By John Ballard
This year's Top 100 Global Thinkers selected by the writers and editors of Foreign Policy is a good test of how well one has been keeping up with world events. I'm afraid there were too many names with which I am not familiar. In this case, I don't think scanning the list and reading thumbnail sketches is cheating but catching up. It was with no small measure of satisfaction that I saw the name of Alaa Al Aswany at the top of the list. And it was via Twitter that Nouriel Roubini modestly alerted his followers that he had made #30, which is how I was informed.
Johanna Sigurdardottir, #87, is new to me but apparently not to the people of Iceland who elected her Prime Miinister. When I saw the film Inside Job my prior ignorance of Iceland moved from complete to somewhat and is still not much better. But every time I see a reference to Iceland I remember the beautiful opening scenes featuring a picture-book image of that little country which was selected to illustrate what can happen when a true national banking system is privatized, especially without close regulatory oversight. Iceland's response to the global collapse of 2008 was swift and logical: they re-nationalized the banking system and took legal actions against the bastards responsible. I have sometimes wondered what would have happened if a few other countries had followed suit.
Happy scanning...
Rather than waste your time on FPs Global Stinkers - meant thinkers I know I have to show respect, so I apologize for the childish typo [but have you actually looked at the collections of nimrods they've picked this year], this be better list to honour:
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Hey while I'm on drumming a short watch, eh:
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Here's some info on iceland
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Thanks for that informative, if dismal, link about Iceland. I haven't kept up so it makes me feel terrible for them.
ReplyDeletegeoff, I know what you mean about the list. I'm not informed enough to come up with a more appropriate hundred names but one glance tells me their metric had more to do with selling magazines (or more precisely, advertising space) than global thinking. (Cheney and Rice? Gimme a break...) As I said, I was especially pleased to see Al Aswany's picture and name, and somewhat knocked off balance by his being Number One.
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