3
P
rince
of
A
sturias
A
wards
1981-2014. S
peeches
Laureates. Excerpts
Before offering answers, a public figure has the obligation to listen to the questions of his
times. And the message that resounds on countries’ agendas, particularly on those of peripheral
countries, is sufficiently eloquent for us not to carry on ignoring it. The heart of the matter is
to know why the policies of the nineties —promising growth across the board and cooperative
redistribution of the world’s wealth— have failed.
The living standards of a thousand million human beings who are struggling right now to
survive on less that one American dollar a day are identical to over twenty years ago, or worse.
Half the world’s population have less than two American dollars a day to live on, while 14% of
the richest sector of humanity control over 75% of the material wealth. The difference between
the richest 20% and the poorest 20% was a multiple of thirty in the sixties; now, at the turn of the
millennium, it has rocketed to being 74 times higher. We are talking about stepping backwards
here, not just marking time. In fifty-four countries,
per capita
income is lower than in 1990. Life
expectancy in thirty-four nations has dropped; in twenty-one countries there are more people
suffering hunger; and in fourteen, more children than before die before their fifth birthday. What
future is there for peace on a planet oppressed by apathy and indifference.
The international community must assume its collective responsibility and enlist in the only
war in which we shall all end up as winners: the good fight against poverty and social exclusion.
The fundamental weapon for this is already known: furthering economic, social, cultural and
political democracy. International trade should be rid of protectionist practices, which we all know
grants privileges to a few innefficient yet powerful groups.
Brazil has signed up with tenacity and determination in the struggle for an international
trading system that benefits competitive exporters and provides flexibility for the adoption of
development policies. However, we cannot be naïve. Subordinating development, commerce and
international relations to basic issues of humanism is urgently required: What progress? What for?
With what consequences? Who for?.
The only real antidote to poverty is a society that does not create more exclusion. Abject poverty
and hunger are not “technical glitches”. They will not be eliminated by inventing a new machine
nor by market measures. The utopia of achieving human dignity by grandiose promises based on
technology has run its course. This means that democratizing progress should be enshrined in
the present. It should not remain as the eternal promise for the future. Development is a delicate
combination of choices and opportunities rather than a pre-established destination. Human life
is sacred.
Luiz Inácio
Lula
da Silva
—
Prince of Asturias
Award for International
Cooperation
2003
Luiz Inácio
Lula
de Silva was
President of the Federal Republic
of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.
—
Excerpt from the speech given on
the occasion of receiving the Prince
of Asturias Award for International
Cooperation on 24/10/2003.
