Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

P rince of A sturias A wards 1981-2014. S peeches 7 Torga wrote, “a poet’s voice may have no owner if it wishes to work for the truth. Once subjugated, it loses all the charm, prestige and dynamism that make it desirable, convincing and redemptive.” Günter Gras thus combats the most serious contemporary errors: totalitarian, ostracising nationalism, blind, headlong “progress”, trauma-producing technologies, the oppression of the weak, attacks on the environment, abuse of power and basically anything that violates what we recognize as the essential aspirations of mankind. We need —and will continue to need— critical, independent intellectuals like Günter Grass who denounce the extremes of unforeseeable consequences that society may go to when dazzled only by the blinding light of material progress. The continual progress of scientific and technical research and its discoveries fills the world that we live in with enormous hope. We are pleased, therefore, that the Award for Technical and Scientific Research has gone to two great men who have achieved enormously important breakthroughs in the field: Spanish surgeon Enrique Moreno and Mexican neuroscientist Ricardo Miledi. Professor Moreno is head of the Department of Surgical Pathology, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine and a world authority in the field of transplants. More precisely, he is a pioneer in liver transplants and in surgery for gastrointestinal, pancreatic and liver conditions. In view of their importance and seriousness, we rejoice above all in the progress that has been made in detecting and treating these conditions. We share with him the hope for a rise in the number of patients who are cured by surgery, the future of which is ensured by continual technical improvements and the increase in organ donations. It is a well-known fact that Spain now has the highest rate of organ donation in the world, which is an honour for us and something we are proud of. Ricardo Miledi is a researcher at the University of California and the Autonomous University of Mexico, and many of his discoveries, especially those related to the mechanisms of nerve-cell contact, are now considered classic by the world of science, as indeed are those he has made concerning the response to and effect of drugs and toxic substances on the nervous system. We feel that his idea that neuron communication is “at the heart of all the brain’s functions, such as thinking and loving” is very revealing. It creates a useful, emotionally inspiring link between scientific advancement and human behaviour, which is fortunately being further investigated and better understood from one day to the next. Solutions are thus being found for many mental illnesses and, as a result, medical science is imbued with the humanism that has always been its hallmark and which has today, in our Laureates, two of its finest representatives in the world. The award to Ricardo Miledi provides me with the opportunity of sending a special message of regards to Mexico, a country dearly beloved to us. The heavy flooding that has recently occurred there has left hundreds of dead and thousands of victims in its painful wake, as well as incalculable material damage. We feel wholeheartedly for the suffering of the Mexican people and are confident and hopeful of a rapid recovery from the damage brought about by the disaster. We do not forget here in Spain the debt of gratitude we have towards the Mexican people, who, with great generosity and affection, gave refuge to the emigrants and exiles of the Civil War; such hospitality brought about productive cultural exchange that should never be allowed to peter out. The Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation has been given to four astronauts of different nationalities: Chiaki Mukai from Japan, Pedro Duque from Spain, John Glenn from the USA and Valery Polyakov from Russia, who is the person who has spent the longest period of time in space. Given their ages, Polyakov and Glenn represent maturity and experience. Mukai and Duque, given theirs, represent the hopes and tenacity of youth. All four of them demonstrate to us that human beings, in the major undertakings of mankind, are valued above all for their willpower and lofty aspirations. This Award is so meaningful because it coincides so precisely with its name and description; that long-awaited cooperation between the different peoples of the planet that our Laureates have always desired. This is so because Spain and the European Union as a whole are present, in the