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Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 81
Location: Romania
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BuaNews (Tshwane)
October 3, 2005
Posted to the web October 3, 2005
Shaun Benton
Cape Town
In a BBC poll to find the person most people in the world would like to lead them, South Africa's former president Nelson Mandela topped the list.
Another South African, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, also made the list of 11 ideal leaders, coming in at number eight.
The poll by the British Broadcasting Corporation, in which 15 000 people around the world took part, was to choose a team of 11 people out of 100 high-profile figures to run a fantasy world government.
Nelson Mandela came in as number one, ahead of former United States president Bill Clinton. Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and revered Buddhist figure the Dalai Lama came third.
The person who landed in the fourth place was a choice that surprised the BBC team - it was Noam Chomsky, the United States linguist and leftwing political activist who is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The veteran head of the United States federal reserve, which decides America's monetary policy, came fifth.
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates was number six and Steve Jobs of Apple computers was number seven.
After Archbishop Tutu came flamboyant British tycoon Richard Branson in ninth place, followed by stock market billionaire and philanthropist George Soros.
United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan who already plays a key role in managing world affairs, just made the list, in 11th place.
Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, failed to make the list, coming in at 12th place, while US president George W Bush landed a spot at number 43, below Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro at 36 and left-leaning Venezuela leader Hugo Chavez in 33rd place.
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu kyi, who lives under house arrest, was the highest-placed woman, in 13th place.
The results emerged from the BBC's interactive Power Play game, in which players were asked to choose a team of 11 people to run the world, which was run as part of the BBC World Service's Who Runs Your World season, which examines where power lies in the world.
More than half of the votes in the poll came from people in the United States, the BBC reported.
Considering the massive digital divide, where computer prevalence and Internet usage is highest in the developed countries while the poorer countries of the world struggle for resources, it is interesting to note that popularity can extend beyond those boundaries. |
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