Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

7 P rince of A sturias A wards 1981-2014. S peeches Speech IV 1 Once more Asturias extols its universality with the granting of the Awards that bear the name of their Prince, a clear bond between the successor to the Crown and this generous, robust and hospitable land, which is an example of industriousness for all of the Spanish people. 1 In the distance, on the other side of the ocean that so many Asturians have crossed throughout the years, I know that my son feels nostalgia and regret for not being among us in order to bestow the Awards, congratulate those who receive them and express his gratitude for your attendance. He is kept from us by unavoidable academic obligations in another faraway place, which imply sacrifice and concession on his part, and it is precisely in his outstanding performance as a student, in the arduous challenge of being faced with an unfamiliar world outside of Spain, heretofore unknown to him, from where, as a young Spaniard of his times, he proffers you the finest tribute that ought to be rendered. These Prince of Asturias Awards have been created to acknowledge and exalt the qualities and merits of the individuals and entities that, within the different areas that these honours comprise, have earned the admiration and respect of us all. No person is more than another if they do not accomplish more than the other. Yet you have all distinguished yourselves with your accomplishments. The assiduous dedication of scientific and technical investigation, the noble tasks of creation in the arts, literature and sciences, communication between people and communities and cooperation with our fellow nations of America, the exaltation, in short, of activities of the spirit constitutes an indispensable and fundamental condition for the development of the society in which we live and means that we may also contribute to the well-being of the entire world. We cannot move ahead through the complex weave of history in which we are presently immersed without the lucid, unwavering, sometimes anguished, always joint endeavour of those like yourselves; those who today receive the Prince of Asturias Awards, who have given up the best of your intelligence and effort to the service of progress and peace. On this score, from among the Laureates and as a summation and compendium of all of them, allow me to make special mention of the Presidents of Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela —represented here by their respective Chancellors— whose bold efforts in favour of peace open up the way to concord and understanding between peoples, as well as making progress toward freedom; efforts which merit our support and applause, as the Jury has well understood upon granting them such a high distinction. In all of its scope and at every one of its levels, culture ought not to be only an instrumental possibility correlated to and denotative of our condition of social development, but rather something more profound and lasting: the proposal of an ethical conduct. Culture and ethics occasionally seem to be terms removed from one another, independent, or perhaps even opposed. Nevertheless, they must be inseparable, because the former would not amount to much if it were not inspired by the latter and stimulated by the tremendous strength of the spirit. 1 On completing his secondary studies, HM King Felipe VI spent his final pre-university school year at Lakefield College School in Canada. King Juan Carlos I presided over the Awards Ceremony and delivered a speech. “In the distance, on the other side of the ocean that so many Asturians have crossed throughout the years, I know that my son feels nostalgia and regret for not being among us.” Watch video