Not the Nobel Prize

In a week that the Nobel Prize was making the headlines for the wrong reasons I was pleased to be be in the audience at several venues and also at the final evening of an Amateur International Choir Competition and Festival held in Austria.

The judging panel comprised three judges. It struck me as odd that one of the three judges whose task was to award points was a Swede, since Sweden had a choir participating in the competition.

I dismissed this early thought as mild paranoia. You've seen too many controversial Olympic and World gymnastic and ice-dancing championships on TV,  and even the Eurovision Song Contest is not without its controversial results, I told myself.

Russians. Shouldn't they look more like dangerous spies?

Indonesians. How unwarlike they are. 

Here are the friendly Croatians.  

And here some delightful Czechs

Japanese ladies had their fans.

Norwegian ladies were well conducted.

And the winner of the €2,000 first prize is . . .
Sweden. 

I don't pretend to know the intricacies of the judging process and I am very pleased for the winners.

But

for some 

there will always be a tiny  but  

hanging like a shadow 

over the result.

But, as I said, it's not the Nobel Prize.