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have the satisfaction to have among us here today, together with the leading representatives of the
Provisional Directive Committee for the formation of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary
Unity Party, have praised the great work carried out by the Spanish military forces.
We thus celebrate the step ahead that the people of Guatemala have taken in favour of their
country and the whole of Central America. Efforts should now be aimed at the improvement of
social conditions and the progressive welfare of Guatemalans. That is how long-desired peace will
become consolidated.
Two human beings for whommusic has been the passion and very sense of their life —from the
enthusiasm of their youthful spirit, with which they unrelentingly search for, and enjoy beauty—
Yehudi Menuhin and Mstislav Rostropovich, have jointly received the Prince of Asturias Award
for Concord.
Both have known rootlessness and exile, but have fought against that dispossession with the
bloodless and marvellous weapon of music, whose purest sounds stem from the hands, but are
dictated by the heart.
We recognize in them something more than their quality as extraordinary and prestigious
performers, more than their deserved fame as conductors and instrumentalists. We also, and most
especially, acknowledge the deeply human dimension of their personal conduct, the constant
help they have offered the persecuted and the helpless of the world, their concerts in benefit of
human rights, and of national and international organizations striving for the peace and freedom
of peoples.
Moreover, both of them are also great friends of Spain, whose music they have performed
many times. We are proud of this friendship and of their constant expressions of kindness to our
country; and we are truly happy for their synthesis of art and human values, oriented towards the
achievement of concord.
There are times when a team, within the context of a great modern entrepreneurial organization,
transforms some essential aspect of our life with its everyday
activities. Our life today is, to a large extent, structured by the
vital connecting chord of journalism, a vehicle for knowledge,
information and communication.
This exciting task has been elevated to its highest degree
by the cnn television network —Prince of Asturias Award
for Communications and Humanities, together with the
President of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel— making real
the old dreams of instant communication between human
beings, wherever they may be; of breaking down frontiers and
distances; of knowing what is happening in each and every
corner of the planet; and, by doing so, finally turning the Earth
into that suggestive metaphor we call the “global village”.
Its success, the result of an idea that is as audacious as it is radically innovative in the world
of communications, shows that failure is only experienced by those who never run risks. We are
today paying tribute to this difficult task; to this risk of life itself which often accompanies the
network’s splendid team of journalists wherever the most vibrant news occurs, or wherever the
events that signal the great changes in our societies take place.
For us, the Spanish people, and for the more than three hundred and fifty million Spanish-
speakers in the world, it is extraordinarily satisfactory that the universal dimension covered by
the cnn has now grown to include broadcasting in Spanish. The recognition of the importance
and extension of our language is a sign of sensitivity and future vision to which we cannot remain
indifferent.
Authenticity in the exercise of politics and literature is the characteristic feature of President
Václav Havel, joint Prince of Asturias Laureate for Communications and Humanities.
The nobility of his spirit shines as much in his poetry, his drama and his essays as in the political
“We are also pleased and proud that our
fellow compatriots have been in charge of the
international military misión that has striven,
first and foremost, to avoid clashes between the
contenders and, ultimately, to achieve peace.”
24
th
O
ctober
1997
