On November 20th the WFPL announced in Seoul 9 finalists for the World Innovative Contribution Awards (WIC) which will be hosted by the World Federation of Power Leaders. This will take place at the main Auditorium Hall of the National Assembly Memorial Hall on January 10th, 2019.

“‘WIC AWARDS  is to contribute to the realization of a just and happy world society by encouraging the figures who have set an example of a desirable citizen of the world through excellent achievements and the ones who have contributed to the world peace and human development, thereby letting the world know about their devoted lives.”

said the president of WFPL, Lee San-Ha.

And she added

“Although the nationality and the age of the winners are different from each other, the winners are the models because of the steady practice of public interest practice such as human rights, peace, service and devotion in every corner of the world. We hope that the innovative and devoted outstanding leadership of the nine awardees will be widely recognized and disseminated so that we will be able to create a world where we can join together. ”

Prime Minister Hatoyama

First, Prime Minister Hatoyama, the winner of the World Peace Prize, was finally selected for his contribution to World Peace. Former Prime Minister Hatoyama strongly criticized Abe for visiting Yasukuni Shrine after his retirement. He said Japan has caused wars in the past and has done much damage to most countries in Asia, including Korea and China, who said that Japan should always have to apologize until those who are wounded by war are forgiven.

In particular, former Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama apologized that Japan’s colonization of the Korean peninsula and its subsequent entry into World War II meant that it was a historical fact that the Korean peninsula broke into the north and the north.

Chief Justice Meaza Ashenafi

Chief Justice Meaza Ashenafi of Ethiopia Supreme Court, the winner of WIC AWARDS in Human Rights, was selected for her commitment to understanding African women’s human rights for life. She established the first women-only bank for Ethiopian women. We also established the Women‘s Bar Association to represent women’s rights.

Ethiopia has a long tradition of ‘Telepa’ in which a woman is kidnapped and married to her. Chief Justice Meaza Ashenafi strongly condemned the misconceptions of ‘Telepa’, which trampled the human rights of women, and defended the victims and made them into social issues.

Her story is well known as the screening of the animated film ‘DIFRET’, which shows the reality of human rights in African women. The film ‘ DIFRET’ deals with the true story of an Ethiopian girl and a lawyer who were victims of forced marriage.

Bojan Slate

Bojan Slate, the winner of WIC AWARDS in Environment, is set to tackle a serious environmental degradation of marine ecosystems caused by plastic trash that people have been throwing away. He founded Ocean Cleansing Company and developed the world’s first marine plastic garbage collection system with camera and satellite antenna for easy marine status.

The device, which he invented, connects long pipes to each other to float in buoyancy, and a 3m deep membrane is connected underneath to prevent fish and other marine life from being hurt. The 600m long pipe connected to the U-shaped pipe moves along the algae, collecting marine plastic waste, and collecting the ship.

Currently, the world‘s marine plastic waste is estimated at 150 million tons. It is expected to increase more than three times in the next 10 years, and if the marine plastic waste is neglected, irreversible environmental disaster cannot be avoided. Bojan Slate has an ambitious plan to remove 90% of the world’s marine plastic waste. It aims to clean up the huge marine litter island that is about seven times the size of the peninsula built between California and Hawaii.

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, the winner of WIC AWARDS in Economy, is a businessman who practices the noblesse oblige, and is the prime investment. It is also referred to as the “Oracle of Omaha” because it has eyes that accurately trace the flow of the stock market. He was greatly influenced by Benjamin Graham, the founder of value investing. He is famous for sticking to the ‘value investment method’, which holds stocks of superior companies for a long period of time-based on the inherent value and growth rate of the company.

In 1965 he took over the management of Berkshire Hathaway, a textile company, and turned it into a holding company and investment company with good companies. He is currently the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and is actively engaged in donations, including making commitments to donate 85% of his property to the foundation run by Bill and Gates.

Dr. Stephen Hawking

Dr. Stephen Hawking, the winner of WIC AWARDS in Science, contributed to cosmology and quantum gravity. He is called a worldwide physicist who links Newton and Einstein’s genealogy. Hawking entered Oxford University in 1959 at the age of seventeen. Though he did not have the ability to enter Oxford, he was able to enter the school thanks to the school he recognized for his outstanding talents in physics. He graduated from Oxford with the highest degree in natural sciences. In October 1962 he went to Cambridge to study universalism and general relativity with Professor Dennis Sciama at Cambridge University.

Hawking had a rare disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) called Lou Gehrig’s disease at the age of 21 years. The doctor predicted that he would live a life of about two years. He was encouraged by Professor Skiaama. He studied relativism and cosmology in earnest, without being frustrated. Since then, he has made many achievements such as singularity, Hawking radiation, and Hartle-Hawking state of black holes.

Vicky Colbert

Vicky Colbert, the winner of WIC AWARDS in Education, has created various opportunities through education as a quiet revolutionary, despite decades of unresolved political disputes in Colombia. She co-invented the “Escuela Nueva Education Model,” in which students can play a central role in the education process in order to revolutionize Colombian education.

Vicky Colbert’s educational model has been reflected in Colombian national education policy, providing a better learning opportunity for many people, including urban areas and refugees. The method she has created is currently being implemented in Latin America, including Brazil and Mexico, the Caribbean, East Timor and Vietnam. The World Bank considers the Escuela Nueva model to be one of the most outstanding reforms in the developing world.

Vicky Colbert, who has accumulated education expertise in various institutions both at home and abroad, served as Vice Minister of Education of Columbia and UNICEF’s Education Adviser for Latin America and the Caribbean. She is currently devoted to the education sector, serving as the director of the Fundación Escuela Nueva, an NGO founded to expand the Escuela Nueva educational model.

Qingdao Red Cross Medical Corps

Qingdao Red Cross Medical Corps in China was selected as the winner of WIC AWARDS in Health Care. Dr. Kim Sung-jin, who led the World Health Organization’s tuberculosis counseling team and the rural free service group, made the Qingdao Red Cross volunteer corps in 2004 to serve medical vulnerable areas in China. As a volunteer organization officially registered in China in 2007, today, Qingdao Red Cross Medical Corps practices love without borders through philanthropy and service spirit.

Qingdao Red Cross Medical Corps treated about 39,000 Chinese people free of charge through borderless love. The medical team has provided new life to 152 congenital heart disease children through surgery, and continues to carry out the rescue project for congenital heart disease in China. Currently, Qingdao Red Cross Medical Corps is the only group that provides medical services for Chinese people throughout China.

Michelin

Michelin, the winner of WIC AWARDS in Social Contribution, introduced the Michelin Challenge Bibendum Community, a social contribution program since 1998. Michelin adopted the global platform PPMC (Paris Process on Mobility and Climate) initiative at the UN Climate Change Convention (COP21) in Paris in 2015, raising corporate social responsibility activities as a global initiative.

In addition, PPMC is involved in establishing strategies for implementation of the Paris Climate Convention and UN SDGs (sustainable development goals) in the transportation industry by participating in 150 organizations including transport companies, international organizations, foundations, academia, and companies from all over the world. As a result, Michelin has made a big step forward in helping to reduce carbon emissions around the world.

Peter Handke

Peter Handke, the winner of WIC AWARDS in Cultural, was born in Kerten, Griesen, Austria. He also paid attention to the language-intrinsic approach to the participatory literature that led German literature in the late sixties. The politicization of his argument begins with the recognition of the self-defined, naturally accepted, crafted, manipulated, and screenplay of the ruling system as the ‘Dramaturgie’, and he saw literature as a task that enabled this perception.

The Enlightenment means and object of Peter Handke were languages. He paid attention to the relation between verbal reality and real reality, and in 1966, he published “blasphemy” against the form of the traditional drama and gave a big response to the theater scene. Peter Hantké’s provocative act of semi-authoritative and criticized literature, theater, and politics is in line with this current trend.

The First WIC Awards

On the other hand, the winner of the first WIC AWARDS was the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the World Peace Division, Michelle Obama in the human rights field, Marina Silva in Brazil in the environmental sector, Mr. Marwin in China in the economic sector, The Helmholtz Ocean Research Institute, the Swedish Sylvia Hemmet Foundation in the health care sector, the Israeli Hebrew University Technology Transfer Center, the Yissum Center in the education sector, the African lawyer in the social contribution sector, Nigeria’s “Wole Soyinka” won the prestigious awards.

The Selection Process

The selection of the final winner of WIC AWARDS follows the principle of regional equalization in order to prevent the phenomenon of being concentrated in a particular country. In one country, only one winner can be selected. (Except for Non-Governmental Organizations that have branches in many countries around the world.)

In particular, WIC AWARDS specifies the period of confidentiality to ensure strict objectivity and fairness in the selection of winners. According to this, all contents related to recommenders, recommendees and judges are confidential for 60 years.

WIC AWARDS ceremony will be held at the main Auditorium Hall of the National Assembly Memorial Hall at 2 pm on January 10, 2019, where the ceremony to celebrate “International Day of Movement for Eradication of School Violence”

WFPL

WFPL is the birthplace of the International Youth Research Institute (formerly the International Youth Research Institute) established on January 11, 2007, and through social exchanges and cooperation among countries around the world, and the culture of communication spreads and it is worth to open the ‘world where we live together.

WFPL includes research institutes such as the International Youth Research Institute, the World Women’s Institute, the International Institute for Policy Studies, the World Economic Policy Institute, the World Health Institute, the World Institute of Science and Technology, the World Environment Institute, and the Korea Institute for National Unification.

WFPL is a politically neutral organization. The 17 metropolitan and provincial branches and the regional federations in Korea, together with enthusiastic young talents, actively participate in solving the crisis arising from the structural contradiction of society. It is continuing to bring new vitality to the local communities of Korea and countries around the world.