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left elbow —which determined his style of running— and his heart filled with all the enthusiasm
in the world, until he became one of the best long distance runners of all time.
As we have recalled on this very stage on previous occasions, sporting success is even greater
when, as he does, individuals make the effort to pass on their most ambitious dreams by helping
others, above all the underprivileged.
Gebrselassie is very sensitive to the deficiencies and difficulties his countrymen suffer each day
and so has been the driving force behind The Great Ethiopian Run initiative, the aim of which is
to promote the mass participation of Ethiopians in athletics events. He has also built schools for
young children and is a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Millennium Development
Goals and the United Nations Development Programme.
I am therefore sure that Haile Gebrselassie would like to draw the attention of us all to the
fact that in his country, Ethiopia, and in Kenya and Djibouti, hundreds of thousands of Somalian
refugees are desperately seeking aid. They are starving to death. As I speak these words here, on
this evening of culture, of concord, they sound even more dramatic.
We cannot return home without reflecting on this unjust, cruel tragedy. We cannot remain
unmoved by and indifferent to so much suffering. The people who are starving to death in Somalia
and in the surrounding countries do not merit this fate. We must all assume responsibility and
help put an end to this humanitarian crisis, as do so many aid
workers and volunteers through their generous work at great
personal risk, including the two Spanish aid workers who, we
hope, will soon return safe and sound.
The Award for Concord has been bestowed on the people
who have, since last March, been working round the clock at
the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in order to contain
the radiation leakages and who have so rightfully earned the
title of “Heroes of Fukushima”. As the Jury has stated, through this Award, our Foundation also
wishes to highlight “the serene, self-sacrificing response of Japanese society as a whole” following
the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that razed the country’s north-eastern coast.
Through their bravery and generosity, the Heroes of Fukushima represent all the selflessness
stirring us to do good, to renounce everything, even one’s own life, for the sake of others, a spirit we
would like to see multiplied wherever necessary to bring an end to pain and injustice. Overcoming
the loss of their loved ones and their property, the suffering caused by a desperately dramatic
situation, they immediately confronted the threat to the damaged power plant with magnanimity,
a sense of duty and a civic conscience.
This evening, we once more express our support and affection for the people of Japan, whose
huge losses in terms of both human lives and physical damage and whose exemplary behaviour in
the face of adversity have moved us all. Spain feels one with Japan in its suffering and sympathises
with its populace, who have shown how to cope with this disaster with temperance, discipline
and serenity. We are touched by the behaviour of the “Heroes of Fukushima”. We are thrilled by
their courage and astounded by their fortitude. For all these reasons, we pay tribute today to their
immense spirit of sacrifice and the example they have given the world.
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear Laureates,
This year we commemorate the bicentennial of the death of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos,
a key figure in the Spanish Enlightenment. His life’s work is a tribute to the noblest of patriotic
sentiments and the struggle against the evils and ignorance blighting his age. He was led always
by the guiding lights of knowledge, morals and ethics. On his appointment as Minister for Justice
and Mercy, he wrote: “I shall do good; I shall avoid all the evil I am able to.” Those words define
this great Spaniard who contributed so much to the progress of Asturias and whose ideas are a
yardstick for us all, all the more so in these difficult times, so similar to those he himself endured.
We are certainly not living in an easy time, but it is our time, the time we have been given to live.
We are today living through a crisis, an already lengthy crisis, that affects us all deeply and has serious
“Our Foundation helps to keep alive, in these
difficult times, the values and goals for which
it was instituted more than thirty years ago.”
21
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