Alternative Nobel Prize
Brazilian Francisco "Chico" Whitaker Ferreira, one of the pioneers of the World Social Forum, and the International Poetry Festival of Medellin were presented Sept. 28 with the Right Livelihood Award, known as the Alternative Nobel Prize. Whitaker Ferreira, a Roman Catholic activist, was awarded the prize for "a lifetime’s dedicated work for social justice that has strengthened democracy in Brazil and helped give birth to the World Social Forum, showing that ‘another world is possible.’"
Sunday, November 12, 2006
LATIN AMERICA
Inter Press Service. Oct 26, 2006
Brazilian Francisco "Chico" Whitaker Ferreira, one of the pioneers of the World Social Forum, and the International Poetry Festival of Medellin were presented Sept. 28 with the Right Livelihood Award, known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.
Whitaker Ferreira, a Roman Catholic activist, was awarded the prize for "a lifetime’s dedicated work for social justice that has strengthened democracy in Brazil and helped give birth to the World Social Forum, showing that ‘another world is possible.’"
The International Poetry Festival of Medellin, which was founded in 1991 in this northwestern Colombian city, was awarded the prize for "showing how creativity, beauty, free expression and community can flourish amongst and overcome even deeply entrenched fear and violence."
The recipients of the Right Livelihood Awards, founded in 1980 and presented annually in the Swedish Parliament, were announced at a press conference in Stockholm by their founder Jacob von Uexkull, a Swedish-German professional philatelist and former member of the European Parliament.
The US$275,000-prize will be awarded Dec. 8 in the Swedish Parliament two days before the Nobel Prize ceremony.