, and the Catholic Church has never won. I think that it is rather unlikely that General Motors, a carmaker, would pass the eligibility criteria.

Answer: Win the position of Polish president, via popular vote

In 1980, Walesa, a dockworker at Gdansk, started a trade union in communist Poland. The authorities tried to dismantle Solidarity, but Lech held the movement together, and it was ultimately accepted as legal by the Communists, changing the face of Polish politics.

In 1990, he became the first elected President of Poland. He was awarded the Nobel Prize, amongst many other awards from all over the world.

Answer: It was his second Nobel Prize

Pauling had received the Chemistry Nobel prize in 1954, for his work on chemical bonds, particularly in relation to biological compounds, such as proteins. Eight years later, he received the Peace prize for his work in trying to prevent the nuclear arms race. His work resulted in the signing of treaties between USA, UK and the USSR, to halt nuclear testing, in the following year.

He authored several books, including 'The Nature of the Chemical Bond, and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals' (1947), and the hard-hitting 'No More War!' in 1958. He died in 1994, aged 93. Only a handful of people have received Nobel Prizes in two different fields.

Answer: Mother Teresa

She was born as Anjezë Gonxhe in Albania in 1910, but spent all her adult life in India, specifically Calcutta (now Kolkata).She took her name from Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries. Her organisations, the Sisters of Loreto and Missionaries of Charity, worked with the poor and hungry of the city.

Martin Luther King won in 1964, and was assassinated in 1968. Adolfo Pérez Esquivel won in 1980 for his work as a human rights activist in Argentina, and Nathan Söderblom established the World Conference of Life and Work in Sweden. He was also the clergyman who officiated at the memorial service for Alfred Nobel.

Answer: Germany

Austen Chamberlain was a career British politician, holding several senior posts, including Chancellor of the Exchequer, Conservative Party leader and Foreign Secretary, between 1903 and 1931. In post-WW1 Europe, tension between Germany and France was still high, and the possibility of further armed conflict was worrying. Chamberlain helped broker the Locarno Pact between the two countries, and several surrounding nations, including Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia. For his efforts, he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1925. His surname may be familiar to you- his younger step-brother was Neville, who was responsible with the Appeasement agreement with Hitler.

In the following year, German diplomat, Gustav Stresemann, and his French counterpart, Ferdinand Buisson, shared the prize for their continuing work to strengthen the Pact. All three gentlemen had passed away before the treaty was torn apart by the rise of Hitler and the Nazis.

Answer: Desmond Tutu

Tutu was born in Transvaal in 1931 and became an ordained priest in 1962. He was appointed as Bishop of Johannesburg in 1985 and then the Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986, holding the post for a decade. He worked with Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk, and toured various countries and assemblages in his quest to end the segregation that was rife in his country. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for the previous three years, before finally being awarded in 1984.

F W de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shared the award some years later, in 1993, after apartheid was finally abolished.

Francois Pienaar was a rugby union player, captaining the South African national team, the Springboks to 19 wins from 29 appearances. This included beating hot favourites New Zealand, in the 1995 World Cup. Jonathan 'Jonty' Rhodes was a very good cricketer, handy with the bat, but outstanding as a fieldsman.

Paul Kruger was a giant in South African politics in the late 19th century, leading the country as President from 1883 to 1902, and was instrumental in gaining independence from Britain, both through diplomacy and force- the Second Boer War.

Answer: Henry Dunant

The first medals were awarded in 1901, just five years after the death of the founder of the Foundation. The Red Cross was formed in 1863, after Dunant saw the horrors of war in the Franco-Austrian War. His organisation, the International Committee of the Red Cross, has won the Prize on three occasions- 1917, 1944 and 1963.

The Frenchman, Léon Victor Auguste Bourgeois, was instrumental in the setting up of the League of Nations, in 1920. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German who also won in 1901, but he won the Physics nedal, for the invention of X-Rays. William Tell was a legendary Swiss archer, who predated the Nobel Prizes by more than 500 years.