RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Time Persons of 2005: Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono

The richest man in the world, Bill Gates, and his wife, Melinda, were named Time magazine's "Persons of the Year" along with Irish rocker Bono for being "Good Samaritans" who made a difference in different ways.

"For being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow, Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono are Time's Persons of the Year," the magazine said in its December 19 issue, made public on Sunday.

Managing Editor James Kelly said the three had been chosen as the people most effective at finding ways to eradicate such calamities as malaria in Africa, HIV and AIDS and the grinding poverty that kills 8 million people a year.

Time also named former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton as "Partners of the Year" for their humanitarian efforts after the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, and the unlikely friendship that developed from that work.

"Natural disasters are terrible things, but what defines us is not what happens to us, but how we react to it," Kelly said.

"When you look at the number of people who die from the kind of diseases and poverty that the Gates' and Bono are fighting, the death tolls are far greater than what occurs in natural disasters or wars," he told Reuters.

The founder of computer giant Microsoft Corp. , whose personal fortune of $46.5 billion topped Forbes magazine's list of the world's richest again this year, and his wife were named for their work in the Gates Foundation, the world's biggest charity with a $29 billion endowment, while Bono was described as the "rocker who has made debt reduction sexy."

THE ROCKER AND THE GEEK

"The rocker's job is to be raucous, grab our attention. The engineer's job is to make things work," Time said, describing the unlikely alliance that developed after the three met for dinner in 2002. They were reunited on Friday in Omaha, where Bono was performing with U2, to be photographed for the cover.

The Gates Foundation funds hundreds of projects around the world primarily focussed on public health, from vaccinating children to developing new drugs, as well as educational programs and scholarships in the United States and abroad.

Bono and fellow musician Bob Geldof spearheaded a popular campaign to tackle poverty in Africa through cancelling the debts of the poorest countries in the world, raising global awareness through the Live 8 concerts in July.

Partly due to popular pressure, the world's industrialised nations agreed in July to double aid to poor countries by 2010, adding $50 billion a year, and to cancel poor countries' debt.

"Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest," Time said.

Kelly said he expected the choice to surprise some people, but the unlikely alliance of the richest man in the world and a "hell-raiser" like Bono was an inspiring example of how different approaches could be effective.

Kelly said the "odd couple" of former Presidents Bush and Clinton had been among the contenders for "Person of the Year," which ranged from talk show host Oprah Winfrey, for her influential campaigning for hurricane relief, to Mother Nature, encompassing the tsunami, hurricanes and earthquakes.

Time has been naming its person of the year since 1927 and the tradition has become the source of speculation every year, as well as controversy over unpopular choices such as Adolf Hitler in 1938 and Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.

The aim is to pick "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse."

Time's 2004 Person of the Year was U.S. President George W. Bush while "The American Soldier" graced the 2003 cover in the year when U.S. troops invaded Iraq.

"You want to make a choice for the history books as well as one which is fresh and interesting," Kelly said.

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the G-man said:
Nothing against either Bono or the Gateses.

However, if, as Time claims, "the aim is to pick 'the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse,'" then I fail to see how they qualify.

Both did laudable work. However, that work was hardly a major news story at any point in the year.

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r3x29yz4a said:
Agreed. I think someone like Micheal Brown should've been up there.

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the G-man said:

However, if, as Time claims, "the aim is to pick 'the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse,'" then I fail to see how they qualify.

Both did laudable work. However, that work was hardly a major news story at any point in the year.

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Wednesday said:Maybe they weren't major news here, but both Bill and Bono were all over BBC and other international news publications throughout the year.

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r3x29yz4a said:
Agreed. I think someone like Micheal Brown should've been up there.

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Snapman said:
Or Hurricane Katrina itself (if Time can put Earth as "Planet of the Year", they can spotlight a hurricane as well).

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the G-man said:
Maybe the real answer is for Time to stop trying to do a "Person of the Year" and instead do a "Story of the Year."

Let's face it: Their "person of the year" only really works about one third of the time. The other two thirds of the time they either end up upsetting people by choosing a controversial, or even loathed, person (Hitler, Khomeini) or they end up having to choose a non-human like "Planet of the Year" or "Machine of the Year."

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r3x29yz4a said:

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the G-man said:
Nothing against either Bono or the Gateses.

However, if, as Time claims, "the aim is to pick 'the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse,'" then I fail to see how they qualify.

Both did laudable work. However, that work was hardly a major news story at any point in the year.

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Agreed. I think someone like Micheal Brown should've been up there.

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Snapman said:
if Time really wanted to limit it to people, they could have chosen someone like Condoleeza Rice, Cindy Sheehan, John Roberts (maybe have Roberts share it with Harriet Miers, or John Bolton, as opposite ends of the political coin), or Karl Rove.

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Jim Jackson said:
TIME's "person of the year" is just an opinion for crissakes.

If you disagree, that's fine. Don't buy the magazine with that as the cover story.

What is the big fucking deal?

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