6
O
viedo
| C
ampoamor
T
heatre
|
Each day, millions of people the world over experience the beneficial effect of music, its ability
to bring us together, to free our hearts, to move us. These abilities become manifest in these young
orchestras. What is more, however, and as their creator, the composer José Antonio Abreu, has
stated, the benefits to be reaped from these orchestras, which extend to society as a whole, are most
salient in the young people of Venezuela, through the feelings of solidarity and self-esteem that
surge inexorably within them.
And so the “
Sistema
” (as it is popularly known), which has provided a musical education to
hundreds of thousands of children many of whom are victims of poverty, alienation and social
isolation, has accomplished the most challenging goals that Maestro Abreu originally set for
himself. To recall just one example right now, let us highlight that of Gustavo Dudamel, one of his
most outstanding and gifted students, who at the mere age of 27 has already conducted leading
orchestras worldwide: a veritable symbol of what music and work undertaken with faith, sacrifice
and dedication can achieve.
The Award for International Cooperation has been bestowed on four organizations leading
the fight against malaria in Africa. These are the Centro de Investigaçao em Saúde de Manhiça,
in Mozambique, created and directed by the Spanish doctors
Pedro Alonso and his wife Clara Menéndez; the Ifakara Health
Research and Development Centre, in Tanzania; the Malaria
Research and Training Center, in Mali; and the Kintampo
Health Research Centre, in Ghana.
The figures regarding this disease are as resounding as they
are shocking: malaria threatens forty per cent of the world’s
population and is endemic in over one hundred countries; it
is the cause of more than a million deaths each year; its main
victims are children; and it is considered one of the major
reasons why Africa is underdeveloped. Hence the importance of the work these four organizations
carry out in the areas of the African continent that constitute what has been called the “Nation of
the Poor”; a nation without geographical frontiers, where hunger, conflicts of all kinds, disease
and despair have taken root, and where, by living in such tragic conditions, the freedom for each
person to choose their own destiny does not exist.
Poverty can be found on all continents, in all countries worldwide. But, of all these, Africa
suffers the most atrocious and the most absurd of poverties. The starving of Africa are dying on
a continent that also nurtures lush crops and is home to most of the planet’s energy and mineral
resources. The four meritorious organizations we are distinguishing here today with special
admiration work together heroically and humbly, “like a small family”, as Dr Pedro Alonso has
stated. But we know that they are much more than just that; that they are moved by a sublime
ambition: that of eradicating pain and suffering, of conquering a disease which vents its fury on the
most vulnerable to overcome once and for all the terrible combination of poverty and disease that
thwarts progress, and even hope, in so many impoverished places in the world.
The Award for Technical and Scientific Research has been conferred on five scientists who are
experts in Materials Science and Nanotechnology for their extraordinary merits. This discipline
works with matter on an atomic scale to study, design and produce novel devices, materials and
systems with unique, controlled properties that are also —curiously enough— fundamental for
the sustainable development of the planet and in fighting poverty and disease. Their work makes
a decisive contribution to human health, energy savings and the use of new sources of clean
energy, while enabling fascinating challenges to be addressed and technological breakthroughs
to be made.
Among the most serious issues mankind faces are environmental conservation and the fight
against climate change. In this respect, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, and especially
oil, to sustainable levels and putting a brake on the threat of global warming together constitute a
major scientific and technological challenge.
“The mission of art transcends the horizon of
aesthetics and vigorously projects itself onto
other fields such as humanistic education,
social promotion and ethical commitment.”
24
th
O
ctober
2008
