Nobel Peace Prize Nomination
Ranked #54,111 in Culture & Society, #1,224,859 overall
Nomination for 2008 Nobel Peace Prize
The anthropologist Margaret Mead has said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." The same must apply to the individual committed citizen who, in the face of a warring world, has vision and works relentlessly at achieving a vision for peace. Pianist and teacher and Peace Campaigner, I was honoured and humbled to receive a Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.- I want to thank the people from many countries who have written messages of love and enthusiastic support for the world-view that I demonstrate and promote . Many of you stress that the combination of a musician with a vision for achieving peace in this militarised world would make me an ideal ambassador to hold the Nobel Peace Prize. For this, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Those of you who know me will be aware that I work internationally, hoping to move towards the demilitarised world that Nobel held as his ideal. I wish an end to war because of respect for human life, justice for humankind, happiness and well being for every human on this earth. We are all born with this right. I will continue to attend and organise meetings, to speak at national assemblies and parliaments promoting my sometimes- difficult- to -accept ideals of peace.
I respect Nobel's anti-militaristic aims and know that ordinary people over the world are enthused by his ideas.
I recognise a world without war to be the most beneficial and positive way to respect and protect human rights. I have been campaigning for demilitarisation for many years.
While a politician can make headlines from visible and dramatic gestures through law or tax reform, these headlines are not available to those of us who work quietly in this driven world. However, I have done what is open to me, consistently, through years of speaking, writing and charity concerts, to achieve the understanding and will amongst ordinary people for a world without war, even it means initial hardship. I write and talk for Peace.
The messages of support for Alberto Portugheis's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize included here, which include a message of support from Baroness Jenny Tonge, UK House of Lords and Angela Dugdale MBE, come from many countries - from Tel Aviv, Israel, Argentina, England,Netherlands, Italy, Taiwan, France, Brazil, German, Spain, Austria, USA, Croatia, Norway, France, Tasmania, Australia, Chile, Greece, Hungary, Belgium, Singapore, Mexico, Switzerland, Slovenji, Russia, Wales and Scotland. People have clearly been touched by the message that Alberto Portugheis brings to them. You may have time to read some of these messages to see the enthusiasm that is shown for the idea of a demilitarised world. Nobel would be heartened.
Painting by Norma Procter.
Those of you who know me will be aware that I work internationally, hoping to move towards the demilitarised world that Nobel held as his ideal. I wish an end to war because of respect for human life, justice for humankind, happiness and well being for every human on this earth. We are all born with this right. I will continue to attend and organise meetings, to speak at national assemblies and parliaments promoting my sometimes- difficult- to -accept ideals of peace.
I respect Nobel's anti-militaristic aims and know that ordinary people over the world are enthused by his ideas.
I recognise a world without war to be the most beneficial and positive way to respect and protect human rights. I have been campaigning for demilitarisation for many years.
While a politician can make headlines from visible and dramatic gestures through law or tax reform, these headlines are not available to those of us who work quietly in this driven world. However, I have done what is open to me, consistently, through years of speaking, writing and charity concerts, to achieve the understanding and will amongst ordinary people for a world without war, even it means initial hardship. I write and talk for Peace.
The messages of support for Alberto Portugheis's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize included here, which include a message of support from Baroness Jenny Tonge, UK House of Lords and Angela Dugdale MBE, come from many countries - from Tel Aviv, Israel, Argentina, England,Netherlands, Italy, Taiwan, France, Brazil, German, Spain, Austria, USA, Croatia, Norway, France, Tasmania, Australia, Chile, Greece, Hungary, Belgium, Singapore, Mexico, Switzerland, Slovenji, Russia, Wales and Scotland. People have clearly been touched by the message that Alberto Portugheis brings to them. You may have time to read some of these messages to see the enthusiasm that is shown for the idea of a demilitarised world. Nobel would be heartened.
Painting by Norma Procter.
The Game of War and a Path to Peace
Dear Ahed
My book Dear Ahed, The Game of War and a Path to Peace outlines my underlying
study and knowledge relating to war and the reasons for war. I write of why we cannot have a world at peace living, as we do, in a militarised world. The surprise nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize led to friends asking me to put my ideas into book form. Dear Ahed is the resulting book. You can buy it via lulu.com now or from March 2009 it should be available at Amazon.
Click here to buy from Amazon
study and knowledge relating to war and the reasons for war. I write of why we cannot have a world at peace living, as we do, in a militarised world. The surprise nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize led to friends asking me to put my ideas into book form. Dear Ahed is the resulting book. You can buy it via lulu.com now or from March 2009 it should be available at Amazon.
Click here to buy from Amazon
Harold Pinter
Nobel Lecture 2005
I truly admire Harold Pinter, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2005. He is accused of having black and white political views. I too, have black and white views. Read below what he says. In summary, this represents my own views:
'Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.'
I have copied below Pinter's entire Nobel Acceptance Speech to save you having to make an internet search. Read it all. It is a brave statement from an honest and determined man, using his Nobel platform to great avail:
In 1958 I wrote the following:
'There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.'
I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?
Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavour. The search is your task. More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without realising that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.
I have often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays, except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said. That is what they did.
Most of the plays are engendered by a line, a word or an image. The given word is often shortly followed by the image. I shall give two examples of two lines which came right out of the blue into my head, followed by an image, followed by me.
The plays are The Homecoming and Old Times. The first line of The Homecoming is 'What have you done with the scissors?' The first line of Old Times is 'Dark.'
In each case I had no further information.
In the first case someone was obviously looking for a pair of scissors and was demanding their whereabouts of someone else he suspected had probably stolen them. But I somehow knew that the person addressed didn't give a damn about the scissors or about the questioner either, for that matter.
'Dark' I took to be a description of someone's hair, the hair of a woman, and was the answer to a question. In each case I found myself compelled to pursue the matter. This happened visually, a very slow fade, through shadow into light.
I always start a play by calling the characters A, B and C.
In the play that became The Homecoming I saw a man enter a stark room and ask his question of a younger man sitting on an ugly sofa reading a racing paper. I somehow suspected that A was a father and that B was his son, but I had no proof. This was however confirmed a short time later when B (later to become Lenny) says to A (later to become Max), 'Dad, do you mind if I change the subject? I want to ask you something. The dinner we had before, what was the name of it? What do you call it? Why don't you buy a dog? You're a dog cook. Honest. You think you're cooking for a lot of dogs.' So since B calls A 'Dad' it seemed to me reasonable to assume that they were father and son. A was also clearly the cook and his cooking did not seem to be held in high regard. Did this mean that there was no mother? I didn't know. But, as I told myself at the time, our beginnings never know our ends.
'Dark.' A large window. Evening sky. A man, A (later to become Deeley), and a woman, B (later to become Kate), sitting with drinks. 'Fat or thin?' the man asks. Who are they talking about? But I then see, standing at the window, a woman, C (later to become Anna), in another condition of light, her back to them, her hair dark.
It's a strange moment, the moment of creating characters who up to that moment have had no existence. What follows is fitful, uncertain, even hallucinatory, although sometimes it can be an unstoppable avalanche. The author's position is an odd one. In a sense he is not welcomed by the characters. The characters resist him, they are not easy to live with, they are impossible to define. You certainly can't dictate to them. To a certain extent you play a never-ending game with them, cat and mouse, blind man's buff, hide and seek. But finally you find that you have people of flesh and blood on your hands, people with will and an individual sensibility of their own, made out of component parts you are unable to change, manipulate or distort.
So language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you, the author, at any time.
But as I have said, the search for the truth can never stop. It cannot be adjourned, it cannot be postponed. It has to be faced, right there, on the spot.
Political theatre presents an entirely different set of problems. Sermonising has to be avoided at all cost. Objectivity is essential. The characters must be allowed to breathe their own air. The author cannot confine and constrict them to satisfy his own taste or disposition or prejudice. He must be prepared to approach them from a variety of angles, from a full and uninhibited range of perspectives, take them by surprise, perhaps, occasionally, but nevertheless give them the freedom to go which way they will. This does not always work. And political satire, of course, adheres to none of these precepts, in fact does precisely the opposite, which is its proper function.
In my play The Birthday Party I think I allow a whole range of options to operate in a dense forest of possibility before finally focussing on an act of subjugation.
Mountain Language pretends to no such range of operation. It remains brutal, short and ugly. But the soldiers in the play do get some fun out of it. One sometimes forgets that torturers become easily bored. They need a bit of a laugh to keep their spirits up. This has been confirmed of course by the events at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad. Mountain Language lasts only 20 minutes, but it could go on for hour after hour, on and on and on, the same pattern repeated over and over again, on and on, hour after hour.
Ashes to Ashes, on the other hand, seems to me to be taking place under water. A drowning woman, her hand reaching up through the waves, dropping down out of sight, reaching for others, but finding nobody there, either above or under the water, finding only shadows, reflections, floating; the woman a lost figure in a drowning landscape, a woman unable to escape the doom that seemed to belong only to others.
But as they died, she must die too.
Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.
As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Quaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11th 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true.
The truth is something entirely different. The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role in the world and how it chooses to embody it.
But before I come back to the present I would like to look at the recent past, by which I mean United States foreign policy since the end of the Second World War. I believe it is obligatory upon us to subject this period to at least some kind of even limited scrutiny, which is all that time will allow here.
Everyone knows what happened in the Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe during the post-war period: the systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless suppression of independent thought. All this has been fully documented and verified.
But my contention here is that the US crimes in the same period have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged, let alone recognised as crimes at all. I believe this must be addressed and that the truth has considerable bearing on where the world stands now. Although constrained, to a certain extent, by the existence of the Soviet Union, the United States' actions throughout the world made it clear that it had concluded it had carte blanche to do what it liked.
Direct invasion of a sovereign state has never in fact been America's favoured method. In the main, it has preferred what it has described as 'low intensity conflict'. Low intensity conflict means that thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb
'Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.'
I have copied below Pinter's entire Nobel Acceptance Speech to save you having to make an internet search. Read it all. It is a brave statement from an honest and determined man, using his Nobel platform to great avail:
In 1958 I wrote the following:
'There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.'
I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?
Truth in drama is forever elusive. You never quite find it but the search for it is compulsive. The search is clearly what drives the endeavour. The search is your task. More often than not you stumble upon the truth in the dark, colliding with it or just glimpsing an image or a shape which seems to correspond to the truth, often without realising that you have done so. But the real truth is that there never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost.
I have often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays, except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said. That is what they did.
Most of the plays are engendered by a line, a word or an image. The given word is often shortly followed by the image. I shall give two examples of two lines which came right out of the blue into my head, followed by an image, followed by me.
The plays are The Homecoming and Old Times. The first line of The Homecoming is 'What have you done with the scissors?' The first line of Old Times is 'Dark.'
In each case I had no further information.
In the first case someone was obviously looking for a pair of scissors and was demanding their whereabouts of someone else he suspected had probably stolen them. But I somehow knew that the person addressed didn't give a damn about the scissors or about the questioner either, for that matter.
'Dark' I took to be a description of someone's hair, the hair of a woman, and was the answer to a question. In each case I found myself compelled to pursue the matter. This happened visually, a very slow fade, through shadow into light.
I always start a play by calling the characters A, B and C.
In the play that became The Homecoming I saw a man enter a stark room and ask his question of a younger man sitting on an ugly sofa reading a racing paper. I somehow suspected that A was a father and that B was his son, but I had no proof. This was however confirmed a short time later when B (later to become Lenny) says to A (later to become Max), 'Dad, do you mind if I change the subject? I want to ask you something. The dinner we had before, what was the name of it? What do you call it? Why don't you buy a dog? You're a dog cook. Honest. You think you're cooking for a lot of dogs.' So since B calls A 'Dad' it seemed to me reasonable to assume that they were father and son. A was also clearly the cook and his cooking did not seem to be held in high regard. Did this mean that there was no mother? I didn't know. But, as I told myself at the time, our beginnings never know our ends.
'Dark.' A large window. Evening sky. A man, A (later to become Deeley), and a woman, B (later to become Kate), sitting with drinks. 'Fat or thin?' the man asks. Who are they talking about? But I then see, standing at the window, a woman, C (later to become Anna), in another condition of light, her back to them, her hair dark.
It's a strange moment, the moment of creating characters who up to that moment have had no existence. What follows is fitful, uncertain, even hallucinatory, although sometimes it can be an unstoppable avalanche. The author's position is an odd one. In a sense he is not welcomed by the characters. The characters resist him, they are not easy to live with, they are impossible to define. You certainly can't dictate to them. To a certain extent you play a never-ending game with them, cat and mouse, blind man's buff, hide and seek. But finally you find that you have people of flesh and blood on your hands, people with will and an individual sensibility of their own, made out of component parts you are unable to change, manipulate or distort.
So language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you, the author, at any time.
But as I have said, the search for the truth can never stop. It cannot be adjourned, it cannot be postponed. It has to be faced, right there, on the spot.
Political theatre presents an entirely different set of problems. Sermonising has to be avoided at all cost. Objectivity is essential. The characters must be allowed to breathe their own air. The author cannot confine and constrict them to satisfy his own taste or disposition or prejudice. He must be prepared to approach them from a variety of angles, from a full and uninhibited range of perspectives, take them by surprise, perhaps, occasionally, but nevertheless give them the freedom to go which way they will. This does not always work. And political satire, of course, adheres to none of these precepts, in fact does precisely the opposite, which is its proper function.
In my play The Birthday Party I think I allow a whole range of options to operate in a dense forest of possibility before finally focussing on an act of subjugation.
Mountain Language pretends to no such range of operation. It remains brutal, short and ugly. But the soldiers in the play do get some fun out of it. One sometimes forgets that torturers become easily bored. They need a bit of a laugh to keep their spirits up. This has been confirmed of course by the events at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad. Mountain Language lasts only 20 minutes, but it could go on for hour after hour, on and on and on, the same pattern repeated over and over again, on and on, hour after hour.
Ashes to Ashes, on the other hand, seems to me to be taking place under water. A drowning woman, her hand reaching up through the waves, dropping down out of sight, reaching for others, but finding nobody there, either above or under the water, finding only shadows, reflections, floating; the woman a lost figure in a drowning landscape, a woman unable to escape the doom that seemed to belong only to others.
But as they died, she must die too.
Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.
As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Quaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11th 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true.
The truth is something entirely different. The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role in the world and how it chooses to embody it.
But before I come back to the present I would like to look at the recent past, by which I mean United States foreign policy since the end of the Second World War. I believe it is obligatory upon us to subject this period to at least some kind of even limited scrutiny, which is all that time will allow here.
Everyone knows what happened in the Soviet Union and throughout Eastern Europe during the post-war period: the systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless suppression of independent thought. All this has been fully documented and verified.
But my contention here is that the US crimes in the same period have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged, let alone recognised as crimes at all. I believe this must be addressed and that the truth has considerable bearing on where the world stands now. Although constrained, to a certain extent, by the existence of the Soviet Union, the United States' actions throughout the world made it clear that it had concluded it had carte blanche to do what it liked.
Direct invasion of a sovereign state has never in fact been America's favoured method. In the main, it has preferred what it has described as 'low intensity conflict'. Low intensity conflict means that thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb
Great Stuff on Amazon
Thanks to all these people....
messages of support; www.peace-orion-arts.com/messages
Alberto Portugheis - Messages of Support
Message 1 from Mary-Clare Adam Murvitz, 22 Micha Street, apt. 1, Tel Aviv 63111, Israel
20 Jan 2008, 14:41
I most sincerely endorse the nomination of Alberto Portugheis for the Nobel Peace Prize. Everything that
Mr. Portugheis stands for, and has been advocating for a great many years now, reflect the ideals and aims expounded by Alfred Nobel.
To award this most prestigious of all prizes to
Alberto Portugheis would really send a very serious message to all governments which proclaim 'peace', but at the same time encourage war.
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Message 2 from Prof. Javier Alejandro Garavaglia, London Metropolitan University - 41 Commercial Rd - E1 1LA - London - UK
20 Jan 2008, 15:04
Hereby I want to express my full support for the candidature of Alberto Portugheis. I have known Alberto for a while now, and I am conscious of his dedication to any human activity, mostly in music, his life passion. There is no art if there is no peace, external and internal. Alberto personifies this completely. His contribution to the world is to bring physical and spiritual peace to mankind.
Javier Garavaglia
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Message 3 from Norma Procter, Georgetown, Gwaelod y Garth, Cardiff UK
20 Jan 2008, 15:13
Alberto has real vision. I add my name of support to his nomination with pleasure.
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Message 4 from Jean JacquesBalet, 41b, rue Jacques Dalphin 1227 Carouge, Switzerland
20 Jan 2008, 15:55
I support the nomination of Alberto Portugheis
for the Nobel Peace Prize,.M. Portugheis is a great artist working for the peace and education. Jean Jacques Balet
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Message 5 from Zakarias Aniko, Budapest Barkacs u Hungary
20 Jan 2008, 15:56
I support the nomination of Alberto Portugheis for the Nobel Peace Prize
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Message 6 from David Beer, chalet de l'ange, le plan, 74110 Montriond France
20 Jan 2008, 16:13
I know Alberto only a short time but I fully endorse his nomination for the peace prize. He futhers a peaceful future for us all and his work in music reinforces his beliefs
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Message 7 from Dr K Beyk, 47 Argyle Road, London
20 Jan 2008, 16:24
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Message 8 from W C L Brown, 15 Portman Square London W1H 6LJ
20 Jan 2008, 16:28
I endorse your views
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Message 9 from Helene Albrecht, 13, Priory Road W4 5JB London, UK
20 Jan 2008, 16:54
I'm deeply impressed and touched by the message from Alberto Portugheis and 100% agree with his opinion that only a complete stop of funding weapons and military research will bring us peace on earth. I wish him and us a never ending creativity in finding ways out of these dirty business' and providing alternatives for everybody who is involved.
Helene Albrecht
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Message 10 from Guillem Calvo, Flat 4 Brewers Court, 20 Bishop's Bridge Road W2 6AB London
20 Jan 2008, 16:58
Because music can change the world. Giving a child the oportunity to learn an instrument can change his value system and in his life time there will be no longer any need to war.
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Message 11 from Milena Albrecht, 13, Priory Road W4 5JB London, UK
20 Jan 2008, 16:58
Good Luck!
Respect, justice,happiness and well being is really important
for everyone, you're right!
Thank you for what you have done so far
and again, good luck for the future!
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Message 12 from Israel Bar-On, Tel-Ganim, 21 Yosef-Zvi Street, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52312
20 Jan 2008, 17:20
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Message 13 from Wissam Boustany, 12 Walham Grove, London SW6 1QP, United Kingdom
20 Jan 2008, 17:39
The world needs to hear Alberto Portugheis's message loudly and clearly....that the arms trade and militarism in general must be exposed for what they truly are - they are contemptible and destructive for humanity. We must stop heaping glory on the military machine (as well as our soldiers who 'fight wars on our behalf in order to preserve our way of life'). To believe in the military is to believe in mass-murder and terror as a means to an end - in 2008, surely we should have learned by now that militarism is not a solution for solving our problems, no mater how noble and just?
No wars are being fought in my name.
Keep shouting at the top of your voice, Alberto.
Wissam Boustany
Founder of 'Towards Humanity'
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Message 14 from Sharon Bannister, Flat B, 22 Laurier Road, London NW5 1SG
20 Jan 2008, 17:47
I am overjoyed that all your continuous hard work has finally been recognised after all these years.
You have supported so many of us, and inspired us on our own journeys to promote world peace. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Nam Myho Renge Kyo
Sharon Bannister
Member of SGI UK and one of the Co-ordinators of Aiki-Extensions UK www.ukae.org.uk projects with children in the slums of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Ethiopia and "TAB" "Training Across Boarders" Projects supporting peace work with conflicting nations.
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Message 15 from David Black, 2 Patterson Court, Patterson Road, London. SE19 2LG
20 Jan 2008, 18:04
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Message 16 from ROY BAKER, 25 LYNORS AVENUE - ROCHESTER
20 Jan 2008, 18:28
YES, I FULLY REITERATE ALBERTO PORTUGHEIS IDEALS WHICH IN A GROWING WORLD OF CONFLICT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED WITH THE GREATEST POSSIBLE URGENCY AND UNDERSTANDING
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Message 17 from Lubab Al-Farisi, 81 North End House, London W14 0RX
20 Jan 2008, 19:44
Alberto deserves to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace because he has worked extensively and with great fervour for the rights of all human beings.
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Message 18 from Kashif Rafiq Rawn, 122 Uxbridge Road, London
20 Jan 2008, 19:48
I personally know this person.... He is very nice, Polite, loving and so soft tone he has as you will lust/ wish to meet him... i real he is special to be selectd as Noble Peace winner....
Thanks
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Message 19 from Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas, 16 Glenhurst Avenue, London NW5
20 Jan 2008, 20:25
I fully support you and am very proud of you on being nominated for such a prestigious and important prize for every sensible human.
All the very best
Ahmed
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Message 20 from lizzie ball, london uk
20 Jan 2008, 20:28
I am in full support of Alberto Portugheies to wind the Nobel Prize, he is an unbeliavable figure in the world of music and has helped an enormous amount of people across the world in his mission for world peace.
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Message 21 from Peter D F Chesney, 3 Wolseley Gardens, London W4 3LY, UK
20 Jan 2008, 20:28
I can think of no better derserving person than Alberto Portugheis to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Message 22 from Eugene and Elisabeth Alcalay, 940 St. James Circle, Platteville, WI, 53818, USA
20 Jan 2008, 20:34
We wholeheartedly support Maestro Portugheis for the Nobel Peace Prize! We know Maestro Portugheis personally from our visits in the UK, and can attest to the fact that he is a wonderful person and humanitarian with great vision, an asset to the international community. We recommend him without reservation!
Drs. Eugene and Elisabeth Alcalay
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Message 23 from Anna Curtis and Alan Curtis, 21 Golders Green Crescent, London NW11 8LA
20 Jan 2008, 20:56
We support you Alberto 100% in your tireless and noble efforts to achieve the goals of this honourable and much respected ideal.
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Message 24 from PAULA CASTANO, Im Ostersiepen 15, D-42119 Wuppertal, Germany
20 Jan 2008, 21:18
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Message 25 from ariane m braillard
20 Jan 2008, 22:05
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Message 26 from ariane m braillard, 2 pembroke studios - pembroke gardens - london w8 6hx
20 Jan 2008, 22:09
i agree with a full reversal of values
replace fear by trust and destroy all weapons conventional or not fueling fear and encouraging conflicts
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Message 27 from Julian Dawes, 31 Primrose Hill Road, London NW3 3DG
20 Jan 2008, 22:11
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Message 1 from Mary-Clare Adam Murvitz, 22 Micha Street, apt. 1, Tel Aviv 63111, Israel
20 Jan 2008, 14:41
I most sincerely endorse the nomination of Alberto Portugheis for the Nobel Peace Prize. Everything that
Mr. Portugheis stands for, and has been advocating for a great many years now, reflect the ideals and aims expounded by Alfred Nobel.
To award this most prestigious of all prizes to
Alberto Portugheis would really send a very serious message to all governments which proclaim 'peace', but at the same time encourage war.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message 2 from Prof. Javier Alejandro Garavaglia, London Metropolitan University - 41 Commercial Rd - E1 1LA - London - UK
20 Jan 2008, 15:04
Hereby I want to express my full support for the candidature of Alberto Portugheis. I have known Alberto for a while now, and I am conscious of his dedication to any human activity, mostly in music, his life passion. There is no art if there is no peace, external and internal. Alberto personifies this completely. His contribution to the world is to bring physical and spiritual peace to mankind.
Javier Garavaglia
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Message 3 from Norma Procter, Georgetown, Gwaelod y Garth, Cardiff UK
20 Jan 2008, 15:13
Alberto has real vision. I add my name of support to his nomination with pleasure.
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Message 4 from Jean JacquesBalet, 41b, rue Jacques Dalphin 1227 Carouge, Switzerland
20 Jan 2008, 15:55
I support the nomination of Alberto Portugheis
for the Nobel Peace Prize,.M. Portugheis is a great artist working for the peace and education. Jean Jacques Balet
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Message 5 from Zakarias Aniko, Budapest Barkacs u Hungary
20 Jan 2008, 15:56
I support the nomination of Alberto Portugheis for the Nobel Peace Prize
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Message 6 from David Beer, chalet de l'ange, le plan, 74110 Montriond France
20 Jan 2008, 16:13
I know Alberto only a short time but I fully endorse his nomination for the peace prize. He futhers a peaceful future for us all and his work in music reinforces his beliefs
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Message 7 from Dr K Beyk, 47 Argyle Road, London
20 Jan 2008, 16:24
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Message 8 from W C L Brown, 15 Portman Square London W1H 6LJ
20 Jan 2008, 16:28
I endorse your views
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Message 9 from Helene Albrecht, 13, Priory Road W4 5JB London, UK
20 Jan 2008, 16:54
I'm deeply impressed and touched by the message from Alberto Portugheis and 100% agree with his opinion that only a complete stop of funding weapons and military research will bring us peace on earth. I wish him and us a never ending creativity in finding ways out of these dirty business' and providing alternatives for everybody who is involved.
Helene Albrecht
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Message 10 from Guillem Calvo, Flat 4 Brewers Court, 20 Bishop's Bridge Road W2 6AB London
20 Jan 2008, 16:58
Because music can change the world. Giving a child the oportunity to learn an instrument can change his value system and in his life time there will be no longer any need to war.
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Message 11 from Milena Albrecht, 13, Priory Road W4 5JB London, UK
20 Jan 2008, 16:58
Good Luck!
Respect, justice,happiness and well being is really important
for everyone, you're right!
Thank you for what you have done so far
and again, good luck for the future!
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Message 12 from Israel Bar-On, Tel-Ganim, 21 Yosef-Zvi Street, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52312
20 Jan 2008, 17:20
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Message 13 from Wissam Boustany, 12 Walham Grove, London SW6 1QP, United Kingdom
20 Jan 2008, 17:39
The world needs to hear Alberto Portugheis's message loudly and clearly....that the arms trade and militarism in general must be exposed for what they truly are - they are contemptible and destructive for humanity. We must stop heaping glory on the military machine (as well as our soldiers who 'fight wars on our behalf in order to preserve our way of life'). To believe in the military is to believe in mass-murder and terror as a means to an end - in 2008, surely we should have learned by now that militarism is not a solution for solving our problems, no mater how noble and just?
No wars are being fought in my name.
Keep shouting at the top of your voice, Alberto.
Wissam Boustany
Founder of 'Towards Humanity'
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Message 14 from Sharon Bannister, Flat B, 22 Laurier Road, London NW5 1SG
20 Jan 2008, 17:47
I am overjoyed that all your continuous hard work has finally been recognised after all these years.
You have supported so many of us, and inspired us on our own journeys to promote world peace. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Nam Myho Renge Kyo
Sharon Bannister
Member of SGI UK and one of the Co-ordinators of Aiki-Extensions UK www.ukae.org.uk projects with children in the slums of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Ethiopia and "TAB" "Training Across Boarders" Projects supporting peace work with conflicting nations.
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Message 15 from David Black, 2 Patterson Court, Patterson Road, London. SE19 2LG
20 Jan 2008, 18:04
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Message 16 from ROY BAKER, 25 LYNORS AVENUE - ROCHESTER
20 Jan 2008, 18:28
YES, I FULLY REITERATE ALBERTO PORTUGHEIS IDEALS WHICH IN A GROWING WORLD OF CONFLICT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED WITH THE GREATEST POSSIBLE URGENCY AND UNDERSTANDING
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Message 17 from Lubab Al-Farisi, 81 North End House, London W14 0RX
20 Jan 2008, 19:44
Alberto deserves to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace because he has worked extensively and with great fervour for the rights of all human beings.
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Message 18 from Kashif Rafiq Rawn, 122 Uxbridge Road, London
20 Jan 2008, 19:48
I personally know this person.... He is very nice, Polite, loving and so soft tone he has as you will lust/ wish to meet him... i real he is special to be selectd as Noble Peace winner....
Thanks
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Message 19 from Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas, 16 Glenhurst Avenue, London NW5
20 Jan 2008, 20:25
I fully support you and am very proud of you on being nominated for such a prestigious and important prize for every sensible human.
All the very best
Ahmed
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Message 20 from lizzie ball, london uk
20 Jan 2008, 20:28
I am in full support of Alberto Portugheies to wind the Nobel Prize, he is an unbeliavable figure in the world of music and has helped an enormous amount of people across the world in his mission for world peace.
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Message 21 from Peter D F Chesney, 3 Wolseley Gardens, London W4 3LY, UK
20 Jan 2008, 20:28
I can think of no better derserving person than Alberto Portugheis to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Message 22 from Eugene and Elisabeth Alcalay, 940 St. James Circle, Platteville, WI, 53818, USA
20 Jan 2008, 20:34
We wholeheartedly support Maestro Portugheis for the Nobel Peace Prize! We know Maestro Portugheis personally from our visits in the UK, and can attest to the fact that he is a wonderful person and humanitarian with great vision, an asset to the international community. We recommend him without reservation!
Drs. Eugene and Elisabeth Alcalay
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Message 23 from Anna Curtis and Alan Curtis, 21 Golders Green Crescent, London NW11 8LA
20 Jan 2008, 20:56
We support you Alberto 100% in your tireless and noble efforts to achieve the goals of this honourable and much respected ideal.
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Message 24 from PAULA CASTANO, Im Ostersiepen 15, D-42119 Wuppertal, Germany
20 Jan 2008, 21:18
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Message 25 from ariane m braillard
20 Jan 2008, 22:05
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Message 26 from ariane m braillard, 2 pembroke studios - pembroke gardens - london w8 6hx
20 Jan 2008, 22:09
i agree with a full reversal of values
replace fear by trust and destroy all weapons conventional or not fueling fear and encouraging conflicts
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Message 27 from Julian Dawes, 31 Primrose Hill Road, London NW3 3DG
20 Jan 2008, 22:11
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I wish and end to war because of respect for human life
What the Website at Orion Arts said.....
'I wish an end to war because of respect for human life, justice for humankind, happiness and well being for every human on this earth. We are ALL born with this RIGHT.'- Alberto Portugheis, January 2008, London.
To promote his Peace Prize, Nobel's core idea was of a demilitarised world order, with fraternity among nations. Alberto Portugheis, the distinguished pianist and pedagogue, has been nominated for this prize as a result of his tireless campaign for such a world. Born in La Plata, Argentina, to parents of Russian and Romanian descent, he campaigns on this specific ideal, saying:
'No matter which way round I turn arguments, from which perspective I look at conflict - out of a thousand perspectives - there is no way I can see a solution to conflict, to war, to the present state of world affairs, whilst we continue to accept a militarised world.'
Alberto Portugheis' aim is to spread Nobel's message that abolition of the military sector would combat a major source of pollution and depletion of the earth's resources. He points to Government spending on weapons research, saying:
'The list of weapon manufacturing countries is very long. Even longer is the list of weapon buying countries which are ready to go bankrupt for the sake of having arms. In the UK almost 60% of Government funds allocated to Universities and Institutes of Higher Education are devoted to military aims. In the US, over half a million scientists receive their salaries and their funds from the military budget of the Washington Administration. Having arms as a deterrent is as logical as providing musical instruments to deter people from playing and listening to music.'
Daisaku Ikeda, the great Peace campaigner and President of the Buddhist Society, Soka Gakkai International, is an inspiration to Alberto Portugheis, but Portugheis emphasises that, 'No matter how much interchange of ideas and chanting is done, Peace will NEVER be achieved whilst Governments continue to pay scientists to invent or develop weapons - even when thanks to weapon manufacturing, un-employment figures are kept under control because the Arms Trade provides Government with such huge profit.'
Alberto Portugheis supports the work and ideas for a solution to conflict by the Founder of Transcend, Johan Galtung, but goes a step further, stressing, 'No matter how much we educate people to dialogue, by also providing them with weapons, this education becomes invalid.' He supports the Abolition of War and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, but stresses that ridding the world of nuclear weapons is not the solution - sophisticated conventional weapons do as much damage. 'Above all,' he says, 'the same hatred is caused in survivors, the same feelings of revenge towards the attackers. Unless we campaign against all weapon development, invention and manufacturing, there is no way a campaign against the weapon trade can be effective.'
He admires greatly and supports the work of his musician colleague and compatriot, Daniel Barenboim, but from his personal experience of four decades of encouragement for Muslim and Jewish musicians to work together, it is clear that the results of these collaborations are far from the achievement of peace.
Alberto Portugheis' vision challenges authority and the status quo. There is no 'Gandhi way', he says, 'If we didn't arm countries, they wouldn't need Gandhi's example. Arming people and telling them to live in Peace is the same as giving a pound of chocolate or honey to someone, every day, telling him not to gain weight. It is simply absurd.' 'Unless you understand that we must get rid of weapons first, your cries for Peace, Justice and Human Rights will never be heard.'
He serves humanity by tirelessly writing, speaking and giving charity concerts for the promotion of peace, explaining the implications of our militarised world. He contributes his ideas to various NGOs and other organisations like Transcend, Abolition of War, European Network for Peace and Human Rights (Bertrand Russell Foundation), Ministry for Peace, SGI Soka Gakkai International, the Buddhist Society for Value Creation, and the Peace and Dialogue Forum, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, PATRIR and the Nepal Conflict Study Centre. He has spoken at the European Parliament in Brussels and in London at the British Parliament. He is of this age, using the Internet to endlessly communicate his vision to achieve change. He was invited to Cordoba, Spain, to a conference on the Palestine/Israel dispute and will be speaking to a Congress in Lignano in June 2008.
This inveterate peace campainer,who is in regular contact with people from many troubled areas of the world - Palestine, Israel, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Burma, Iraq and several African and S. American countries - knows that the path is not easy. He says, 'I know that a demilitarised world would initially mean mass unemployment until new jobs were created for the good of human kind and the planet. Government treasuries and business alike would need a contingency plan to re-adjust to a world that 'only' functions well without wars.'
Portugheis stresses, 'My very first aim is PEACE, happiness and respect for Human life, for Human Rights and Justice. Automatically,the problems of pollution and depletion of the earth would be addressed.'
'My interest is in educating people', he says, 'in making them think and 'understand' why we do not have a world at Peace. We must study together how we can create a new economic system for a world that will not depend on the weapons busines.'
The message of Alberto Portugheis is not comfortable. It requires a total change of perspective. Kant wrote 'Dare to know. That is the motto of Enlightenment'. It is daring to know that has put Alberto Portugheis' life at risk - uncomfortable knowledge is the fuel with which he campaigns to educate and to promote a world without war.
by Opusbooks
Born in La Plata, Argentina, to parents of Russian and Rumanian descent. He studied in Buenos Aires with the celebrated Vincenzo Scaramuzza (who also... more »
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