Toespraak Prins Constantijn ter gelegenheid van de Prins Claus Impact Awards 2024 in het Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam
De toespraak is uitgesproken in het Engels.
Your Majesties, Friends!
My father was a war child, forced to serve as a German soldier in World War II. It scarred him for life and blessed him with an antenna for the risks of conformism, group think, nationalism, hate, and xenophobia. He taught me the importance of ‘Zivilcourage’ (civil courage) and that everyone has the duty to think for themselves and challenge the dominant view point if it clashes with civil rights, freedoms and basic humanist values.
These values are ingrained at the core of PCF. We celebrate artistic practitioners that raise awareness about pressing social and political issues and stand up against oppression.
In an essay ‘About Nationalism’, written in 1945, George Orwell acknowledges that no human is immune to hate and nationalism, but that it is a moral duty to fight against it. And to do this, it requires that we discover who we truly are. What formed us. To know one’s history and prejudices. What the source of our hate is and accept it without denial and then address it.
Today’s laureates challenge us to review our old truisms, and critically assess our own and others’ dominant narratives. They demonstrate that ‘truth’ isn’t a singular story, penned down in our history books. No one can claim to own the truth, but we can all be curious to get alternative perspectives; to challenge one’s own and collective beliefs.
This isn’t easy. Everything these days has become political. Some even say ‘weaponized’. This is definitely the case when investigating identity, exposing political frames and labelling, standing up for people, being an ally, especially when they face being cancelled.
We are over-run with data, images, opinions, soundbites, reels, and find it hard to process the overload of inputs. Instead, we choose to retreat in our bubbles and echo chambers, nudged by algorithms of social media platforms. In the deluge of information easy truths can become our guides. But we cannot be intellectually lazy!
Today we gather to recognize collective efforts alongside individual achievements dedicated to bringing out alternative narratives. Six remarkable, resilient, creative, brave individuals emerged from a very thorough selection process, spanning 1,5 years, with 3 sessions of our amazing international jury, in depth research and some 8 references for each candidate and more than 160 testimonials.
Our laureates have dedicated their lives to addressing pressing social issues, in creative innovative ways. Opening up spaces for expression, allowing people to be free to become who they want to be. By connecting local and global realities the laureates helped to weave a tapestry of stories of real human beings, that live history, that experienced the stories that need to be told. By examining, reviewing, and rewriting history, they are saving it from the politics of nationalism and creating a path towards a more sustainable and equitable future.
We feel heavily indebted to them and hope that this prize will make many more people aware of their work, and inspire us - you - to follow Orwell’s call to fight our demons of nationalism.
It is my great honour to reveal and call on stage the winners of the 2024 Prins Claus Fund Impact Awards.