Civil courage – or the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery – should not be forgotten!
That is why today’s post is dedicated to outstanding people who make this world a better place.
There are quite a lot of prizes out there which are assigned to people who act with a lot of civil courage. The Civil Courage Prize for example stands for “steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk — rather than military valor”. Since 2000 people from 13 nations have been honoured with the prize. The 2011 winners are: Lydia Cacho a journalist and human rights activist from Mexico and Triveni Achayra who is the founder of the rescue foundations, saving girls from trafficking in India. Two truly amazing women!
German newspaper TAZ is giving away the Panter Prize on September 17. The nominated six people got elected for being “bewundernswerten Personen, die viel Kraft und Energie aufbringen und sich mutig und selbstlos für ihre Mitmenschen einsetzen” (admirable persons, who invest a lot of power and energy into standing up bravely and selflessly for their fellow human beings). You can find short video-portraits of the six nominees here and vote for your favourite. Let us see what these people’s outstanding actions are:
- Rosmarie Lüttich helps analphabets to learn to read and write.
- Eberhard Radczuweit asks sowjet prisoners of war for forgiveness.
- Petra Wollny helps socially unpriviledged children to find their talents through cultural activities.
- Norbert Denef fights for the abolishment of the limitation period and the silence about sexual abuse.
- Kazim Erdogan has created the first discussion groups for Turkish men to talk about problems in the daily life and family conflicts.
- Hadja Kitagbe Kaba organizes awareness campaigns on female genital mutilation.
Of course we cannot give a prize to all people who fight bravely for the rights of others. Luckily, that is not why they are doing what they are doing anyway. Let us just be inspired for a little more civil courage ourselves.
Kosmos 9 