Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

3 P rince of A sturias A wards 1981-2014. S peeches Laureates. Excerpts Before offering answers, a public figure has the obligation to listen to the questions of his times. And the message that resounds on countries’ agendas, particularly on those of peripheral countries, is sufficiently eloquent for us not to carry on ignoring it. The heart of the matter is to know why the policies of the nineties —promising growth across the board and cooperative redistribution of the world’s wealth— have failed. The living standards of a thousand million human beings who are struggling right now to survive on less that one American dollar a day are identical to over twenty years ago, or worse. Half the world’s population have less than two American dollars a day to live on, while 14% of the richest sector of humanity control over 75% of the material wealth. The difference between the richest 20% and the poorest 20% was a multiple of thirty in the sixties; now, at the turn of the millennium, it has rocketed to being 74 times higher. We are talking about stepping backwards here, not just marking time. In fifty-four countries, per capita income is lower than in 1990. Life expectancy in thirty-four nations has dropped; in twenty-one countries there are more people suffering hunger; and in fourteen, more children than before die before their fifth birthday. What future is there for peace on a planet oppressed by apathy and indifference. The international community must assume its collective responsibility and enlist in the only war in which we shall all end up as winners: the good fight against poverty and social exclusion. The fundamental weapon for this is already known: furthering economic, social, cultural and political democracy. International trade should be rid of protectionist practices, which we all know grants privileges to a few innefficient yet powerful groups. Brazil has signed up with tenacity and determination in the struggle for an international trading system that benefits competitive exporters and provides flexibility for the adoption of development policies. However, we cannot be naïve. Subordinating development, commerce and international relations to basic issues of humanism is urgently required: What progress? What for? With what consequences? Who for?. The only real antidote to poverty is a society that does not create more exclusion. Abject poverty and hunger are not “technical glitches”. They will not be eliminated by inventing a new machine nor by market measures. The utopia of achieving human dignity by grandiose promises based on technology has run its course. This means that democratizing progress should be enshrined in the present. It should not remain as the eternal promise for the future. Development is a delicate combination of choices and opportunities rather than a pre-established destination. Human life is sacred. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation 2003 Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva was President of the Federal Republic of Brazil from 2003 to 2010. — Excerpt from the speech given on the occasion of receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on 24/10/2003.