Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

P rince of A sturias A wards 1981-2014. S peeches 11 “Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Your Majesty has done much good and has made peace in one of the most conflictive areas of the world, which in these moments lives with the hope of peace. And in large part, this is due to your role as an exceptional mediator and pacifier. My father, HMThe King, declared so last year before the Jordanian Parliament. This has also been recognized by the Prime Minister of Israel, Isaac Rabin, who shared the Award for International Cooperation last year with President Arafat. In proposing Your Majesty as a candidate for this Award for Concord, Mr Rabin wrote these words, “The King of Jordan has advanced, with initiative and courage, and even at great personal risk, a commitment to achieving peace in the region, in spite of many difficulties and obstacles.” In truth, Sire, your zeal for balance and your pacifying courage could be classed as titanic. For making peace does not only imply struggling to reach agreements which are beneficial for the well-being and development of one’s own people, a praiseworthy act if ever there was one, but also for the region as a whole. That goal, that of obtaining a tolerant, supportive and productive peace, has characterized Your Majesty’s personal career (and your family’s), leading the Jordanian people and inspiring by your example and your character all those events that are occurring in the Middle East and the entire Arab world which represent important steps forward for peace and harmony in the world. All these struggles are now bearing fruit and soon the children of the Middle East will grow up without hearing the anger of the guns. The swords will be beaten into ploughshares, as the Prophet Isaiah foresaw, and the energies that until now had been used in war will be employed to eradicate inequality, hunger, injustice, poverty and pain from the Holy Land. Perhaps only the voice of the poets can express, from the bottom of our hearts, our desires and our feelings for the Middle East and for a world which, on the threshold of a new millennium, looks to the future with fear and hope. With words filled with tenderness, free and shining words from these verses of the Peruvian Manuel Scorza, I speak from the heart to the hearts of all: Mientras alguien padezca, la rosa no podrá ser bella; mientras alguien mire el pan con envidia, el trigo no podrá dormir; mientras los mendigos lloren de frío en la noche mi corazón no sonreirá . (As long as someone is suffering, the rose cannot be fair; as long as someone watches the bread with envy, the wheat cannot sleep; as long as beggars weep with cold in the night my heart will not smile.) Many thanks. “Nothing can turn human beings back when they are determined to follow a path, to perform a task with a steadfast vocation.”