An activist from Myanmar who was tortured by the military as a student and now runs an NGO probing infrastructure projects is among this year’s winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, its committee said yesterday.
Also cited for the award, Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel, were two Chinese men, an Indian, a Filipino and a Thai woman.
Ka Hsaw Wa of Myanmar, co-founder of EarthRights International, was recognized for “dauntlessly pursuing non-violent yet effective channels of redress, exposure and education for the defense of human rights, the environment and democracy,” the committee said.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS
Yu Xiaogang (於曉剛) of China was given the award for raising concerns about dams in his country and advocating social impact assessments in all such mega-infrastructure projects.
Ma Jun (馬軍), also of China and a former journalist, was awarded for publicizing environmental issues in China, including naming more than 10,000 companies violating emission standards.
Indian Deep Joshi, who has management and engineering degrees from the Massachussets Institute of Technology, was cited for decades of development work in rural India and founding a non-profit organization that recruits university graduates and grooms them to do grassroots projects in poor communities.
Antonio Oposa, a Filipino environmental activist and lawyer, was awarded for helping protest abuse of marine eco-systems, including organizing sea patrols to raid boat operators engaged in illegal dynamite fishing.
Krisana Kraisintu of Thailand was recognized for her work in producing generic drugs for HIV/AIDS victims, many times cheaper than the multiple pills from pharmaceutical companies. She has worked both in Thailand and in sub-Saharan Africa.
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