Transcrevo abaixo o texto que preparei para ocasião, na forma não revista.
Eu escolhi diversos títulos dos livros de Hirschman, para rechear esse discurso.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida
715. “In Praise of a Wise Man”, Washington, 22 outubro 1999, 3 pp. Discurso em honra do Prof. Albert Hirschman, por ocasião da entrega das insígnias do Ordem do Cruzeiro do Sul, lido pelo Emb. Rubens Antonio Barbosa na Embaixada em 29.10.1999.
In Praise of a Wise Man
Prof. Albert Hirschman Award Speech
Order of the Southern Cross
Ordem do Cruzeiro do Sul
Speech delivered by
Ambassador Rubens
Antonio Barbosa,
Washington, October
29, 1999
Distinguished
Professor Albert Hirschman;
Ladies
and Gentlemen;
This is a very special occasion, Professor Hirschman, not so much for
you, as you have already received many honors, special distinctions, national
orders, Mélanges Offertes and Festschriften worldwide, but rather for
those of us who are privileged to share this moment with you.
We are truly honored to gather here
today to award you the Commander insignia of the Order of the Southern Cross,
which has been bestowed upon you by your old friend, President Fernando
Henrique Cardoso.
I know it is customary, at events of
this kind, to speak of the recipient’s wisdom, influence, and prominence.
It is not my intention, however, to
indulge in such an exercise of laudatory congratulations, although your
accomplishments in various fields of the humanities and the social sciences are
certainly worthy of such praise.
Rather, let me simply try to chronicle
the intellectual accomplishments of your entire lifetime through the titles and
the principal topics of several of your books, as they are an indication of your
own Journey Towards Progress.
You began your intellectual path
towards knowledge by reflecting on the foundations of National Power, which could be promoted and enhanced through an
appropriate guidance of, and action on,
the Structure of Foreign Trade.
You have applied your knowledge and
practical experience, acquired in Europe and the United States, to the analysis
of Economic Policy Making in Latin
America, just as you have dealt with a variety of Latin American Issues in a number of Essays and Comments about the entire region, as well as on specific
countries, such as Colombia and Brazil.
Taken as a whole, your books on Latin
America, specifically on the Strategy of
Economic Development, represent one of the most impressive intellectual and
bibliographic contributions offered by a single scholar to our comprehension of
the problems of a vast range of countries.
Sometimes with Passion, always with great Interest,
and certainly equipped with Political
Arguments of the finest intellectual quality, you have argued in favor of a more humane kind of Capitalism in Latin America and
elsewhere, Before its Triumph over
alternative modes of production induced some complacency towards the less
insidious faces of capitalism by many members of the Academia.
With a great Loyalty towards the Public
Interest, you have raised your Voice to
prevent a further Decline of States
or Organizations and, while defending
the so-called “subordinate class,” making your own contribution to a successful
Exit from the human poverty and
suffering that afflicts developed and developing countries alike.
Your Essays have always pointed
to some form of Trespassing, as you
have sought to go Beyond the more
common realms of Economics and Politics, seeking a Shifting Involvement and trying to Get Ahead Collectively.
A constant trait in your academic work
and, in fact, in your entire life, has been your capacity to analyze, and
perhaps intellectually combine, Rival
Views of Market and Society, as well as to Cross Boundaries, so as to fight the Rhetoric of Reaction and other social illnesses encore.
Neither the Perversity of
certain economic arrangements, nor the Futility
of the so-called leisure class has prevented you from acting politically in
pursuit of your ideals.
Cultivating what you yourself have
called A Propensity to Self-Subversion,
you stand as a model of a socially engaged person, devoted to the well being of
the whole Gemeinschaft.
Your humanistic qualities would have
allowed you to engage in similar activities regardless of the era in which you
were born, whether as a political man in a Greek agora, a civis Romanus
during the Roman Republic, a free burguer
in a medieval town of your native Germany, an honnête citoyen engaged in the transformation of the Ancien Régime, a freedom Fighter during the era of the American
struggle for independence, a comrade to our own Liberators in Latin America, perhaps even as an intellectual leader
of the Communard movement in the
Paris of the late Empire or, finally, and most importantly, what you have been
most of your life: a teacher, a Herr
Professor, a Philosophe in the
old Kantian style, a Uomo di Scienza,
a Wise Man in its purest form.
For all these qualities, and much more,
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has decided to award you the Commander
Insignia of the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross, which I now have the
immense pleasure and distinct honor to present to you.
