TEXT OF INTERVIEW
JEREMY HOBON: China is blocking some news websites today, as the Nobel Prize Committee prepares to award the Peace Prize to a jailed democracy activist.
The Nobel Prize is the subject of today’s Globalist Quiz. And we’re focusing specifically on the developing nations called the BRIC. As in Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Stephan Richter is our quizmaster and he joins us now. Good morning, Stephan.
STEPHAN RICHTER: Good morning Jeremy. Ready for today’s quiz?
HOBSON: I am ready.
RICHTER: Alright, so here’s the question: how many Chinese citizens have won a Nobel Prize since these prizes were first awarded all the way back in 1901, so for well over a century. Your options are: no Chinese, that’s A; three Chinese, that’s B; four Chinese have won Nobel prizes, C; or D, 20 Chinese. Which one is it?
HOBSON: I don’t think it’s going to be the low or the high end of that zero or 20, so I’m going to go with three Chinese.
DING DING DING DING DING
RICHTER: What a wise man you are. Bingo. Right on. In addition to Liu Xiaobao, the current Nobel Prize Laureate for Peace, there were two how got ot together in 1957 for physics, so that makes for a total of three or four if you count the Dalai Lama who got the Peace Prize in 1989 but of course that would not be welcomed news by the Chinese.
HOBSON: No, indeed. Alright, and who’s 20, Stephan?
RICHTER: Well, this is a quiz about the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China. And the Nobels that these countries have won, and do you have a guess which of these countries has done most over the last 100 years in terms of science, education, literature, history, universities?
HOBSON: I feel like Brazil and India are the more developing of those three and that Russia has been sort of developed for longer, so I will go with Russia on the 20.
DING DING DING DING DING
RICHTER: Exactly right. The Russians have had 20, so the Russians take the cake on Nobel Prizes, but Brazil and India of course will say we’ll rather take our GDP growth rates, than Nobel Prizes because that over all is a little better, and they’d be right to say so.
HOBSON: Exactly, Stephan Richter, Editor-in-Chief of The Globalist. You can find out more about the world at theglobalist.com, they’ve got new features all the time. Stephan, thanks so much.
RICHTER: You’re very welcome, talk to you next time.
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