THE PRINCE OF ASTURIAS AWARDS CONFIRM THEIR COMMITMENT TO THE NOBLEST IDEALS
Oviedo broadcast today to the world a message of concord, culture and cooperation amongst nations. Once again the Prince of Asturias Award Ceremony, chaired by T.R.H. the Prince and Princess of Asturias, was a reference point for human excellence in ethics and the intellect.
The emblematic stage of the Campoamor Theatre hosted representatives of some of the major organisations of our times and individual figures outstanding in their own right. Paul Auster, Juan Ignacio Cirac, the National Geographic Society, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Pedro Almodóvar, Mary Robinson, UNICEF and the Spanish basketball team each added their names and status to the roll of honour, each embodying the pursuit of excellence and a special talent used in the service of others. Each received the warmest welcome of the citizenship of Asturias who thronged the streets of its capital Oviedo decked out for the most special of occasions.
The President of the Prince of Asturias Foundation, José Ramón Álvarez Rendueles, opened the speeches, providing a brief overview of the ´events of international scope and impact´ of the Laureates who had taken part in the XXV Anniversary of the Prince of Asturias Awards. "None of our activities would have been possible without the support, guidance and generosity of our patrons and trustees," he told the audience.
The President of the Foundation then looked towards the future, saying that "we are on the way to achieving our main objective: having our Prince of Asturias Awards become the most important cultural and scientific awards on the international stage," before going on to say, "we are likewise seeing how the dream expressed some years ago by H.R.H the Prince of Asturias - that our Awards should be a magnificent edifice belonging to all Spaniards as one - is also becoming reality".
American writer Paul Auster, Prince of Asturias Award for Letters, defended the claim that the value of art "lay in its very uselessness". The writer of Brooklyn Follies, Leviathan and other books announced that "the making of art is what distinguishes us from all other creatures who inhabit this planet, that it is, essentially, what defines us as human beings."
The New York novelist and film maker pointed to "the need to make, to create, to invent, is no doubt a fundamental impulse But to what end" A book has never prevented a bomb from falling on innocent civilians in the midst of war."
Talking on the future of the novel, the writer said that the essence of books is that they are for a single reader, which in his opinion explains, "the particular power of the novel and why in my opinion it will never die as a form. Every novel is an equal collaboration between the writer and the reader, and it is the only place in the world where two strangers can meet on terms of absolute intimacy."
Auster explained that he has spent his life engaging in conversation with people he had never seen, who he would never know, and that he hoped to be able to continue in the same vein until he breathed his final breath. "All I can say, and I say it with utmost certainly, is that I have felt this need since my earliest adolescence," he added.
After each of the Awards had been collected by the laureates from Prince Philip, it was the turn of William H. Gates. The joint founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, affirmed that the fight against disease in poor countries was, above all, a humanitarian question rather than one of economics or national security.
Gates considered it an honour to be in Oviedo to collect an Award which, he said, he would like to share with "everyone who is working to ensure that we all live up to the principle that all lives have equal value and we ought to treasure each one". He referred to cooperation as "what it is going to take to solve the big problems facing the world today."
Mary Robinson, Prince of Asturias Award Laureate for Social Science, was next to speak, and did so on immigration as the human face of globalisation. "We cannot fail these people. Recognising our common humanity in the faces of migrants can inspire us to reaffirm our common dignity and build diverse, pluralistic and democratic societies at home and ensure equitable development beyond our shores", she said, in a speech delivered entirely in Spanish.
The former president of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that winning the Award encouraged her in her work for "a more humane globalisation". Robinson was also glad to collect the Award in a green land lapped by the sea that reminded her of her own country, which had established many links with Spain, including the fact that both have undergone extraordinary change in the last decades. She stated that, "Spain has conducted a remarkable transition to the mature democracy it is today, due in no small part to the wisdom and counsel of the Royal House."
Ann M. Veneman, executive director of UNICEF, Prince of Asturias Award Laureate for Concord, declared that "on behalf of all the children around the world "UNICEF accepts this award with deep appreciation". During her speech she stated that "children are at the very heart of the Millennium Development Goals, from eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, to achieving universal primary education and gender equality, to reducing child and maternal mortality, and combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, to ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development."
Veneman spoke about her trips throughout the world where she witnessed firsthand the problems that affect humanity and met people dying form AIDS, survivors of the genocide in Rwanda, tsunami orphans in India and Si Lanka and young Romanian women forced into prostitution in Ireland by sexual traffickers. "These children, and millions like them, are the children who call on our collective conscience and who depend on our collective action," she said.
Lastly, H.R.H. the Prince of Asturias took the floor, going over each of the Laureates achievements and praising the virtues upheld by the Prince of Asturias Foundation and its Awards, going on to say that these virtues have "fostered generosity over self-interests, concord over division, peaceful coexistence over fanaticism, commitment over indifference."
For the heir to the Spanish throne, the Awards and the Foundation behind them represent "the same virtues that have guided the lives of the Spanish over recent years: determination and caution, firm convictions, faith and trust in our common future." These virtues have been "developed because of the freedom and stability guaranteed under our Constitution."
Prince Phillip, who was accompanied by his wife, Princess Letizia, also praised the shows of support the Prince of Asturias Foundation has received from "the great majority of Spaniards that consider the Awards as a great Spanish cultural and moral heritage for the world at large."
H.R.H. the Prince of Asturias also made special mention of the support the Royal Family has lent the Foundation in its ongoing pursuit of culture, saying that "it is work in the service of Spain, in the service of our progress and our projection abroad as a great nation. This is the main reason that inpired H.M. the King in his support of the founding of our organisation." He also defended the need to proclaim to our youth the values championed by the Foundation "so that they grow in statute with these virtues, so that they turn their back on potential despair and so that they join the great adventure of life in peace, plenitude and responsibility with willingness." Recalling Julián Marías, he also proclaimed his commitment, alongside H.R.H. the Princess of Asturias, to "pass on to our children all the weight of these emotions and lessons, the emotive heritage of unforgettable memories. Because we want hope, the desire for a fairer world, and the tireless quest for a mankind of free men and women to blossom in their hearts".
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