The city of Macuco gave an award to SGI president Ikeda. This award was given by the municipal assembly to honor an individual who made a contribution to the citizens and the city. The reason for the award is to recognize the noble actions of president Ikeda towards the contribution of happiness to humanity. The ceremony was held on the 18th of December, 1997. President Ikeda's humanism won applause in the auditorium. The city of Macao is a local city about 200 km northeast of Rio de Janeiro. It was established as a city in 1995, it is a truly young city.
On December 18th of 1997, in order to commemorate the second year of it's establishment,a grand commerative ceremony at Macuco Sports Club was held. Many award recipients were invited to the ceremony . President Ikeda was the first one to receive his award.
Attended by Mayor Maurisio Bitencolt, and several Rio Congressmen, Mr. Marcero Abreu Mansel read the message to praise president Ikeda. "At present time, Mr. Ikeda is one of the most intelligent and most humanistic people in the world. President Ikeda was given awards from several organizations all over the world, and his writings are translated into 25 languages."
Mr. Mansel also mentioned the reason why Pres. Ikeda was chosen for the award. He stated that Pres. Ikeda has been conducting dialogue with people all over the world. He concluded his speech by saying that President Ikeda is conducting serious and humanistic dialogue with strong faith to solve the problems of the world.
Mr. Mansel continued to mention that we are members of the big family called the human race who live on earth. There is no other way but to cooperate to solve our problems. In order to do this, I want to state strongly that we as individuals have to accomplish "human revolution" as Pres. Ikeda always emphasizes. There was a loud applause of approval in the auditorium after the speech.
Christiane Thompson Azebete is a SGI member who was one of the attendants at the ceremony. She works for a local newspaper called "Vos d' ahezion Newspaper Company" as an executive. She states "I am impressed deeply that not only a big city like Rio de Janeiro recognizes the greatness of President Ikeda, but our small town does also."
Nowadays in Brazil, not only big cities like Rio de Janeiro, Niteroy, and Casia, but smaller local cities pay tribute to the peace movement of SGI President Ikeda. This is proof that movement of humanism on a large scale is appreciated and arouses people's sympathy.
Source: Jan. 16, 1998 Seikyo Shimbun.
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