Hiroshima mayor, China activists win 'Asian Nobel'

[bananas]

Source: Associated Press

The three-term mayor of Hiroshima who spearheaded a global campaign for nuclear disarmament and a photographer who documented river pollution in his native China are among the 2010 winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards.

The awards announced Monday are considered Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. They are named after a popular Philippine president who died in a plane crash in 1957.

...

Two other Chinese from two ends of the state bureaucracy — Pan Yue, vice minister at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and Fu Qiping, a village chief in Zheijiang province — also received awards for their "bold, constructive work in seizing and creating opportunities to address China's environmental crisis."

Other awardees are physicists Christopher Bernido and wife Maria Victoria Carpio-Bernido of the Philippines, who introduced a novel way of teaching science, and Bangladeshi A.H.M. Noman Khan, who set up service-and-training centers for helping persons with disabilities.

...

Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation: http://www.rmaf.org.ph/

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gBfKpyQ294zWfGxtaohz98nGHRpgD9HB6MA00

[bananas]

1. Wikipedia entry on Tadatoshi Akiba

Mathematician, Social Democrat, and "the only serving Mayor of Hiroshima who met officially a serving US President" (Obama, in January).
Also "a vocal critic of George W. Bush".
An excellent role model for future generations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadatoshi_Akiba

Tadatoshi Akiba (秋葉 忠利, Akiba Tadatoshi?, born November 3, 1942 in Arakawa, Tokyo) is mayor of the city of Hiroshima, Japan.

<snip>

Early life

He studied mathematics at the University of Tokyo, receiving a B.S. in 1966 and an M.S. in 1968. He continued his studies under John Milnor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1970. He took teaching jobs at a series of universities: State University of New York at Stony Brook (1970), Tufts University (1972–1986), and Hiroshima Shudo University (1986–1997). His research was on topology, with an interest in homotopy groups.

Political career

As a member of the Social Democratic Party, he was elected to the House of Representatives, and served from 1990 to 1999. He assumed office as mayor of Hiroshima in February, 1999, and was reelected to this position in 2003 and 2007.

Peace activities

As mayor, he has been a visible peace activist. He is active in the Mayors for Peace organization, serving as the president of their World Conference. The 2020 Vision Campaign launched in 2003, which aims to eliminate nuclear weapons, has earned Mayors for Peace the "World Citizenship Award" from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 2004, the "Sean McBride" Award from the International Peace Bureau in 2006, and the Nuclear-Free Future Award from the Franz-Moll Foundation in 2007. He has also been an advocate of the abolition of nuclear weapons, and a vocal critic of George W. Bush. Since May 2007 he is also Councillor at the World Future Council.

In 2007 he received the Nuclear-Free Future Award in the solutions category.<1>

He was longlisted for the 2008 World Mayor award, but failed to win, as the award went to Mayor Helen Zille of Cape Town, Republic of South Africa.<2>

On January 21, 2010, he attended the 78th winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors as a special guest speaker, and in that capacity attended the reception held at the White House and met US President Barack Obama.<3> He is so far the only serving Mayor of Hiroshima who met officially a serving US President.

On August 2010, he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his advocacy for nuclear disarmament.

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[AsahinaKimi]

2. Subarashi (wonderful)

Congradulations to them! Omedetou gozaimasu!

[davidinalameda]

3. and the Chinese government hasn't arrest this guy yet?

[ensho]

4. kick

nt