The gravity and scale of Asia’s social problems today are such that they demand large, complex, and long-term programs of assistance and sophisticated technologies of change. And yet, on occasion we are reminded that in a most elemental way, one can begin to change the world through seemingly ordinary acts of empathy and magnanimity.

Let us then celebrate the extraordinary ordinariness of CHEN SHU-JIU. The child of vegetable vendors in the city of Taitung, southeastern Taiwan, CHEN knew personally the familiar miseries of the poor. When her mother fell gravely ill, the thirteen-year old CHEN saw her father desperately asking neighbors for money so her mother could be treated in a hospital. What he managed to scrape together came too late to save her mother’s life. As the eldest daughter, she had to stop schooling to help her father run their small vegetable stall in the market. Five years later, one of her brothers contracted a chronic disease that drained the small family savings. The school she attended started a fund drive to help the family. The aid was not enough to save her brother’s life, but the memory of that kindness stayed with her. She knew poverty and despair, but witnessed kindness as well, simple truths that have guided the rest of her life.

Today, two decades after her father died, CHEN continues to sell vegetables from a stall in the central market in Taitung. What is astounding is that over these years, just from her daily earnings as a vegetable vendor, she has personally given away over seven million Taiwanese dollars (US$320,000) to various charities, particularly for the care and education of children. Recipients of her generosity include a Buddhist monastery, to help it fund a school; a non-profit Christian organization that rescues children-at-risk and provides them with food, shelter, clothing, medical care, and education; a Red Cross Society fund for helping families during disasters and other emergencies; the elementary school where she used to study, to build a fully-equipped library; and an emergency relief fund that enables students to continue their studies if their parents fall sick or are unable to work.

A devout Buddhist, CHEN works seventeen hours a day. She lives frugally, and is content with the simplest of necessities: afraid she might get too comfortable to wake up early for work, she sleeps on the floor; a vegetarian, she eats only two meals a day. Despite the recent recognition international media has given to her personal philanthropy, she remains entirely unselfconscious about what she has accomplished. Indifferent to public honors, she resists having a foundation set up in her name, and refuses to receive donations from others, saying she prefers to give away money that she has earned herself.

When asked about what she has done, CHEN simply says: “Money serves its purpose only when it is used for those who need it.” She is impatient with fuss that keeps her away from selling vegetables; she affirms: “My philosophy in life is simple. If doing something makes you worried, then it must be a wrong thing. If it makes you happy, then you must have done the right thing. I feel happy whenever I could help other people.”

In electing CHEN SHU-JIU to receive the 2012 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes the pure altruism of her giving, which reflects a deep, consistent, quiet compassion, and has transformed the lives of the numerous Taiwanese she has unselfishly helped.

It never once crossed my mind that I would one day be standing here accepting an award from your esteemed foundation. Similarly, I have never really given much thought to what we as individuals can do for the world. All I know is that people should work hard at what they do.

I became a vegetable vendor at a market soon after leaving elementary school, so I’ve been selling vegetables for nearly fifty years now. I rarely take days off and I have hardly ever had the chance to leave Taitung, not to mention go abroad, so my knowledge of the world is quite limited. And while I am good at selling vegetables, this doesn’t qualify me to speak any great truths about the way the world works. I do know, though, that I am receiving this award today because of the donations I make. Yet I have never considered myself a great person-I am just an ordinary person, a humble vegetable vendor. I simply do what I can, to the best of my ability. There is nothing extraordinary about that. In fact, there are lots of well-known people who have donated far more than I have. I suppose, though, that being willing to help can make a difference, no matter how little we can give. And everyone has got something to offer. What makes a difference is whether or not you actually put that into action.

I have always thought that making donations was my personal business, and I never intended to let people find out about it. Helping others gives me a sense of pure satisfaction and makes me feel extremely happy. Now, because of all the media attention, all sorts of people, including those I don’t know, may greet me and sometimes offer me their kind encouragement when I am at the market or out and about. To be honest, I get quite embarrassed by it all, and sometimes I just don’t really know what to say or how to respond. But this doesn’t mean I am not grateful for their support, because I really am. Likewise, I would like to thank everyone at the foundation for presenting me with this award. I wish all of you the best of health and happiness.

Although avant-garde Western painting and drama penetrated China quickly in the early twentieth century, modern dance was slow to find a foothold. Indeed, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, founded by LIN HWAI-MIN in 1973, may well be the first such company in any Chinese community anywhere. Yet under LIN’s direction, Cloud Gate’s brilliantly original dance compositions and stunning performances now rival the best in the world.

Born in Taiwan in 1947, LIN HWAI-MIN first felt the seductive pull of dance at the age of five while watching a film, The Red Shoes. Later, as a teenager, he thrilled to his first glimpse of modern dance and was hooked. Discouraged by his parents, however, he studied journalism instead and published two novels by age twenty-two. While in the United States to attend the International Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, LIN sought out modern-dance pioneer Martha Graham in New York and became a student in her school. Returning home, he established Cloud Gate in 1973.

In Taiwan, modern dance was little known to the public. Yet LIN’s first production filled the house, a harbinger of successes to come. For his fledgling company, LIN created dances that reflected Graham’s influence but that also drew upon familiar acrobatic and pantomime conventions of Chinese opera. He choreographed modern-dance versions of Chinese classics and also created wholly original pieces such as Legacy, which depicted the trials of Chinese pioneers in Taiwan, set to traditional Taiwanese music.

LIN trained his young dancers in Asian classical dance forms and in Tai Chi and meditation, as well as in modern dance and ballet. Over time, he perfected the unique fusion of styles and forms for which he is now famous, lifting traditional dance from its indigenous roots to the full flower of modern art. In Nine Songs, LIN combines dance techniques from India and Java with modern dance and incorporates ancient Chinese poems, aboriginal Taiwanese village songs, and stage lighting inspired by a trip to Bali. In his Songs of Wanderers, Georgian folk songs accompany LIN’s Zen-flavored interpretation of Herman Hesse’s novel of religious searching, Siddartha. And in Moon Water, LIN’s dancers glide in Tai Chi-like movements across the stage to the Suites for Solo Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach.

While addressing universal themes of struggle, freedom, and spiritual enlightenment, LIN’s dance compositions often depict or allude to real historical events, such as, in Nine Songs, the Taiwan massacres of 1947 and the 1989 tragedy at Tiananmen.

Viewing LIN’s work in the course of more than thirty-five international tours, critics the world round have hailed its poetic vision and breathtaking technical perfection, calling it “electrifying” and “irresistible.” In Taiwan, Cloud Gate performs to sold-out audiences in venues as disparate as the lavish National Theater and rural high school auditoriums. Several times a year, crowds of sixty thousand or more gather for the company’s free outdoor performances. LIN is happy to count many young people among his fans and promotes dance among them through community outreach programs and youth camps. For formal training, he founded the dance department of Taiwan’s National Institute of Arts in 1983 and later became founding dean of its graduate program.

Slight and bespectacled, fifty-two-year-old LIN moves with the gait and grace of the dancer that he is. His modern dance compositions cannot be understood in the way stories are understood, he says. They must be experienced. It is enough if people simply enjoy them. His true subject is not Taiwan or Asia or myth or history, he says, but “the landscape of the human heart.”

In electing LIN HWAI-MIN to receive the 1999 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, the board of trustees recognizes his revitalizing the theatrical arts in Taiwan with modern dance that is at once eloquently universal and authentically Chinese.

It is a great honor for me to follow in the footsteps of so many of the giants of Asia in accepting this prestigious award.

Tzung Tze, the great Chinese philosopher, once told the story of a tree. People were complaining that the tree was twisted and gnarled, unsuitable for building a house or making furniture with. Tzung Tze said, why not leave that tree alone in the wild field, to give shade and comfort to tired travelers? As dancers, we are unable to stop a war, influence the stock market, or even improve the living conditions of the poor. We provide spiritual space with the holy instrument that is our body. I identify with that twisted and useless tree.

If I were given an opportunity to make one wish for the next millennium, it would be thus: At the end of the next century, despite all the new technological developments, I hope that all the beautiful folk songs and folk dances from around the world will remain intact and alive. As we are entering the new millennium, the internet has enabled people on different continents to communicate with great convenience. But people are hooked to their computers; neighbors can be living as people on different continents. Dance should become more important, as people need to switch off and come to the dance gatherings, to share body warmth, energy and spirit with others. With further developments that are sure to come, however, people will be able to see scores of dance performances at home on internet theatre. This will make it even harder for professional dancers to survive.

The encouragement of the Magsaysay Award came at a moment when I was full of anxiety and self-doubt. It came as a reaffirmation and as a big push.

Respected trustees, thank you very much for recognizing this useless tree. It will grow stronger and better. It has to. Thank you.

On any given Sunday morning in the small city of Chiayi in south-central Taiwan, a merry band of citizens can be seen boarding trucks and riding off to the countryside. In private cars and on motorcycles, others join the convoy until, from near and far, they all assemble at a single site beside a river. Donning bamboo sun hats and baseball caps, the pilgrims take up shovels and hoes, baskets and pails, to build a bridge. Leading the party will be seventy-three-year-old HO MING-TEH, a bald and jolly Pied Piper who has built more than two hundred bridges in Taiwan’s Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan Counties during the past twenty-five years.

HO Ming-teh, a devout Buddhist and former grocer, had already embarked upon a few modest projects, mending local roads and suspension bridges, when in 1971 a flood swept away an old wooden bridge in nearby Chungpu Township and took the lives of two brothers. As HO well knew, the countryside was full of decrepit wooden bridges. Moreover, no bridges at all spanned many of the region’s rivers and streams; to reach towns and markets, rural folk had to ford them. Bridges were needed—proper concrete bridges. HO resolved to build them.

Straightaway, he launched a fundraising campaign and, in just a few months, his first bridge was completed. Since then, HO’s bridges have been rising at the rate of nine a year.

Although trained as a youth in civil engineering, HO was not a professional bridge builder. He arranged for professional engineers and contractors to do the technical work. But he himself could assess the need for a bridge, draw up a plan, purchase the materials, and coordinate with local officials. He could also raise the money. To emphasize the spirit of giving, HO limited individual contributions to just a few dollars per project; yet private donations have yielded all the money needed for HO’s many bridges: more than U.S.$12 million over the years. In addition, HO invited everyone to join him each Sunday in the good deed of bridge-building, performing the many simple chores that require no technical skill. More than two hundred thousand volunteers have done so.

HO organized his projects casually, at first with no formal organization at all. But as one new bridge after another rose at his initiative, local newspapers anointed HO and his partners the Chiayi Philanthropy Group. He adopted the name formally on the day he inaugurated his one-hundredth bridge. Up till now, however, HO’s organization—which also helps poor families meet burial expenses—has no membership list or formal charter. Whoever chooses to contribute, contributes; whoever wishes to work, works. HO himself keeps the books, and his scrupulous reports to donors have earned the Chiayi Philanthropy Group a reputation for unshakable integrity.

HO’s concrete bridges vary in length from just a few meters to over one hundred; with distinctive white railings, each one is a replica of the other. Simple and strong, they dot the countryside, moving farm products swiftly and efficiently to market, opening once remote areas to tourism, and rendering daily travel safer. They are an incalculable practical boon to the people of Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan Counties.

But they are also something more. These bridges have motivated many thousands of Taiwanese to devote themselves weekly to the cheerful work of helping others. HO Ming-teh, the inspiring force, seeks no credit. Buddhism, he notes, enjoins its followers to do good. And so he does.

In electing HO MING-TEH to receive the 1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes his improving rural Taiwan with good deeds and sturdy bridges.

It gives me great pleasure this evening to be the recipient of the 1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. First of all, I would like to express my sincerest appreciation to the board of trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for bestowing upon me this special honor.

However, I must reiterate that I am just a member of the eighty-thousand-strong Chiayi Philanthropy Group in the Republic of China on Taiwan. In the past twenty-odd years, believing that “doing good is the greatest source of happiness” and that “to do good is to invoke Heaven’s blessings and accumulate virtues,” all the group members have worked together to construct a total of 215 bridges in Taiwan’s rural areas. In building these bridges, our hearts are overflowing with joy and we have never entertained any thought of being awarded for what we have done. It is our belief that bridges will not only facilitate transportation but also bring people closer together psychologically, thus conducing to a happy and harmonious society. Therefore, this award is not so much a personal commendation as a recognition of what the group as a whole has been doing. We are committed to building even more bridges to benefit even more people.

In closing, I wish to pay my high tribute to what the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation has achieved over the past decades by setting up awards in memory of the late President Ramon Magsaysay to advocate freedom, universal love, and justice. It is my earnest hope that the Foundation will encourage more people to do good and to march toward a bright future, thus contributing toward peace and stability worldwide.

During their remarkable dash to prosperity, Taiwanese have learned that rapid economic development can exact a costly social price. In their giddy race to accumulate and spend, once cherished-traditions governing family and social life seem to lose their importance; the newly affluent grow callous and indifferent to those left behind or waylaid by disease or calamity. Yet, by reminding Taiwanese of their Buddhist roots, Shih (Master) CHENG YEN has stirred the public conscience and tapped a powerful force for good.

Touched by tragedy as a youth, CHENG YEN came early to spiritual awareness. More than once she tried to flee her mother’s home in Taichung to seek the religious life. Finally, striking out for Taiwan’s remote east coast at the age of twenty-three, she succeeded. In the harbor city of Hualien, she became a nun and immersed herself in Buddhist meditation and good works. In 1966, with five other women, she founded the Tz’u Chi Buddhist Contribution Society.

Supporting themselves by sewing baby clothes and surviving on meager portions of tofu (bean curd) and rice, CHENG YEN and her followers encouraged housewives to save their small change for charity and directed their donations to the city’s poor. A simple temple complex built a few years later, on land given by CHENG YEN’s mother, became the group’s permanent home. In time, their selfless example and CHENG YEN’s impassioned exhortation to follow Buddhist teachings inspired others to give, and the Society flourished.

Toiling daily among Hualien’s have-nots, CHENG YEN was struck by the link between sickness and poverty. Illness of a breadwinner could quickly reduce a family to penury, yet Hualien’s rudimentary hospitals refused to treat anyone who could not pay. Moreover, Taipei’s advanced hospitals were too far away for the timely treatment of complex cases. In 1979 CHENG YEN resolved to build a modern hospital for Hualien. By then, membership in the Tz’u Chi Society had expanded to tens of thousands; the hospital fund grew rapidly.

Opened in 1986, the Tz’u Chi Buddhist General Hospital is staffed by some of Taiwan’s best-trained doctors and is fitted with state-of-the-art equipment. At CHENG YEN’s gentle urging, its patients are treated lovingly as family. The hospital refuses no one; those who cannot afford its fees are readily assisted by the Society.

Today, CHENG YEN and her twenty-six disciples—who support themselves by candlemaking—follow an austere regimen of work and meditation. They take nothing from the Society. Every penny contributed to the latter is meticulously acknowledged and goes directly to support the organization’s projects, making it Taiwan’s most trusted charity. Indeed, well over a million people have now joined the Society and in 1990 alone they contributed some U.S.$22 million. Such funds have enabled CHENG YEN to add 250 rooms to the hospital and assist more than ten thousand needy families and disaster victims each year. (When calamity strikes, her volunteers are often the first ones on the scene.) Recently she opened a nursing school where poor girls can learn a worthy calling. She now plans to build a full-fledged university in Hualien, plus a center of Buddhist culture. Through local branches of the Tz’u Chi Buddhist General Hospital, CHENG YEN hopes eventually to bring modern hospital services to people throughout Taiwan. At the heart of CHENG YEN’s burgeoning social service empire is the simple message of love and care for fellow human beings. She urges donors to give not just money but time—time ministering directly to the poor and sick. Following her example, Taiwanese of all stations, and numbering in the thousands, now do.

Unfazed by her growing celebrity, the frail but the tireless fifty-four-year-old CHENG YEN says simply, “I am led by the power of religion, which is immeasurable.”

In electing Shih CHENG YEN to receive the 1991 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes her reawakening Taiwan’s modern people to the ancient Buddhist teachings of compassion and charity.

This is the most honored occasion in my life. Unfortunately, I am unable to witness personally the magnificence of this awards presentation and to extend my sincere gratitude to all who have shown their love and kindness to me. However, even though I am in Taiwan, I can feel the care and concern extended to me by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation and the encouragement given to me by all the distinguished guests at this awards ceremony. Your support and well wishes make me more aware of my responsibilities.

The ancient sages and worthy monks of China have said that no great event under heaven can be achieved by a single person alone in a single moment; instead, it is accomplished by collective efforts—from one person to another, from one generation to the next. The achievements that have resulted from the twenty-seven years of work of the Tz’u Chi (Compassion and Mercy) Buddhist Contribution Society must be directly attributed to all the Buddhist disciples, the Tz’u Chi committee and members, as well as all the kind-hearted lay people of our Society. Although this award is presented to me today, the actual honor and glory should belong to each member of the Tz’u Chi Buddhist Contribution Society.

Caring for others and providing relief to the poor and the sick symbolize the radiance of humanity and illumine man’s benevolent nature. This nature is evidenced in our daily life when we see many successful people among us who are unhesitatingly helping others. It is these people who are taking practical action to create tangible benefits to improve our society materially and spiritually, thus elevating the people’s quality of life. It is our hope that we can gather all goodhearted people to lead and guide our society—in a spirit of universal love—toward friendliness and harmony. In this way, we can purify our human nature by living in a land of “common wealth.” I believe everyone assembled here for this significant ceremony must share similar high aspirations with me.

I am very grateful to those who have given me this honor today. There are a lot of people who are suffering in this world and are in need of assistance. Therefore, I would like to donate half of the award stipend given me to the government of the Philippines for the victims of the Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruptions. The other half will be given to the Tz’u Chi Buddhist Contribution Society for its relief purposes.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Magsaysay Foundation for the award given me, which symbolizes the highest honor for a social worker. The Philippines is a beautiful country, and her people are friendly and sincere. Regretfully, I am unable to visit this beautiful land due to personal reasons. However, as the Chinese saying goes, “Good friends feel close together even though they are actually far apart.” And opportunities for us to meet will certainly arise. 

Peace and good  health to everyone, and prosperity to the great Filipino nation.

In three short decades the 20 million citizens of Taiwan have witnessed the transformation of their mountainous, predominantly agrarian island into a prosperous and highly competitive industrial and commercial power. A new generation of entrepreneurs, managers, bureaucrats and academics is now trying to steer Taiwan’s economy away from labor-intensive industry toward high technology, and changing founder led enterprises into manager-run corporations. For Taiwan, which has formal diplomatic ties with only 23 countries, business and trade with some 150 nations is today the key to domestic prosperity and the essence of its foreign relations. Professional journalism in Taiwan failed to keep pace with these changes until Tien Sia, or CommonWealth, appeared. Founded by its editor and publisher DIANE YUN-PENG YING in 1981 to bring substance and style to business reporting, it has become a significant force in promoting economic progress, combined with social responsibility, in Taiwan. When YING and two colleagues started CommonWealth, business journalism in Taiwan was primitive: the new venture’s competitors were few, unreliable and often unreadable. As a professionally produced business magazine of high quality, hers was the first to succeed. Launching the magazine was risky, especially because its price was dauntingly high. Avoiding sensation and stridency, it was a sober newcomer to Taiwanese newsstands. Yet, its first printing of 10,000 in June 1981 sold out in two days, and circulation is now more than 90,000; it reaches an estimated 630,000 individual readers monthly. Among the more than 2,700 magazines, it is one of Taiwan’s most popular. Every month CommonWealth offers concisely written articles on business, finance, production management and international trade. Its hallmark is in-depth and critical reporting on social and economic trends in education, demography and Taiwan’s relations with Japan and other economic partners and competitors. The style is easy-to-read and lively. Her readers, says YING, have too little time for ponderous scholarly journals. Although it is a thoroughly private enterprise, CommonWealth‘s objectives in stimulating economic innovation and social progress in Taiwan synchronize with those of the government. YING, who is 46 and came with her family from the Chinese mainland as a child, started the magazine without influential connections. She relied upon her prodigious capacity for work and lessons of two decades of fruitful education and experience, including a BA in English Literature from the University of Chengkung in Taiwan, and an MA in Journalism from the University of Iowa in the United States. For two years she reported local news and wrote feature stories for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Back in Asia, she worked for USIS and covered Taiwan for United Press International, the New York Times and the Asian Wall Street Journal. Gradually she conceived the idea of a Chinese language business magazine the caliber of Fortune. Another woman, Cora Li-hsing Wang, and Charles H.C. Kao, Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin, became her partners as business manager and president, respectively. All three invested their personal savings in the venture. More than a publishing success, YING’s magazine is establishing standards for journalism in Taiwan. Articles are thoroughly researched and well written, complementing fine design and printing. In achieving such high standards, YING persists in training her young reporters personally. Exemplifying her personal philosophy which identifies talent with work, she takes a hand in every phase of the magazine’s production. Her attention to substance and quality accounts for CommonWealth’s growing reputation as an authoritative, must read publication in Taiwan’s boardrooms, government offices and academic halls. In electing DIANE YUN-PENG YING to receive the 1987 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, the Board of Trustees recognizes her contribution of economic reporting and business journalism to Taiwan’s industrial and commercial vitality.

It is a great honor for me to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award, which is established in memory of one of the most respected Asian leaders in recent history.

Since this is the first time the Ramon Magsaysay Award in Journalism is given to a candidate from Taiwan, it is also an honor, I believe, shared by all my fellow journalists in Taiwan in general, and by my young colleagues at CommonWealth Magazine in particular.

The Award carries a great encouragement. It reconfirms my belief that journalism is a profession worth life-long devotion. Despite the long trying hours and the constant self-doubt that is part of the search for the ever-so-elusive truth, a journalist nevertheless encounters a very challenging and fulfilling mission. Journalism, perhaps, is the best profession in the world, because a journalist is paid to learn, and life itself is a process of ceaseless learning.

The Award is also a great inspiration, because it calls attention to the often forgotten importance of using writing, reporting, and publishing as “a power for the public good.”

When all over the world every day news is full of killings, starvation, crimes, disasters, political strives and trade wars, when “bad news” becomes the synonym of “news,” it is time for journalists to reexamine our roles.

Must we be nothing more than a commercial tool where news is regarded as a product for sale, a source of entertainment, and a journalist’s ultimate goal is to seek personal gain, fame, money and power?

Or can we, and should we, become a positive force in society, helping to build better understanding between the government and the people, to form consensus in a nation, and to foster hope among fellow human beings?

The Ramon Magsaysay Award serves as a great enlightenment.

Assimilation of science coming from the West has been the core of the conflict between China’s own immense inherited intellectual traditions and ideas from abroad. Nearly four centuries ago this struggle began when the first Jesuit scholar-missionaries won entry to the Forbidden Kingdom during the Ming Dynasty. At the Board of Astronomy in Peking and elsewhere they introduced an entirely new world view, challenging ancient Chinese classical precepts.

While the past century saw the emergence of important modern universities in China, and many students eagerly imbibed the new learning, a scientific view of reality did not permeate popular attitudes. As the Manchu Dynasty began to collapse in the 19th century, wars and revolutions compounded the crisis of conflicting ideologies and until recently crippled education in mainland China. In Taiwan over the past 35 years Chinese civilization for the first time has been able to digest modern science and technology.

TA-YOU WU came to his role of scientific innovator on Taiwan after an eminent career in physics as teacher and researcher. Born 77 years ago in Canton, WU began his study of physics at Nankai University in Tientsin and completed his graduate training at the University of Michigan before returning to a faculty appointment at Peking National University. In 1937 when Japanese aggression against China accelerated, WU joined other intellectual refugees at National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming. Between 1947 and 1978 he taught and engaged in research abroad at the University of Michigan, Columbia University, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and the State University of New York at Buffalo, and headed the theoretical physics section of the National Research Council of Canada.

Although such foreign opportunities were absorbing, WU was concerned for his countrymen’s future and in 1958 proposed to leaders in Taiwan a plan for the formulation of science policies and their implementation. Decisive action was taken after 1967 when the late President Chiang Kai-shek asked WU to head concurrently the new Advisory Committee for Science Development of the National Security Council, and the National Science Council (NSC), which was a greatly strengthened successor to the earlier committee set up in response to WU’s proposal. In 1968 a 12-year science development plan was adopted for science education and the promotion of research in natural and applied sciences, the humanities and the social sciences. Today universities and research institutes throughout Taiwan are staffed by professors sent abroad for advanced study and Chinese scholars brought back from abroad under this plan. The NSC budget has risen from US$10 million to US$30 million annually to insure continuous invigoration of science education and research in the republic.

WU led this effort and commuted between Taiwan and his professorial duties at the State University of New York in Buffalo from 1967 to 1978 when he returned permanently to Taipei. Eschewing retirement he was soon embarked, for the Ministry of Education, upon a complete review and reorganization of the science curricula of junior and senior high schools. Under his direction more than 100 professors and teachers are rewriting, and revising after trials, all the textbooks on mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, earth sciences and engineering. This comprehensive project forms the basis for a new system of teaching science to young people and is leading toward a more dynamic society. As the electronic information industry becomes an integral part of Taiwan’s economy, there are well-trained new graduates to staff it and help it expand.

For a person with a dozen scientific books and numerous pioneering papers on such subjects as molecular, astro and atmospheric physics to his credit, WU remains a man of simple habits, shunning material wealth. His attention to science education and research, for this and future generations, has won him the respect of his students—two of whom are Nobel Prize winners—and of the international scientific fraternity. Impatient for the improvements he seeks, he has set a standard for selfless service that invites emulation.

In electing Dr. TA-YOU WU to receive the 1984 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his designing Taiwan’s move toward the forefront of science in education and practice.

It is generally agreed that in the last decade Taiwan has made considerable progress in economic development. It is also generally believed that the economic success is in large measure due to four factors: 1) social stability as a result of the land reform program carried out in the early 1950s; 2) the government’s policy of a free economy; 3) the policy of building up our agriculture and light industries before attempting heavy industries, and 4) the enterprising qualities of our people. But the important contribution made by our education program may not have been so widely appreciated.

Today over 99 percent of our youth receive nine years of free education. As a result our literacy rate is one of the highest in the world. Our society, therefore, is receptive to new ideas and new technologies.

I am a physicist by profession, but I have always been concerned with the general development of science in my country. In 1967 I was given an opportunity to map out a broad program of science development in Taiwan which covers, in addition to research in basic and applied science, science education at all levels, from high school through college, graduate and advanced study. In the last few years I have started and taken part in a project involving complete review and reorganization of the science curricula of our whole education system, and a rewriting of all science textbooks for our junior and senior high schools. I hope I am not too presumptuous in thinking that our science and education programs over the last 15 years have played some role in the industrial and economic development in recent years in Taiwan. It is my firm conviction that the essential steps toward modernization of a developing country are integration of basic science into education at all levels, and encouragement of basic science research, so that technology transfer and development can find hospitable roots.

It is often said that the Asian region will be the most vibrant area of growth in the next few decades, and it has been my vital concern that in Taiwan we would build up a momentum for participation in this growth.

Again, my sincere thanks to the Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for their recognition and appreciation of my efforts and meager contribution to a better world consistent with the principles of the Philippine president whose memory lives on in this Award.

Rigid administrative bureaucracies can be among the most oppressive of tyrannies. Attitudes and actions of officials exercising jurisdiction over innumerable decisions affecting people’s daily lives sometimes are abusive; and the authority invested in officialdom can become the cloak for pervasive corruption, victimizing a citizenry by compelling it to pay for services to which it is freely entitled.

SU NAN-CHENG came to public office aware of these dangers and convinced that access of citizens to key decision-makers — who act with integrity — is essential to good government. Also vitalizing both government and private sectors of the city he heads is the advice he exuberantly follows: “Enjoy your work.”

Born in 1936 into the family of a small merchant with long antecedents in Taiwan, SU was nine years old when World War II ended, terminating Japan’s colonial rule and restoring Taiwan to Chinese sovereignty. In grade school he peddled soybean milk. Suffering the snubs of richer classmates, he early resolved to help the poor. While he was at the university he produced and directed a radio music and question-and-answer program and after his two years in the military, taught high school for five years. Beginning in 1966 he served for 10 years as city councilman, at the same time working as sales manager of the Taiwan Times Daily News. Campaigning as an independent candidate, he was elected Mayor of Tainan in September 1977 and was handily reelected in 1981.

Immediately after his first election he moved the mayor’s office to the ground floor of City Hall so that he could readily be seen by the townspeople. His office is open until 11 p.m. to accommodate constituents who cannot come during the day, therefore he usually sleeps on a couch in the next room. SU sleeps little and is accustomed to jogging through the city at 5 a.m., calling the citizenry to get up; residents now answer with good nature and some join him.

Three months after assuming office SU established the Prompt Service Center, staffed in part by experienced volunteers who are retired government workers. In a day it may expedite delayed applications, attend to clogged sewers or forgotten rubbish, give guidance on dealing with laws and regulations, resolve questions of taxes or land disputes and aid citizens with health, monetary or family problems. He built House of Love where the widowed, aged and orphaned enjoy a recreation/tea room and lodging at minimal cost. The new Labor Activities Center is equipped with library, recreation and meeting facilities, and well-furnished, low-priced rooms for guests.

SU’s interests and concerns are catholic. Historic temples, forts and gardens are being restored. All these are reminders that Tainan was the capital of Taiwan during the two centuries when the island, named Formosa by the Portuguese, was first a Dutch colony, then was conquered by Koxinga (Cheng Cheng-kung) who was loyal to the remnants of the Ming Dynasty of China, and next came under Ching Dynasty rule. Tainan children’s art is displayed around the city during contests. Young adult artists from throughout Taiwan are being invited to exhibit in Tainan and photographs of prize winning works are published. Sports thrive in the new stadium and the 74-acre athletic park which was formerly a garbage dump. The 68-square mile seaport is developing low cost housing on reclaimed land, estates for light, non-polluting industries and ponds for intensive culture of eels, crabs and numerous varieties of fish.

The mayor’s financing is equally enterprising. The regular budget for education, police and ongoing functions for this city of 620,000 is only half the annual special budget for construction. The latter is raised in large part from the sale of, or taxes on, land which has appreciated as the result of government development policies. Also, scrupulous accounting and efficient building contracts keep expenditures to a minimum.

Most meaningful of all, SU is imbuing citizens with pride in participation in their city’s affairs. From the first, cities have been the venue for the fullest expression of a civilization; in Tainan this is being accomplished anew as SU carries forward his theme: “We must preserve our historical heritage while building for tomorrow.”

In electing SU NAN-CHENG to receive the 1983 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his making government readily available and responsive to the needs of all citizens, while attractively modernizing an historic city.

As a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, I consider August 31, 1983 the most precious and memorable day in my life.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award, internationally renowned and hailed as the Nobel Prize of Asia, is a distinctive honor. On this auspicious occasion, therefore, I would like to thank the Board of Trustees of the Foundation, my parents, and the 620,000 residents of Tainan City, who have directly or indirectly made this memorable event happen. I would also like to express my gratitude to His Excellency, Chiang Ching-kuo, President of the Republic of China, who vigorously supports the doctrines of democracy. Public elections held for mayorship have given me the opportunity twice to serve the residents of Tainan and thus receive recognition by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award, however, is not merely an honor, but also a charge. I pledge that I will do my best to deserve the honor you have given me and I can assure you that it will be both an encouragement and moral support in my future public service. I will endeavor to serve my very best, with honesty, enthusiasm and courage, in the cause of justice and freedom.

I would like once again to thank President Chiang who visited my office in Tainan upon learning of the achievements of my Prompt Service Center. He presented me with a figure of a smiling Buddha inscribed with Chinese characters meaning literally: “always with a smile, welcome everyone with an open mind.” This has not only become my motto and guide, but also that of my colleagues. In Tainan City Hall you will be met by smiling faces and served with devotion and sincerity.

I was born in a poor family, a son of a sidewalk vendor. Though poor, surrounded with obstacles, I lived with my head up and strove with only one solid ambition, to serve the public unselfishly and devotedly. Since my assumption of public office — ten years as city councilor and two terms as city mayor — I have abided by the old Chinese virtues and traditions and by the sacrificial spirit of Christianity, to serve my country and my countrymen.

Today, millions and millions of my compatriots behind the “bamboo curtain” long for freedom and dream of democracy. This had made me realize more and more the value of freedom. So I have decided to donate the Award stipend, totaling US$20,000, to the six Chinese freedom fighters who recently fled from Mainland China to seek freedom but were detained in South Korea. We have the same blood and are descendants of one ancestry. I have asked our embassy in Seoul to set up a special bank account for them, and use this money to engage the best lawyers until they are set free.

I am very happy to come back to this beautiful country, the Philippines. Before I conclude, therefore, I would like to express my utmost appreciation to the Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation who gave me the honor, and I would like to share this honor with Tainan’s four Philippine sister cities: Cavite, Tagaytay, Trece Martires and Pasay. Mabuhay to the Republic of the Philippines and more productive years to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation! Maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat (Thank you very much everyone).

Despite rapid advances in medicine, the twin tyrannies of ignorance of preventive sanitation and resulting illness still afflict much of rural Asia. Farm families yearn for the benefits of modern medicine as much as anyone, but the cost of most existing treatment facilities and drugs places them beyond the reach of ordinary villagers. 

Dr. HSU SHIH-CHU has applied himself to this challenge ever since he completed his internship and graduate studies in public health at Peking Union Medical College in 1934. Organizing a demonstration, self-supporting, community health service in Kiangning County near Nanking in the mid-1930s, training medical officials and combating malaria in West China during the Sino-Japanese War, he was systematically searching for means to make the benefits of modern medicine available to all. 

When Dr. HSU became Chief of the Rural Health Division of the Chinese and American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR) in 1948, he gained the scope and means to put his ideas to work. Starting on Taiwan the following year, HSU used JCRR assistance to mobilize public-spirited local leaders in each of 361 districts and townships to establish and support health stations. As tax collection improved, these units became the responsibility of local governments. 

Similarly, HSU induced popular cooperation with government health agencies in building village and school water works and latrines, first in public places and then in homes. Also organized were garbage collection and mosquito and fly extermination. To initiate health education for children, JCRR financed two-week training courses for one teacher from each primary school. With this groundwork, mass campaigns eradicated endemic plague from Quemoy Island and rabies, cholera and malaria from Taiwan. Continuing rural services helped control tuberculosis and diphtheria. An index of achievement was the drop in Taiwan’s annual death rate to 6.5 per 1,000, one of the lowest in the world. 

A public health doctor alert to farmers’ needs, HSU focused upon bringing food processing methods up to international standards. Working with farmers’ cooperatives and canneries, he and his staff evolved methods that now allow Taiwan to earn annually over US$31 million from the export of canned mushrooms and US$24 million from canned asparagus. More recently, he assisted farmers and processors in adopting aseptic techniques to launch a new industry of exporting quick-frozen pea pods and other foods. 

Long convinced that permanent improvement in rural livelihood would only become possible with effective family planning, HSU has patiently and persistently prodded government institutions and private groups toward such action. Starting with demographic studies and improved vital statistics, his program gradually incorporated maternity and child health with pre-pregnancy health services enabling women to plan births. As a consequence, Taiwan, which supports some 14 million persons on 850,000 hectares of cultivated land, reduced its rate of natural increase from over three percent to about two percent annually over the past six years. 

To all these efforts, HSU has brought more than superb professional competence and unstinting effort. He has succeeded consistently in bringing provincial and local government agencies, voluntary groups and villagers themselves together toward the common objective of a healthy, vigorous population. 

In electing HSU SHIH-CHU to receive the 1969 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his enthusiastic yet practical role in establishing on Taiwan rural health, sanitation and family planning services that are models for developing nations.

I am highly honored to have been named the recipient of the 1969 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service. 

I try to follow the teaching of Lao Tze, an ancient Chinese philosopher, to achieve without claiming credit for oneself. Now the Ramon Magsaysay Award is giving me credit that I can accept only as a representative of my medical profession, my organization, and my colleagues. The Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, of which I have been a member for 21 years, is a unique organization. It functions to improve the living condition of the people and to assist other government organizations without claiming any share of the credit. Because of these qualities, it is trusted and welcomed both by the people and government organizations at all levels in the Republic of China. 

The scope of medicine and health is expanding from the curative, preventive, and promotional phases to include village health improvement and community development, family planning and food processing. Through the application of modern medical methods, the annual crude death rate in Taiwan, China, has been brought down to 6.5 per 1,000 and the expectation of life at birth in 1967 reached 64.1 years for males and 68.4 for females. Now our effort is to bring down the high birth rate; we aim to change the population pattern from that of developing countries with high birth rates and low death rates to that of advanced countries with low birth rates and low death rates. Both the public and the government in the Republic of China now believe that family planning is a measure important for socioeconomic development and for a happy family life. 

Taiwan has also entered a new stage of initiating a planned change in its rural areas on a village basis, making the villages improve progressively. To achieve the objective requires both teamwork in health and other fields, and teamwork between government agencies and the people. 

National key leaders with wisdom are important assets of a country. Men are richly endowed with potential wisdom often hidden by selfishness; wisdom emerges only when men become selfless. The life of the late President Ramon Magsaysay has set an illuminating example for people to develop leadership with selfless devotion. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is the unique instrument for continuously reflecting his greatness and ideals.

The career of a concerned civil servant never is easy. Yet, despite the internal and external pressures that have ravaged China during his 58 years, Ll KWOH-TING has sustained through adulthood his commitment to help his people through effective government service. Schooled in his native Nanking and in England, LI returned to China in 1937 to teach physics. Within four years he was drafted to spur defense production in the remote interior where the Chinese maintained their resistance against the Japanese. 

A gifted planner of China’s postwar industrial rehabilitation, LI transferred his efforts to Taiwan as Communist armies seized the mainland. From organizing shipbuilding he rose to help plan the island’s industrialization. In 1958 he became responsible for coordinating U.S. economic assistance which LI and his colleagues used so efficiently that by 1965 aid no longer was needed. Through successive posts LI overcame internal resistance to chart sound policies attracting private domestic and foreign capital and management and international loans to create an ever-expanding economy based on balanced encouragement of both agriculture and industry. 

Spurred by government actions largely designed or actively supported by LI, Taiwan’s foreign trade grew from US$420 million in 1960 to US$1,173 million in 1966. The island became the world’s leading exporter of canned mushrooms. Processing of other agricultural commodities has continually expanded. Increasing sales abroad of electronic components, chemicals, plastics and metal manufactures and appliances bespeak a growing sophistication of industry. Over the past 10 years, the annual rate of industrial growth has averaged 13.8 percent. 

Widely acknowledged as a model for agricultural modernization complete with effective land reform and of diversified industrialization, Taiwan is now helping other developing countries. Nearly 4,000 foreign technicians have come to learn on farms and in factories. More than 30 teams of Chinese specialists now are working in some 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, sharing their experience. 

As a chief architect and promoter of the industrial miracle that has emerged following the growth in Taiwan’s rural productivity and buying power, K. T. Ll has channeled national resources where they were most needed. With the cooperation of his peers he has shown that what counts more than material resources and funds for national development is enlightened and discriminating use of human skill and determination. 

In electing LI KWOH-TING, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China, to receive the 1968 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his vigorous, rational guidance of Taiwan’s economy, generating one of the world’s most rapid rates of industrial growth.

I am highly honored to have been nominated the recipient of the 1968 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service. In accepting this award and the honor that goes with it, I consider myself no more than a representative of all of my fellow countrymen, both in and outside of the government, who have contributed toward the postwar industrial development on Taiwan, the island province of the Republic of China. To me, the Board of Trustees’ decision is more of a recognition of the swift and orderly transformation of my country’s economy than a reflection of my own part in it. The industrialization of any developing country is such a complicated and complex process that success can be achieved only through well-coordinated efforts on the part of government officials, farmers, workers, businessmen and professionals. 

It is perhaps no coincidence that another of my fellow countrymen, the late Dr. Chiang Mon-lin, received the first Government Service Award from this Foundation 10 years ago for his inspiring leadership in establishing a sound rural economy and improving life in the countryside of Taiwan. Indeed, rural prosperity has been one of the most important prior conditions for our economic growth in the early stage. Even though the emphasis has gradually been shifted to industrial development in more recent years and Taiwan’s industry is undergoing a process of sophistication which is extremely heartening to all of us who have been involved in it. Our policy has remained one of maintaining a balanced growth between agriculture and industry. As the Board of Trustees rightly pointed out, this has been the basis of our expanding economy.

Ladies and gentlemen, the part of the world we are living in is still largely a developing area. People are impatient for a more rapid growth of their national economies so that their hopes and aspirations for a better life can be fulfilled at an early date. This has tended to expand the traditional role of government. It is no longer enough for a government simply to collect taxes, maintain law and order, or provide basic services. Active government participation in development activities — such as planning for more effective allocation of resources has become increasingly necessary. And this has, in turn, pointed to the increased need for government workers of competence and dedication. 

The inclusion of government service as a field of endeavor from which persons are selected for the Ramon Magsaysay Award testifies to the importance the farsighted founders of the Foundation have attached to it and, I feel, it is a source of great encouragement to those Asians already engaged or about to join in government service to make their contributions to the cause of more rapid economic development and growth. Personally I know of no other international award that is offered specifically to encourage better performance in government service.

Finally, speaking of encouragement and inspiration, there is nothing that can compare with the very story of the man himself, whom this Award has been established to honor. Ramon Magsaysay rose from very humble beginnings to legendary height in both stature and in fame. His example as a great patriot and outstanding leader of our epoch is truly “a source of strength and confidence to men everywhere who are sincerely concerned about the well-being of their fellowmen.”

JAMES YEN saw the tragedy of illiteracy among his own people in France during the first World War, when he was beseiged by Chinese laborers seeking help in writing to their families at home. Returning to China in 1920, he began a career dedicated to educating rural people who had no opportunity for schooling and reeducating the educated to share in this task. Through the years, he labored, sometimes alone, from one disheartening disappointment to another lesson learned, in his quest for ways to help farm folk realize their own strengths. 

The endeavors he has originated are milestones on the path of coping effectively with Asia’s age-old problems of ignorance, poverty, official abuse and lack of confidence in themselves among ordinary citizens. The “Ting Hsien Experiment” in North China was the first of its kind bringing scholars to live and work with the rural people. To this the wartime and postwar community developments in West China’s Szechuan Province were worthy successors. 

The Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, launched on the mainland of China in 1948 and primarily responsible over the past decade for Taiwan’s peaceful and successful rural revolution, was conceived in large measure by DR. YEN. UNESCO’s Fundamental Education Movement in Southeast Asia has drawn much from his program.

In order that 30 years experience in China might be made helpful to other developing countries, JAMES YEN, in 1951, joined with friends in the United States to organize the International Mass Education Movement. After searching through Asia, Africa and Latin America, he chose the Philippines as a promising site where these lessons could be applied and an international center established to train rural leaders who would carry forward this pioneering work. A result is the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement which has begun to make a positive impression on life in the barrios it has reached. Stimulated in part by this private effort, the Presidential Assistant on Community Development, World Neighbors and other groups now are seeking to bring needed change to the rural areas. 

DR. YEN’s lifetime devotion to the cause he chose and the extraordinary talents cultivated in furtherance of this effort give expression to the ideals and spirit of service exemplified by Ramon Magsaysay. Born into a family of scholars, he has remained humble and at ease with the simplest of those whose lot he has sought to improve. These qualities have been translated into renewed faith and purpose by many who have worked with him. 

At all levels, from chiefs of state to legislators, government administrators, businessmen, field workers, and village people, JAMES YEN has spread the seeds of his mass education ideas to Asian countries. He has become a citizen of the world, who, by his works, gives substance to the dream that one day men everywhere may freely enjoy security, equal opportunity and a sense of international brotherhood. 

In electing Y. C. JAMES YEN to the 1960 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, the Board of Trustees recognizes his sharing of experience and creative leadership in rural reconstruction and his bringing to East and West an awareness of the urgency for meeting the aspirations of the Asian farmer for a fuller life. 

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation particularly commends Dr. YEN’s continuing concern for the whole man and molding his social institutions, rather than simply refashioning the physical environment.

It is with a deep sense of gratitude and humility that I accept this great honor. Of course, I realize that this is not so much a recognition of any achievement on my part as a recognition of the basic importance of a movement for rural reconstruction and mass education with which I have been associated for nearly 40 years. Such an award given by such a distinguished Board in the name of such a great champion of freedom and education for the masses cannot but spur me and my colleagues on to greater efforts for our underprivileged fellowmen. 

We greatly appreciate the sympathetic and understanding statement made by the Foundation that we have a “continuing concern for the whole man and molding his social institutions, rather than simply reshaping his physical environment.” The village is important but the villager is more important. No village reconstruction can be truly effective and lasting unless the villager is reconstructed mentally and spiritually. Rural reconstruction is only the means, and human reconstruction the end. Gods noblest creation is not the sun, the moon and the stars but man because man is made in His own image. 

Now, let us see what is the state of our fellow man in our world today. To answer this question, I can do no better than quote President Eisenhower: “In vast stretches of the earth, men awake today in hunger. They will spend the day in unceasing toil and as the sun goes down, they will still know hunger. Many despair that their labor will ever decently shelter their families or protect them against hunger and disease. So long as this is so, peace and freedom will be in danger throughout our world.” 

President Eisenhower’s statement applies particularly to our Asia which contains more than half of the world’s hungry people! Now, what is the matter with us Asians? Is it because we have a low mentality, descended from a poor human stock? No, my friends. Confucius, Buddha and Jesus were all Asians! Nothing wrong with the stock. But what accounts for their being the victims of poverty and diseases? I will venture one reason. I believe our Asian ancestors spent too much time searching for ways of dealing with human nature, whereas the ancestors of the West devoted their time to discovering ways of conquering physical nature. As a result, they have developed what is called science. With it they have conquered the land, the sea and, before too long, the air. And to a remarkable extent, they have also conquered poverty and disease. If we are, therefore, to transform our Asian peasants into a modern people, a people that can conquer poverty and disease, we must take science to them. This, however, is more easily said than done. 

In the first place, modern science, as it is being taught in the colleges, whether it be agricultural or medical science, social or political science, is beyond the comprehension of the Asian peasant. To make it practical for them, science must step down. This is a great challenge to the ingenuity and creativity of the educators and scientists: they must humanize, simplify these complicated sciences and translate them into terms that are simple and practical so that the peasant people can understand and can put them into operation. 

This is also a challenge to the educated and privileged youth of the colleges. They must be willing to play the part of a science-missionary, to work, to live in the barrios in order to be teachers and to bridge the tremendous gap that exists today between modern science and the peasant. It is one thing to give improved seeds to the farmers; it is quite another thing to train them to select seeds themselves. It is one thing to give drugs to the farmers for diseases; it is quite another thing to educate them to prevent diseases. The one is relief, the other is release — the release of the potential powers of the people, so they can stand on their own feet and fight against and conquer poverty and disease. 

To combat diseases and hunger, science is important but science alone is not enough. If we pay attention only to science and technology but forget ideology, we may wake up one day to find that the people may have more to live on but little to live for. They may enjoy a full rice bowl, but they cease to be free men. It would be indeed tragic if we think only of the empty stomach and neglect the empty mind. While we promote science and technology to increase production and improve health, we must deliberately and vigorously push our democratic ideology. 

What makes the present situation in the Philippines so hopeful is that there is an increasing awareness of the urgency and basic importance of developing the “whole man.” Outstanding civic leaders representing business, banking, industry, education are backing up this movement for rural reconstruction and mass education. College presidents, professors, and scientists leave their city homes to go to the barrios to share their scientific knowledge and skills and adapt them to the simple and practical level of the peasant people. College-educated youth are dedicating themselves to become science-missionaries and freedom crusaders, living and working with the barrio people. When I watch these dedicated young men and women working, teaching, singing in the barrios with the poor and the lowly, the men make me think of St. Francis of Assisi and the women remind me of St. Clara. This is what gives us faith in the future of the Philippines and in the future of the peoples of Asia.

Distinguished members of the Board, your gracious recognition, through me, of the work of the Movement has given great encouragement to the members of our International Board in the United States and to our fellow-workers in different parts of the world. You have put steel into the hearts of our rural reconstruction workers. We are more determined than ever to extend this program of science education for the masses and the crusade for freedom to as many developing countries as we possibly can. We intend to promote national rural reconstruction movements in these countries such as we have done with our Filipino colleagues in the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement. Your generous award of US$10,000 will be added on to our International Scholarship Fund to encourage the finest young men and women to come from different developing countries to the Philippines to learn the techniques of rural reconstruction and to catch the spirit of a science-missionary and freedom-crusader. 

In due time, we hope to organize these different national rural reconstruction movements into a World Federation that will serve as a global force to promote international understanding and to assist one another in this urgent and fundamental task of mass education and rural reconstruction. So friends, we accept your award not so much as an award but as a challenge. The greatest challenge of the 20th century is not the exploring of the mysteries of the outer space but the developing of the millions of God’s forgotten children, the developing peoples of the world, so they can become our equal and full partners to build a better world — a world of freedom and brotherhood.