Spain's crown prince hands out Asturias Prizes

Oviedo, Agency
Ethics as a basis for overcoming the economic crisis was the focus at Friday's awards ceremony for the 30th edition of the Prince of Asturias Prizes in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo.

Presiding over the event at the Campoamor Theater in the capital of the Asturias region was Spain's Crown Prince Felipe, in whose name the awards are bestowed.

Each award is accompanied by 50,000 euros ($69,000) and a reproduction of a statuette designed by Joan Miro. The prizes are regarded as the Ibero-American world's equivalent of the Nobels.

The prince encouraged his fellow Spaniards to strengthen their institutions, "to seek moderation where excess has reigned" and to observe "ethics where there has been abuse" in order to overcome the crisis.

In the presence of the prizewinners, accompanied by his wife, Princess Letizia, and before Queen Sofia, the prince said that times of crisis like the present demand bringing "greater energy and drive" to public life.

In the name of the prizewinners, the recipient of the Letters award, Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, said "with sorrow" that the 21st century will be one of "ethical regression," though it might make scientific and technological progress, since "assertions of identity are intensifying" and "the solidarity among nations and within nations is weakening."

Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, who shared the Communication and Humanities prize with French colleague Alain Touraine, also warned that ideologies are "dense veils" that have people looking "without being able to see."

In that context, he said that Miguel de Cervantes was the "father and founder of the humanities" because he was the first author who tried to shred "the veils made of a patchwork of myths, masks, stereotypes, prejudices and borrowed interpretations."

For his part, Touraine acknowledged his debt to Hispanic culture and the strong bonds that unite him with the whole Latin world.

Then the coach of Spain's World Cup champion soccer team, Vicente del Bosque, said that his squad, winner of the Asturias prize for Sport, has made "modesty a weapon as powerful as its own dazzling style of play."

In his opinion, "the team that is receiving the Prince of Asturias Prize today is the repository of values that go beyond specific successes and their material value, but is also the legitimate heir of a tradition that does us honor."

The Spanish coach received a prolonged ovation together with the 10 players that accompanied him onstage to receive the prize, and for the moment protocol was overlooked as his predecessor, Luis Aragones, joined him to greet the public together with the soccer team.

Also receiving their prizes on the same stage Friday were the Catholic non-governmental organization Manos Unidas, recipient of the Concord prize; the archaeological team of China's Terracotta Warriors, Social Sciences; biochemists David Julius, Baruch Minke and Linda Watkins, Technical and Scientific Research; and The Transplantation Society and the National Transplant Organization, International Cooperation.