Film director and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, has been honoured with this year’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, often referred to as Asia’s Nobel Prize. The global announcement of the 2024 Ramon Magsasay Awardees was announced.
2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award
Why In News
- Film director and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, has been honoured with this year’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, often referred to as Asia’s Nobel Prize. The global announcement of the 2024 Ramon Magsasay Awardees was announced.
Ramon Magsaysay Award
- Ramon Magsaysay Award is considered prestigious worldwide and is even known as Asia’s Nobel Prize. Ramon Magsaysay Award is named after the seventh president of the Philippines, a former automobile mechanic who was venerated for his servant leadership that earned him the moniker Champion of the Masses. The award is given to people and groups who have made significant contributions to the upliftment of Asia.
Who Is Hayao Miyazaki
- Miyazaki was born in 1941 in Tokyo. His father was the director of a company that manufactured parts for fighter planes during World War II.
- In his book Starting Point: 1979 to 1996, Miyazaki wrote that some of his earliest memories are of “bombed-out cities”.
- By age four, he had witnessed the bombing of Utsunomiya. Despite having an affinity for manga (a popular style of Japanese comics and graphic novels), Miyazaki initially had trouble drawing people.
- He spent years drawing planes, battleships and tanks, which found their way into his cinema as well.
- After studying economics and political science, he began his career as an animator in 1963.
- Before the creation of his production company Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki’s major projects included the long-running series World Masterpiece Theater; and Future Boy Conan, which he directed.
- In the 1969 film The Wonderful World of Puss ‘n Boots, he worked with other top animators in Japan to execute distinct visual sequences.
Who Are The Other Winners
- Among the other winners selected this year is a Vietnamese doctor, Dr Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, who has helped seek justice for victims of the powerful defoliant dioxin, known as Agent Orange which was used by US forces during the Vietnam War.
- Former Buddhist monk Karma Phuntsho – the founder of an educational charity in Bhutan, will also be recognised for his contribution towards “harmonising the richness of his country’s past with the diverse predicaments and prospects of its present.”
- The final individual to be awarded this year is Indonesia’s Farwiza Farhan who helped lead a group to protect the Leuser Ecosystem, a 2.6-million-hectare forest in Sumatra in Aceh province.
- The region is home to highly endangered species and has been facing severe threats from deforestation, infrastructure and weak law enforcement, over the years.
- The group called Rural Doctors’ Movement of Thailand will also be awarded for its dedication and struggle to secure adequate healthcare for Thailand’s rural poor.
