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Fulbright Association
1100 G Street, N.W.
Suite 525
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 347-5543
Fax: (202) 347-6540 |
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Fulbright Association President R. Fenton-May Presents Fulbright Prize
to Fernando Henrique Cardoso |
| With
the continuing changes in global geopolitics, the Fulbright Association and
its 7,000 members maintain a strong commitment to the importance of the
Fulbright program of international educational and cultural exchanges. |
| An
integral part of the Fulbright Association’s work is the clear
articulation of the critical role that our Congress has in providing the
funding necessary to ensure that Senator Fulbright’s vision for
international exchanges remains as vital today as when the program was
conceived 57 years ago. All of us who have
received Fulbright grants believe that people and nations must gain greater
mutual understanding of cross-cultural differences to promote peace and to
improve the quality of life for all who inhabit this planet. We know the Fulbright program is a powerful tool in helping to
achieve these goals. |
| The
Fulbright Prize was created to recognize those who have made outstanding
contributions towards furthering mutual understanding among peoples and who
have helped to break barriers that divide humankind. Fulbright Prize laureates exemplify the purposes of the international
educational and cultural exchange program created by the late Senator
Fulbright. |
| Since
its founding in 1993, the Fulbright Prize has been awarded to a group of
distinguished world leaders. Early
laureates included South African President Nelson Mandela and President
Jimmy Carter. Recent
laureates have been United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata. |
| Brown
University President Ruth Simmons, the 2003 Fulbright Prize Selection
Committee chairperson, was joined in her work by an eminent international
committee. The Fulbright
Association appreciates the work of this committee, which made its choice in
June, selecting as our laureate a distinguished leader from this hemisphere,
who throughout the 1980s and 1990s made possible significant changes to
enhance democracy and human rights. |
| Dr.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso is a leading figure advocating enlightened
policies in
Brazil
and internationally. He was
president of
Brazil
from 1995 until the end of his second term in January 2003. He was instrumental in developing and implementing an anti-inflation
plan for
Brazil
that brought down inflation from stratospheric levels to single digits in
just
24 months. As inflation is a
very perverse tax, especially on the poor, more than 20 million consumers
were added to the Brazilian market as a result of controlling inflation and
about as many were lifted above the poverty line.
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| Dr.
Cardoso has advocated human rights, the rule of law, and the universal
values of equality, tolerance, and human dignity. He has demonstrated an abiding concern about inequality and obstacles
to human development. The
successful programs that he championed in
Brazil
helped to sharpen the world’s focus on the need to address vigorously, and
to dedicate meaningful resources to, the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
At the outset of Dr. Cardoso’s administration, about 86 percent of
children between seven and 14 were enrolled in school. By the end of his administration, that percentage had risen to 97
percent. Infant mortality was
reduced by
25 percent, and AIDS-related deaths were reduced by 64 percent, thanks to
Brazil’s novel program considered a model by the World Health Organization. |
| On
the economic front, under Dr. Cardoso’s leadership, the telecom,
electricity distribution, and other industries were privatized, along with
state enterprises that were previously inefficient and that are now new
world-class competitors. We
speak of companies such as Companhia Vale do Rio Doce in mining, CVRD, which
today is probably the world’s lowest cost producer of steel, and Embraer,
which makes commuter planes. |
| Let
me say with pride also that Dr. Cardoso and Mrs. Cardoso are no strangers to
the Fulbright exchange program. In
1986, Fernando Henrique Cardoso was selected as Fulbright Program 40th
anniversary distinguished fellow and lectured at
Columbia
University on democracy in Brazil
. His wife, Ruth Correa Leite Cardoso, was a Fulbright scholar at Columbia University in 1988.
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| For
his intellectual contributions to international development, for his
lifetime commitment to justice and equality, for his tireless work in
leading democracy, human rights, and economic growth, and for the dramatic
changes that he achieved in
Brazil, we are honored today to present the 2003 Fulbright Prize to the former president of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. |
| See also: |
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