Fontaine Prize for Austrian Philosophy for Kids

Peter van den Dungen 13.12.12: „last week Tuesday I was invited to a ceremony in the Belgian Senate – in honour of Henri La Fontaine. The last winner of the Nobel peace prize before the war, he was a fascinating and very deserving winner.

He was influential in both the popular peace movement (long-time president of the International Peace Bureau, then in Bern), and that of the parliamentarians, Interparliamentary Union, IPU  (he was a leading Senator for many years). And, as a social democrat (the first to win the prize), he was also active in the Socialist
International.

This early centenary celebration saw the unveiling of a bust, and the award of a new prize, named after La Fontaine.

This may be of interest for Friedensnews: the inaugural Henri La Fontaine International Prize for Humanism (which comes with a cheque for Euro 10,000) was awarded to Dr. Daniela G. Camhy, of the Institut fuer Philosophie, Karl-Franzens-Universitaet, Graz, for her work with children. See:
www.kinderphilosophie.at

The Prize was handed over by the Belgian prime minister, and the president of the Senate, and also by a third person who, for Peter v. D., „stole the show: Stephane Hessel.“ Author of the bestselling essay, two years ago,
Indignez-vous! He is a most interesting person who speaks beautifully, even at 95 years of age.

Peter van den Dungen was asked to say something about La Fontaine in Dutch; in the photograph, the bust of La Fontaine is in front of me.  It was strange: almost exactly a year before, we had this nice meeting in the parliament in Wien, to celebrate Fried.

Please take a look at the website of the Mundaneum, which was created by La Fontaine and Paul Otlet, and which today is regarded as a (paper) precursor of the Internet/Google.

See www.Mundaneum.org

The Mundaneum is now located in Mons, south of Brussels; 2013 there will be more celebrations.