- Speech of Felipe VI. The King avoids the Catalan conflict and asks Leonor to maintain the "loyalty" of the Crown with Spain
- Princess Leonor in her debut "I promise to serve Spain and all Spaniards"
- Vespers: All eyes on Peter Brook
- Salman Kahn. "We must end the summer holidays"
- Political chronicle: Don Felipe 'protects' the Princess of Asturias
Spain is going through days of fury, but it does not mean that the State lacks tools to represent its dignity. The best test could be seen this afternoon at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo, the stage of the ceremony of the Princess of Asturias Awards, at which time Javier Solana , president of the Prado Board (award in the Communication and Humanities), he read his speech to the Kings and the Princess of Asturias, Doña Leonor.
Solana, one of the most important Spanish politicians in the recent history of the European Union, said some apparently kind but important words as a message of concord: "Ramón Gaya, painter who lived in exile, said that the Prado seen in the distance ' it is never presented as a museum but as a kind of homeland, 'understanding this term not as a limitation of borders but as a place capable of sheltering the human soul, which is why the Prado is not just the city of Madrid being there. That is why it is not just a Spanish museum, being part of each and every one of the Spaniards. It is an institution that is an essential part of the common heritage of humanity and a compendium of the best contribution of Spain to universal culture. " "Spain becomes a more tolerant country when it contemplates itself in Prado's masterpieces," said Solana.
A nice touch: the Prado prize was collected by the president of its Foundation and the director of the Museum. Miguel Falomir, next to the head of museum room guards. And a memory: vaguely, Solana's speech was like an addendum to the words that Junker, Tusk and Tajani pronounced on this same stage on behalf of the EU, two years ago, in that October in which Carles Puigdemont falsely proclaimed the Republic of Catalonia Then, as now, the Princess of Asturias Awards tried to tell the Spanish that their democracy is not a failed system and that their contribution to the world is as valuable as that of any other. The Prado Museum is a good way to illustrate it.
Unexpected Guests
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Auster, Banville, Beard
Some color notes on the day of the Princess of Asturias: three former Princess of Asturias awards, the three English-language writers, have been to Oviedo these days. The first one, Paul Auster, was a predictable guest, since his wife, Siri Hustvedt, is the winner of this year's Literature Prize (his daughter Sophie also accompanied them and gave a concert on Thursday). More surprising was seeing the Campoamor Theater to the Irish novelist John Banville and the English historian Mary Beard, who arrived together in Oviedo. A secret: Banville, who is a friendly and accessible man, often takes his memories about Oviedo and his sympathy for Queen Doña Leticia every time she speaks with a Spanish.
The other Englishman of the day was Peter Brook, who, in the audience of the Kings in the morning, was fiddling with Doña Leonor and Doña Sofía like a bohemian grandfather would do. It was a spontaneous and charming image. Brook has been a blessing for the awards: prankster, participatory and gentlemanly.
Three winners of this edition took the floor at the Campoamor Theater ceremony, in addition to Javier Solana: the writer Siri Hustvedt (prize of the Letters), Salman Kahn (prize of International Cooperation) and Sandra Myrna Díaz (prize of Scientific and Technological Research ) had four minutes each to explain to the world . On the bench were Joan Chory (who shares the Research Prize with Myrna), the skier Lindsay Vonn (Sports), the playwright Peter Brook (Arts), the sociologist Alejandro Portes (Social Sciences) and the representatives of the city of Gdansk ( Concord).
What did they tell? Of all there was, Siri Hustvedt, one of the most accessible winners on the eve of the Princess of Asturias, spoke of his own: the value of stories (of literature) in the contemporary world and their need. And he told a story, as is logical: "We live in a world where people increasingly know more about less things. This has its advantages. Specialized knowledge has given rise to great technical advances, powerful medicines, complex theories about language and culture, and impressive works of art. It has also led to dead ends in various disciplines and fantasies that an idea is novel when it is not . After giving a talk to neurologists in a Boston hospital, a scientist asked me why someone like him, who had spent his life studying brain scans of Alzheimer's patients, should read literature, philosophy and history, I replied that he would help him in his work, he would see what he now did not see and identify weaknesses in his models that had never occurred to him. "
So are Hustvedt's novels, a mixture of memory, neurology and incomprehensible realities that, at some point, click and become clear . "Neither science is high, intellectual and masculine, nor arts and humanities are inferior, emotional and feminine," the writer finished. "We must learn that authority and wisdom come in many formats, sexes, colors, shapes and sizes. We must learn from each other and reconsider."
The speech of Salman Kahn, the founder and representative of the Kahn Academy, also had some story. For those who are not aware: Kahn offers ideas, advice and method to 100,000 students and 250,000 teachers around the world without any business.
"I will share with you the story of Sultana. Seven or eight years ago, I was a brilliant high school student in Afghanistan. However, the Taliban captured their city and forbade girls to go to school, threatening them with violence even if they tried. Sultana had to stay at home, cooking and cleaning every day for more than 10 hours. Fortunately, her brother-in-law saw that he was curious and bought him a laptop. "
Sultana thus connected with the Kahn Academy and rebelled against her destiny: "She ended up going through every moment she was awake, when she was not doing housework, browsing the website . She soon realized that she was learning more than her brothers in the Taliban-controlled schools. He learned from elementary math
up to algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculation. Then he learned biology, chemistry and physics. When he was 17, he had decided on his own that he wanted to study in the United States to become theoretical physics. So he lied to his parents and traveled to Pakistan to take the SAT, which is a college entrance exam in the United States, because he was not offered the possibility of doing so in his country. "
Sultana passed the exam but found no visa or tuition money. Until his story came to The New York Times and moved a few hearts. Today, the girl studies in California. "Many people assume that technology, however productive it may be, can be
also a force to dehumanize society. That is a very real risk, but, in my opinion, it doesn't have to be that way . In fact, I believe that technology can be used to make our lives more, and not less, human. Imagine a world where class time is no longer dedicated to passively listening to the lesson, but for children to collaborate and work at their own time and pace. "
We only need the speech of Sandra Myrna Díaz, who as a biologist, connected to the Princess of Asturias Awards with the present through the concern for environmental deterioration. "The aspiration to consume and accumulate always more overwhelms the universal right to enjoy a full relationship with the tapestry of life, " said the Argentine biologist. "This is because, following the laws of physics and biology, if too many threads are devoured or discarded at one site of the tapestry, cracks and holes inevitably occur at other tissue sites."
And he continued: "And we are not talking about a few holes, there are more and more holes and they are very poorly distributed, in a process of global environmental injustice on an unprecedented scale," continued the winner. "What do we do then? Do we give up a passion that has been going on for millions of years? Our studies say that it is not necessarily; they indicate that there is very little time and it will be very difficult, but we are still in time to rethink this tapestry and retrain at".
Among the public were representatives of some of the most important companies in the Spanish economy, including some of the large energy groups, patrons of the Princess of Asturias Foundation. Somehow, the message especially appealed to them.
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