 Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends this year marks the 21st and annual anniversary of the Crystal Awards. It was our late friend, the great violinist and conductor, Lord Yehudi Menuin, who inspired Klaus and Mai to start this award. It has always stood for leadership, vision and compassion. We want to honor personalities who are not only outstanding artists, but who contribute to positive change. Here are the three awardees. Kate Blanchett. She received the award 2018 for her leadership in raising awareness for the refugee crisis. Kate Blanchett was born in Melbourne, Australia. Already as a small child, she used to imagine stories. Today she is an internationally acclaimed and award winning actor and director on stage and screen. She has received two Academy Awards and three Golden Globes. Her contribution to culture has been globally recognized and today she is considered one of the greatest actors of our times. In 2016 Kate Blanchett was appointed UNHCR Global Goodwill Ambassador in recognition of her commitment to refugees. She has traveled into numerous countries to Lebanon, Jordan and also to her home country Australia to advocate for increased solidarity and sharing responsibility for the millions of displaced people across the world. She is committed to raising awareness on issues of forced displacement and in particular of statelessness, which affects millions of people worldwide, denying them basic rights, access to education and health care and the ability to work and travel. I would like to ask Kate Blanchett now to join me on stage. Secret out, I'm as blind as a bat. Thank you, Mrs Swab and Professor Swab and the World Economic Forum for honoring me with this award. I'm deeply grateful for the recognition it gives to the scale and severity of the global refugee crisis, along with the acknowledgement that we all have a stake in identifying and enacting solutions. So we hear the alarming statistics, 66 million almost human beings forcibly displaced around the world and we see the fallout from continued failure of world leaders to secure peace. Whilst in many quarters there's divisive and polarizing language being used for political gain that gnaws away at our empathy and our compassion and we sense the geopolitical, the social and the economic and the environmental threats that will drive yet more human flows and we understand that lost generations of uneducated disenfranchised and displaced children not only represents a vast loss of potential but also a threat for future global security and prosperity. So surely we must now accept our role in finding new ways to respond to the refugee crisis both in the short term but also across the years and years of exile to ensure that refugees are less victim and burden and more actors and participants alongside their host communities to the benefit of all. Now in Davos this week there will be full of talk of disruption, the fourth industrial revolution, shared solutions in a fractured world but nowhere is the fractured world more humanly embodied than in the refugee. It's a person who's uprooted from all that they hold dear force to flee, often resented and reviled in the country where they settle labeled as an economic burden or a terrorist threat and this is the narrative that we truly need to disrupt. Since when do we lose our focus on the human, on our commonalities, on our shared bonds, on there but for the grace of God? Now I feel incredibly privileged to have been had the opportunity to work with UNHCR the UN refugee agency as a goodwill ambassador and to get into the field and meet refugees firsthand and in Jordan in Amiga's shelter in Azraq camp I met Shadi and Shadi had been twice displaced first from Syria and then from Yemen and his heartache was clear as he showed me these very fragmented worn much-loved precious photos of his parents and his brothers long since separated and perhaps he was never to see them again and Shadi had left behind when he fled his own ambitions of becoming a scientist like his heroes Pierre and Murray Curie and Albert Einstein but ever resourceful he challenged his energies instead into the future of others and he worked as a volunteer teacher in the camp imparting his knowledge and his love of science to refugee children building in them both the skills but also the desire to one day return home to their country to rebuild it because Einstein had been a refugee too so if we can just drop for one moment the labeled refugee the label loaded label of refugee just to see the person behind it Shadi an aspirational technically gifted resilient generous man father husband teacher and we can begin to move him from them to us because it's very very easy to turn our backs on the abstraction of the enormous numbers of those in need on the others but standing face to face with just one human being staring them in the eye hearing their story and experiencing our common humanity it's much harder to do nothing because once you've born witness you cannot turn away now in this room and over the course of the week there's an incredible opportunity to reconnect and start transformative thinking and turn this thinking into transformative action and whether your lens is one of sustainable profit or business integrity or competitive advantage innovation creativity or security please consider the incredible opportunities that come from engaging in this issue and with organizations like UNHCR and perhaps the longer term risks of not doing so but beyond that as people as parents sons daughters effective leaders inspiring role models and people who understand the value of legacy consider why this is important to you and i ask you to be reinvigorated by your moral compass now the new york declaration has given a huge opportunity to us this year to the states to the private sector to civil society to UN agencies and NGOs to develop a template for a more sustainable solution to the displacement scenarios and by marrying humanitarian and development action and drawing on business acumen and resources and technological capabilities of the private sector we can achieve far more effective and genuinely shared solutions so we think not just of sheltering and feeding refugees that's incredibly important but also connecting them and developing their capacities and welcoming their skills their resilience and their hope so alongside some inspiring business leaders who are already making huge and innovative contributions and who actually made it here tonight in the smoke Filippo Grande who's the UNHCR high commissioner will be here unfortunately not tonight he's still in his way but with he'll be here with you all week and he is a remarkable man he's an innovative and compassionate strategist so I urge you to take the time to engage with him and with the UNHCR team to see how we can best work together on those shared solutions this award is far much more for him than me and it's an honor to work with UNHCR and definitely Professor Schwab I'm here with myself thank you very much Shahrukh Khan received the 2018 crystal award for his leadership in championing children's and women's rights in India Shahrukh Khan was born in daily India when his school teacher asked him what he wanted to be in the future he said he would become a Bollywood star though his teacher tried to explain to him that his dream was unrealistic his mother's response was if Shahrukh Khan says it will happen it will happen so the story goes today with the following that runs into the billions and the series of films that speak of his tremendous talent and intense work Shahrukh Khan is an icon who entertains and inspires his fellow countrymen and women and who is loved by film audiences around the world across languages and cultures Shahrukh Khan has also been one of India's leading philanthropists he has been instrumental in funding and launching several charitable courses in India in October 2013 he founded the non-profit organization MIR Foundation named after his beloved father Mirtaj Muhammad Khan it provides support to women who are victims of attacks and suffer major acid attacks and suffer major burn injuries the foundation provides medical treatment legal aid vocational training as well as rehabilitation and livelihood support Shahrukh Khan has also helped create specialized children's hospital wards and has supported childcare centers with reboarding for children undergoing cancer treatment I would like to now to ask Shahrukh Khan to join me on stage I'm genuinely and deeply grateful for this honor and it is indeed a privilege to be in the company of two phenomenal and extraordinary human beings and talent Kit Blanchett and Sir Elton John she's of course a lady who commands the wind and you sir command the song of a billion hearts including mine so I'm really really touched that I've been chosen between these two just a special request before you go can I do a selfie now there I've embarrassed my children actors are renowned narcissists no matter how much we pretend not to believe in external beauty we tend to be obsessed by it one way or another and perhaps being surrounded by the succession of beauty a few years ago I came across a lady who had been brutalized by an acid attack and it kind of changed my life or the perspective of it at least to disfigure a woman by throwing acid on her faces to me one of the basest crudest acts of subjugation imaginable at the source of it lies the view that a woman does not have the right to assert her choice to say no to the advances of a man or a group of people and yet each of the women I met I'd found within them the courage to move on with their lives and to reject the idea of victimhood what struck me most about them was this that what was done to them only made them braver and stronger and more able to free themselves to make the choices everyone around them was telling them they could not make couldn't make or should not make from them I have learned how courage can catalyze victimhood into heroism how solidarity rather than charity enables the human will to overcome how equality is not a concept but a truth that encompasses all living beings and how the service of others is not a choice of choice anymore for any of us it is a duty that all of us must fulfill in the name of humankind when I journey through the lives of these heroic women and children through the work of mere foundation I experienced a complete reversal of perspective I stumbled upon the truth that they are no benefactors and no beneficiaries between living beings anymore there is just a vast pool of resources natural spiritual economically technologically that everyone is equally entitled to but only some have gained more access to it either by accident as in my case or by design and talent and hard work as in the case of all of you present here standing here before all of you who constitute perhaps the most powerful group of human beings in the world dare I say that power is one of these perspectives we like to maintain a certain way but power actually needs a complete reversal more than any other thing in the world today I was sitting with my five-year-old son baby sitting him just before I came here and suddenly he screamed my eye went into my hair can you get my eye out of my hair he didn't say get my hair out of my eye like we all believe they do it's a bit like that when you have power I think you think things get in its way but actually it's the power that is getting in the way it gets in the way of universal access to resources because it seeks to control and enclose them so we the powerful need to get out of the way I think to pick the barriers apart the ones that give us names and races and colors and hierarchies we need to get out of the way and into the work of breaking open access for each and everyone with the true sense of ourselves not as more powerful or less privileged but genuinely as equals that is what I have learned from my beautifully scarred women I'm grateful to these brave women and children who I work with for all that they have done for me to the world economic forum and all of you present here today for recognizing their heroism by conferring this award and this reward upon me also I want to thank my sister and my wife and my little daughter for bringing me up well and teaching me the value of requesting sometimes imploring and if I may add sometimes even begging a yes from a woman instead of forcing it upon her thank you so much professor Schwab for having me here and thank you mr. Schwab's thank you Davos Namaskar and Jehin thank you sir Elton John receives the 2018 crystal award for his leadership in the fight against HIV AIDS sir Elton John was born just outside London at three years old he decided that he wanted to be a musician after hearing Elvis Presley's music he taught himself how to play piano when he was only four years old and at the age of 11 he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he attended classes on weekends sir Elton released his first album in 1970 which made him an instant international star and launched his monumental career that's had spawned more than five decades today he is one of the top selling solo artists of all time with 35 gold and 25 platinum albums and 29 consecutive top 40 hits he has sold more than 250 million records worldwide at the height of his fame he met the young man Ryan White who had contracted HIV AIDS through a blood transfusion through Ryan's eyes or Elton witnessed firsthand the pain and suffering inflicted by society on those affected by HIV AIDS in 1992 he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation which today is one of the leading non-profit organizations in that field it has raised more than 400 million dollars to date to support hundreds of programs around the globe for prevention service and advocacy I would like to ask sir Elton John to join me on stage a ridiculous pair of glasses to another no I would love to thank the World Economic Forum professor and Hildesh Wab for this incredible honor good evening everybody and thank you so much for this award I am also I should say very lucky I've been able to spend my life following a passion and that pursuit has led me to a second passion which has led in turn to this award to be given prizes for doing what you have always wanted to do anyway is more luck than any one person actually deserves music was my original passion and I was fortunate that it became my life but I found in time that this is not enough in my case passion led me into some very dark places I wasn't a great person for a long time I lost who I really was and I didn't like who I had become I lost my humanity my connection and my respect for myself yet the fame and the recognition I had acquired was a blessing as well as a curse because it led me towards philanthropy the second aspect of the work you have recognized this evening I started the Elton John 8 Foundation because I wanted to reclaim my sense of who I was I wanted to reconnect I wanted to be a decent person as I look back now on how these two passions have defined my public life I've come to realize that in both cases it is the link to a common humanity that really matters everything that we do that counts involves a connection if there had been no Elvis probably to inspire me I would not have made music all the people who work to produce what I do help me to find an audience and without the listening public there is no audience to reach I am described as a solo artist but nobody is truly a solo artist and the price of being connected is that we must never turn a blind eye to suffering it was that fellow feeling which inspired the Elton John 8 Foundation and over a quarter of a century we have tried to help millions of people to heal and to feel human again in doing this I have discovered that something is worth doing only when there is a purpose and that we can be proud of there is something that applies to everyone here all the leaders who come to Davos are big figures you've all made it babies but what are you making what worth does it have if it does not strengthen the bonds of a human humanity if we are not seeking to change the world for the better through our work what is the point of coming here yes there is glory perhaps fame and prestige there is wealth too but for what good work gives you something bigger than fame richer than wealth finer even than prizes I know this to be true when I founded the Elton John 8 Foundation 25 years ago AIDS was a death sentence there was no treatment to prolong life let alone to save it today there are 20 million people the world over who are on lifesaving HIV medicine incredibly we are now contemplating the end of AIDS by 2030 as a real possibility there is no prize to rival that and it is important to reflect on how it was done how we have come so far against one of the most lethal diseases the world has ever known in just over a generation of course the science the money and the know-how are essential but truly it was done by giving every single person due attention by recognizing their humanity by leaving no one behind the failure to treat people with equal respect is what fueled AIDS the moment we began to respect the moment we chased out shame was the moment we started to fight back I will continue being part of this work till the day I die it is what connects me to my humanity and as you explore creating a shared future in a fractured world this week I urge you to use that sense of human connection and your amazing talents to change the world it needs to be changed the equality in this world is to be honestly to be honest with you disgraceful finally I thank you I'm deeply honored to be recognized by you today thank you very much and make changes thank you this concludes our 24th crystal award ceremony please join me one more time in congratulating our three awardees it is now time for the opening performance we are delighted to present a world premiere developed in collaboration with Theatrala Scala many thanks to Mr. Alexander Pereira who is with us tonight this would not have been possible