Time
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Time magazine recenlty brought out their fifth annual list of the world’s most influential people: leaders, thinkers, heroes, artists, scientists and more. With all credit to Time, I have compiled the list. For more information, please visit www.time.com |
 Dalai Lama | By Deepak ChopraMillions of people turn to the Dalai Lama for inspiration, but to whom does he turn? He and his people have struggled all their lives with the audacity of hopelessness. Oppression and exile are their daily bread. Yet the Dalai Lama, 72, remains calm in the face of cruelty. What does he think of the human race? “We are the superior species on Earth but also the biggest troublemakers,” he once told me.China’s rulers aren’t like the British masters of colonial India, and the Dalai Lama’s Gandhiesque nonviolent struggle won’t give them twinges of conscience, leading to Tibet’s freedom. If anything, Beijing has grown more ruthless in suppressing Tibetan aspirations, as we’ve seen this Olympic year. And yet he has found a way to think kindly of those who oppress his people and vilify his name. I found him unwilling to show any harshness. He said to me, “I don’t dislike the Chinese, only their actions.”To me, the most mystical thing about him is also the most ordinary: the Dalai Lama is happy. He’s happy in the midst of chaos and turmoil. The most inspiring thing he ever told me was to ignore all organized faiths and keep to the road of higher consciousness. “Without relying on religion, we look to common sense, common experience and the findings of science for understanding,” he said. I do the same thing, but I still marvel at this model of calm and compassion. I’m sure neuroscientists would love to know what’s going on inside that brain.To whom, then, does the Dalai Lama turn for inspiration? It’s not a person but a place-beyond I and thou, beyond self and nonself. The wonder isn’t that such a place can be found. The wonder is that one man makes it look so easy. Chopra, author of more than 50 books on spirituality and medicine, has met the Dalai Lama several times |
 Vladimir Putin | by Madeleine AlbrightI have friends who predict that Vladimir Putin will find his new position as Russian prime minister a comedown after eight years as President. I doubt it. Putin is more likely to define his job than be defined by it. After our first meetings, in 1999 and 2000, I described him in my journal as “shrewd, confident, hard-working, patriotic, and ingratiating.” In the years since, he has become more confident and – to Westerners – decidedly less ingratiating.Some believe Putin’s KGB background explains everything, but his allegiance to the KGB is in turn explained by his intense nationalism – which accounts for his popularity in Russia. Timing matters in history, and Putin has had the benefit of high oil prices and the contrast with his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. His vision of Russia is that of a great power in the old-fashioned European sense. Such powers have spheres of influence and subjugate lesser powers. At home, they celebrate national traditions and prize collective glory, not individual freedom.Tolstoy described the 19th century count Mikhail Speransky as a “rigorous-minded man of immense intelligence, who through his energy…had come to power and used it solely for the good of Russia.” What one found disconcerting, though, “was Speransky’s cold, mirror-like gaze, which let no one penetrate to his soul [and] a too great contempt for people.” It is possible to love the idea of a nation without caring too much for its citizens.It is unlikely that Putin, 55, will wear out his welcome at home anytime soon, as he has nearly done with many democracies abroad. In the meantime, he will remain an irritant to nato, a source of division within Europe and yet another reason for the West to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. Albright is a former U.S. Secretary of State |
 Barack Obama | By Deval PatrickThe first time I met Barack we had coffee together at a shop in downtown Chicago. He was in a small law firm, and I was at the Justice Department’s civil rights division in the Clinton Administration. Like many who meet him, I hoped he would one day run for public office. You just want people of his caliber to lead.When at last he decided to run for the Illinois Senate, he called to ask for my help, and I was eager to give it. “I’ll contribute at the max,” I pledged. “Deval,” he said, “in Illinois there is no max.” I said, “Brother, I’m sorry, there has to be a max!”Barack, 46, has already changed American politics. We often hear about the size of the crowds he attracts, as a measure of the excitement about his candidacy. It’s the variety of the crowd that is the real phenomenon: little kids who sit on the floor in front of the podium, and the 101-year-old gentleman who stood up from his wheelchair in Iowa and said, “I’m with him too.” Farmers in overalls next to people in business suits. Every race, religion and creed. Every political party and no party at all.You can feel their excitement about being in Barack’s presence-and about being in the presence of one another. They glimpse for a minute what it might be like to find common cause across differences. That’s how Barack has changed politics. Patrick is governor of Massachusetts |
 Hillary Clinton | By Rob ReinerSimply, I am in awe of Hillary Clinton. There is no more courageous, passionate and committed fighter for our nation’s children.In 1998 California took on Big Tobacco in a ballot initiative to fund early childhood programs. We were outspent and hope was fading fast. Then Hillary showed up, not afraid of the attacks, the money and the influence of the tobacco industry. Her wisdom and support helped us to a narrow victory that now provides $560 million a year for child care, preschool and children’s health care.Later, Hillary supported us when conservatives went after our plan to offer preschool to every child in California. She stayed strong, even when trying to rescue our sinking ship wasn’t in her best political interests. Though we were defeated, the day after the vote, my phone rang, and it was Hillary with a simple message: We’re not backing down. The stakes are too high. “What’s our next move?” she asked.Hillary, 60, has worked her whole life to improve the lives of our nation’s children. She knows that through quality health care and a strong education system our children will be prepared to succeed in tomorrow’s jobs.President Hillary Clinton would end the war, fix our health-care system and get our economy back on track. And wouldn’t it be nice for our nation’s children to finally have a real voice in the White House? Reiner is an actor, director and producer-and a noted political activist |
 John McCain | By Joe LiebermanThe essence of good political leadership is the courage to do what you believe is right when it is unpopular and the skill to bring people of differing viewpoints together to get things done. By those measures, John McCain, 71, is a very good political leader.Reflexive partisanship is poisoning our politics, preventing us from solving our most pressing problems. But John McCain has had the courage to reach across party lines to get things done. Time and again, I have seen him rise above negativism and partisanship to solve problems-reforming our laws on ethics and campaign finance, creating the 9/11 commission, fighting to stop global warming and prevent torture of detainees. While others talk about taking on the Washington special interests, John has done it. Like his hero Teddy Roosevelt, John puts the public interest first.His personal values, strength and experience in war and peace prepare him well to protect us from the Islamist terrorists who are today’s greatest threat to our freedom and to build bridges to the rest of the world that will secure and improve our future.Besides all that, John likes to laugh-often at himself-which is another kind of courage not found in all politicians. John McCain’s life has earned him a place on the TIME 100 list and has prepared him to be America’s next great President. Lieberman is a four-term Senator from Connecticut |
 Hu Jintao | By Henry A. KissingerHu Jintao is the first Chinese leader who grew up in the aftermath of the revolution that established communism in 1949. He inherits its tradition, but he has gone far beyond it. In a marked evolution from Mao Zedong, Hu, 65, has proclaimed the goal of a harmonious society whose components work together by consensus rather than direction. It is a principle he has tried to apply to international affairs as well. Having met with Hu on many occasions, I invariably found him thoughtful, extremely well prepared and very courteous. His mastery of the subject matter seems to make small talk unnecessary to him. In foreign policy, Hu undoubtedly believes that China is entitled to a role appropriate to its growing potential. He is not a crusader, however, and will try to accommodate the imperatives of both sides. There is much public discussion of an evolving adversarial U.S.-China relationship. This poses a challenge to statesmanship on both sides of the Pacific. Any American President is obliged to articulate the deepest values of our people, including human rights. Any Chinese President needs to reflect the necessities of his society, including the territorial integrity of a united China. The challenge for the future is whether they can find a way to work together, recognizing that an adversarial relationship will drain both sides, that many current problems can only be solved on a global basis and that a peaceful and prosperous world requires Sino-American cooperation. Kissinger is a former U.S. Secretary of State |
 George W. Bush | By Silvio BerlusconiThere was a genuine atmosphere of trust and goodwill that summer of 2001, when a new era seemed to be upon us, with the Berlin Wall gone and the divisions of the past overcome. I was sharing this thought with President Bush (both of us recently elected to lead our countries) at the closing dinner of the G-8 summit in Genoa in July 2001. Bush led the conversation, talking amiably with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, the tragedies of the Second World War and cold war seemed far away indeed. Bush observed how much the world had changed, and how we could pass on a lasting peace to our children. I remember feeling true happiness inside me. Just two months later the unthinkable happened, and the Sept. 11 attacks would again forever change the world. The battle against terrorism would become the principal preoccupation of the American President and our common international priority.In the months that followed that immense tragedy, we nonetheless tried to stay focused, aware that justice, freedom and democracy can flourish only if there is security. President Bush knows this well, that a secure world is bound to be a united world, where everyone-and particularly those more fortunate-can and must do their part.George W. Bush, 61, will be remembered as Commander in Chief, but not only for that. He was above all a President who felt the moral obligation that the leading nation of the free world must carry. My thoughts return again to that G-8 summit, where Italy had brought to the top of the agenda the fate of the world’s poorest nations. And Bush was an early and enthusiastic supporter of our initiative to establish a fund for combating endemic illnesses.One time, Bush told me that it is reasonable to have doubts, but not to have so many doubts that you cannot make a decision. It’s up to historians to judge his presidency, but whatever fate history holds for him, I am sure that George W. Bush will be remembered as a leader of ideals, courage and sincerity. Personally, I will always remember him as a friend, a true man who loves his family, understands the meaning of friendship and is grateful toward America’s allies around the world. Berlusconi was elected Prime Minister of Italy for a third time last month |
 Jacob Zuma | By Rian MalanJacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki were once friends and allies, but they fell out around 2002, allegedly because Mbeki, South Africa’s inscrutable President, suspected that Zuma was plotting to replace him. The power struggle that ensued was a peculiar affair, its very existence denied by the ruling African National Congress (ANC). When Zuma was dismissed from the deputy presidency and later charged with corruption and rape, his followers were convinced that their man was the victim of an Mbeki-inspired vendetta. (He was acquitted of the rape charges; the corruption charges are still being investigated.)The controversies didn’t hurt Zuma, 66, an unabashed populist who revels in traditional African polygamy-he has several wives-and whose massive rallies feature the Zulu anthem Bring Me My Machine Gun. His pro-poor rhetoric resonates with many ordinary South Africans who have not benefited from Mbeki’s business-friendly policies. That explains how he easily trounced Mbeki in an internal vote last fall to become the ANC’s chairman, a victory that has put him on track to win South Africa’s presidency next year. Many party elders are horrified that such a man should step into shoes once occupied by Nelson Mandela, but they can’t deny that he has achieved an African rarity: the peaceful overthrow of a powerful incumbent. Malan is an award-winning South African author |
 Anwar Ibrahim | By Paul WolfowitzDuring the 1990s, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and a group of U.S. Senators organized a forum to exchange views among East Asians and Americans. Asked at one session about the role of Islam in politics, Anwar replied, “I have no use for governments which call themselves Islamic and then deny basic rights to half their population.”This devout Muslim leader was an impressive and eloquent advocate of tolerance, democracy and human rights. So we were shocked by his arrest and trial in 1998 on charges of corruption and sodomy. I felt his real “crime” had been to challenge Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, whose impressive record will be forever stained by his treatment of Anwar. I joined Senator Sam Nunn and others to speak out in Anwar’s defense. When he was finally released from prison in 2004, U.S. policy on Iraq was unpopular in Malaysia, and Anwar was harshly critical. It would have been easy for him to disown our friendship, but he is not that kind of person. He kept the channels of dialogue open, even while making clear our disagreements.Anwar, 60, is back in the center of Malaysian politics. The coalition led by his wife Wan Azizah has become the main opposition bloc. His future role can be determined only by Malaysians. One can hope that they will embrace his brand of tolerance, valuing dialogue across political differences, and that this courageous leader will continue to play a leading role on the world stage. Wolfowitz is a former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense |
 Kevin Rudd | By Cate BlanchettFor me, Kevin Rudd’s quality as a leader is best illustrated by his apology to the “stolen generations” of Aborigines. For years, Australia’s government refused to apologize to Aborigines for past wrongs done to them – most notably, the systematic removal of children from their parents, an official policy that continued until the 1970s. When Rudd, 50, was elected Prime Minister last November, his first substantive act was to issue a formal apology to Aborigines in general and to the surviving members of the stolen generations, their families and relatives.It was a watershed moment: the Parliament building was filled with Aborigines; the grounds overflowed with many more people, and there were gatherings in every major city. Most Australians felt as I did, that wrongs were put right. We all felt our government had provided us the space to begin again. This unreserved apology will pave the way for genuine reconciliation between the nation’s first peoples and nonindigenous Australians.Rudd’s other great achievement since taking office also required overturning years of government obstinacy: he ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. These measures suggest that his new government is prepared to think big and back it up with effective action. Blanchett is an Australian-born Oscar-winning actress |
 Bartholomew I | By Archbishop Rowan WilliamsThe Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople enjoys a resonant historical title but, unlike the Pope in the Roman Catholic context, has little direct executive power in the world of Eastern Orthodoxy. Patriarchs have had to earn their authority on the world stage, and, in fact, not many Patriarchs in recent centuries have done much more than maintain the form of their historic dignities. Patriarch Bartholomew, however, has turned the relative political weakness of the office into a strength, grasping the fact that it allows him to stake out a clear moral and spiritual vision that is not tangled up in negotiation and balances of power. And this vision is dominated by his concern for the environment. In a way that is profoundly loyal to the traditions of worship and reflection in the Eastern Orthodox Church, he has insisted that ecological questions are essentially spiritual ones. He has stressed that a world in which God the Creator uses the material stuff of the universe to communicate who he is and what he wants is one that demands reverence from human beings. Probably more than any other religious leader from any faith, Patriarch Bartholomew, 68, has kept open this spiritual dimension of environmentalism. The title Ecumenical Patriarch historically refers to the Patriarch’s pastoral responsibility for “the whole inhabited world.” This brave and visionary pastor has given a completely new sense to the ancient honorific; his work puts squarely on our agenda the question of how we express spiritual responsibility for the world we live in. Williams is Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Church |
 Ben Bernanke | By Justin FoxAfter the long, eventful reign of Alan Greenspan at the U.S. Federal Reserve, his successor Ben Bernanke promised a duller, more predictable tenure when he took charge in February 2006. Then history intervened, in the form of the subprime-mortgage crisis that erupted last year. Since then the soft-spoken former Princeton professor has been at the helm of an increasingly bold, increasingly unconventional, increasingly controversial effort to keep America’s housing problems from toppling the global financial system. Early in his career as an economist, the South Carolina-raised and Harvard-and MIT-educated Bernanke, 53, studied the causes of the Great Depression and concluded that the “malfunctioning of financial institutions” was a major culprit. Malfunctioning is what the market for mortgage securities started doing last summer, and since then many other credit markets have followed suit. The result has been what many have called the worst U.S. financial crisis since the Depression, and Bernanke has been going to unprecedented lengths to keep it from getting worse. His most dramatic intervention so far came in March, when the Fed forced and helped finance a shotgun marriage between about-to-fail investment bank Bear Stearns and JPMorgan Chase. Bernanke’s efforts have been a success – sort of. Loans are still being made (although not nearly as many as there were before last summer), and the world’s ATMs are still spitting out cash. But the Fed’s boldness has raised troubling questions about financial risk, moral hazard and the role of regulators that will occupy Wall Street and Washington for years to come. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy appears to have fallen into recession, the dollar is testing its all-time lows, and while credit-market jitters have receded, they certainly haven’t gone away. Dull predictability? Only in Bernanke’s dreams. |
 Muqtada al-Sadr | By Ricardo SanchezDuring 2003, U.S.-led coalition forces considered Muqtada al-Sadr a renegade Shi’ite leader whose legitimacy was based mostly on the anti-Saddam Hussein legacies of his father and uncle. Although his Mahdi Army was small and loosely organized, he was able to quickly mobilize tens of thousands of Shi’ites from Baghdad to Basra. In April 2004, al-Sadr’s militia attacked coalition forces and took control of most provincial capitals in southern Iraq. In response, President Bush officially declared al-Sadr the enemy and ordered the military to capture or kill him. “We can’t allow one man to change the course of the country,” stated Bush in a video teleconference. “He must be wiped out.” However, within a week, the White House reversed direction and ordered coalition forces to walk away from the mission. Negative media coverage was endangering the planned July 1, 2004, transfer of sovereignty to Iraq, which was heavily tied to Bush’s re-election campaign. That reversal was the turning point in al-Sadr’s rise to power. It gave him legitimacy and enhanced his stature within the broader Iraqi community. The White House handed off this problem to the new Iraqi government with the clear understanding that he would not be arrested but, rather, made a part of the political process. As a fierce opponent of what he calls “the American occupation,” al-Sadr, 34, appeals to the poor Shi’ite masses and thereby controls the stability of southern Iraq. By turning up the level of violence at will, he is able to control the coalition war-fighting environment, disrupt Iraq’s political progress and affect American public opinion. Today, as Iraq moves toward provincial elections, he is in a position to alter world events. He will inevitably continue as a major political power broker on the Iraq scene. But the die was cast in April 2004. Lieut.General Sanchez commanded coalition forces in Iraq from June ‘03 to June ‘04 |
 Robert Gates | By Zbigniew BrzezinskiRobert Gates was President George W. Bush’s surprising choice as Secretary of Defense. When he accepted that onerous appointment – in the midst of a painful war and two years before the end of the President’s term in office – he simply stated that he felt it was his duty to serve. Having known him for some 30 years, I know this statement was sincere. Gates, above all, is a patriot. But he happens to be also a very intelligent patriot, and that is truly reassuring. During his confirmation hearings before the Senate, Gates, 64, acknowledged the important role of Congress in any decision to initiate a new war. That earned him widespread bipartisan respect – and a wartime Secretary of Defense needs such support, particularly when the war is so unpopular. Gates’ professional career has focused predominantly on national security issues. He served on the National Security Council (NSC) staff under Brent Scowcroft during the Ford presidency. He then became my special assistant when I was in charge of the NSC under President Jimmy Carter. He was the first person I would see every morning and usually the last one in the evening. I came to value highly his grasp of foreign affairs and his political judgment. His meteoric rise continued at the CIA, where he eventually became director under President George H.W. Bush. Cool, calm and collected, this is a man who would never be rattled by a sudden 3 a.m. phone call. Brzezinski was National Security Adviser to U.S. President Jimmy Carter |
 Michelle Bachelet | By Hillary ClintonWhen I heard that Michelle Bachelet – a doctor who devoted her life to helping the people of Chile, a daughter who lost her father to the violent regime of Augusto Pinochet and a leader who experienced personally the brutality of dictatorship but never lost hope in the people of her nation or the promise of democracy – was running for the presidency of Chile, I was enthralled. This was a woman who had overcome so much herself, rising to become Health Minister and then Defense Minister – the first woman in Latin America to ever hold such a post. And I remember thinking how wonderful it would be for a woman to break through yet another barrier – and to help her country break through barriers too. When we met in January 2005 during her campaign, she spoke with deep passion and even deeper expertise on the challenges facing her nation, from modernizing the military to modernizing the health-care system. I had been very eager to finally speak with her in person. Being a woman in politics can be tough business, and Bachelet made it look effortless. In our meeting, I learned why: because Bachelet, 56, speaks and leads from her heart. She won, of course. In Chile, Argentina, Liberia, Germany and around the world, women are not only blazing new trails but bringing others along as well. In every country, on every continent – in places where women are soaring to new heights, and in places where too many women remain second-class citizens – women and men can draw inspiration from leaders like Bachelet, leaders with grace and courage, leaders who never give up and never give in. Count me among the inspired. Clinton, a New York Senator and former First Lady, is running for President of the US. |
 Sonia Gandhi | By Shashi TharoorA novelist seeking to tell the story of Sonia Gandhi may be forgiven for seeing a fairy-tale element in the narrative: Beautiful foreigner comes to strange new land and marries handsome prince. They enjoy years of bliss, until the prince is obliged, in painful circumstances, to take over the kingdom and discovers the harsh realities of ruling a turbulent realm, culminating in the unspeakable tragedy of his murder. The queen retreats into silence and mourning until the insistent supplications of her courtiers compel her to emerge and once again take the destiny of the kingdom into her hands. Bliss to triumph to tragedy to triumph again – a classic tale; I should have begun this story with the words Once upon a time… But there is a twist to the tale. For the queen, offered the crown on a brocade cushion, turns it down. She prefers to remain behind the throne, walking with the peasantry, rallying the people but leaving power in the hands of her gray-haired viziers. The story of Sonia Gandhi, 61, is remarkable at every level, and the fairy-tale metaphor barely begins to scratch the surface of its extraordinariness. But which story is one to tell? That of the Italian who became the most powerful figure in a land of a billion Indians? That of the reluctant politician who led her party to power? That of the parliamentary leader who rejected the highest office in her adoptive land, one she had earned by her hard work and political courage? That of the woman of principle who demonstrated that one could stand for the right values even in a profession corroded by cynicism and cant? That of the novice in politics who became a master of the art, trusted her own instincts and discovered she could be right more often than her jaded rivals could ever have imagined? The story of Sonia Gandhi must be all these stories, and more. Tharoor’s most recent book is The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone |
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