Lannan Foundation is a private family foundation located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Funding is focused onspecial cultural projects and ideas that promote and protect cultural freedom, diversity, and creativity. Thefoundation established the Prize for Cultural Freedom in 1999. The first recipient was the writer andjournalist Eduardo Galeano of Uruguay. Claudia Andujar, a photographer from Brazil, received the award in 2000for her lifelong work on behalf of the Yanomami Indians. In 2001 the foundation awarded the Prize to thePalestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.
In September 2002 Roy spoke in Santa Fe for the foundation's Readings & Conversations series, whereshe delivered the lecture ComeSeptember, a critical examination of the effects of U.S.-led corporateglobalization, the "war on terrorism" and the history of U.S. intervention in Chile, in thePalestinian-Israeli conflict, and in Iraq.
Text of the statement
I am honored and delighted to accept the Cultural Freedom Prize from the Lannan Foundation, whose work I respect and admire. It is a privilege to be in the company of writers like Eduardo Galeano andMahmoud Darwish, who have won the prize in previous years.
I accept this prize knowing that there are many people around the world who deserve it more than I do. Unknown, invisible people who are raising their voices and fighting the fight at much greater cost tothemselves than I could ever claim. In these times, when all over the world democratic spaces are being usurped and violated in the name of corporate globalization and the "war against terror," when fascism isstaring us in the face (in India, it is beating down the doors), it is a sign of great hope that there are so manypeople’s movements and individuals who see through the charade and are committed to resisting this process.
It has not been easy to decide what to do with the considerable sum of money that comes with the prize. I am more thandelighted to announce that the money will be shared by at least a few of those who are engaged in the struggle of making Indiaa real democracy instead of just a notional one.
The money, $350,000 will be received by me. After taxes have been deducted by the government of India, this sum willbe shared by the 50 remarkable people’s movements, publications, educational institutions, theater groups,and individuals that are listed below .
Each of them is in their own way working to challenge the entrenched power structure of the society in which we live. The list was drawn up over aperiod of several weeks, after a great deal of thought and discussion with a range of friends, colleagues, andactivists from across the country. To them, a big thank you.
I should also like to say that I am aware that there are many people and organizations whose names are not on the list, not because they don’t deserveto be, but because of the limited nature of our task. I would have liked to share at least part of the money with independent and alternative media groupsin the United States — Democracy Now!, Indymedia, and Alternative Radio — all of whom are staging acourageous and formidable battle against their own government’s propaganda.
Unfortunately, Indian lawdoes not permit me to do this. So to all those groups — apologies — and, as we sayhere in India, Zindabad (long live!).
