Alternative Nobel Prizes go to Brazil, USA, India and Colombia
This year's Alternative Nobel Prizes honor Brazilian Chico Whitaker Ferreira, American Daniel Ellsberg, Indian Ruth Manorama and the organizers of the Colombian "Festival Internacional de Poesia de Medellin".
Chico Whitaker Ferreira is honored for his lifetime achievement "dedicated to social justice and strengthened democracy in Brazil". He made a decisive contribution to the creation of the World Social Forum and showed that "another world is possible".
Daniel Ellsberg was chosen by the jury for his attitude of "always putting peace and truth first, even at great personal risk, and arranging his life to serve as an example and inspiration for others to do the same." The former Pentagon employee had leaked the Pentagon Papers - classified information about US government misstatements regarding the Vietnam War.
Ruth Manorama is honored for her decades-long commitment to the rights of women from the untouchable caste – the Dalit.
Finally, the Colombian Festival Internacional de Poesia de Medellin has shown how creativity, beauty, free expression and a sense of community can flourish even under conditions of fear and violence and even overcome them. At the event, which has been taking place since 1991, around eighty international artists read to an audience of up to 200,000 in the streets of the city every year. The initiators wanted to "give back their city" to the residents of Medellin, which was and is characterized by violence and oppression.
73 nominees from forty countries were nominated this year, with 39 from developing countries. The prize money of around two million Swedish kroner - around 220,000 euros will be divided among the recipients.
