[ExI] Time Magazine: Person of the Year: Putin(!), my vote instead: Anna Politkovskaja

[Amara Graps]

I never had reason to buy and read Time magazine, now I have even less
reason. Time just elected Vladimir Putin as "Person of the Year". Did
someone at  Time fall asleep for the last 8 years?? But, there _is_ a
precedent.

For the 1939 Person of the Year, Time Magazine chose Joseph Stalin:
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19400101,00.html

For the 1938 Person of the Year, it chose Adolf Hitler:
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19390102,00.html

in "Spot the president", Dec 13th 2007, The Economist print edition
http://economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10286034

"Ever since he became acting president on the last day of 1999, Mr Putin
has moved progressively to snuff out even the faintest flickers of
democracy that he inherited from Boris Yeltsin. He has crushed
opponents, emasculated the courts and parliament, eliminated independent
broadcast media, scrapped the autonomy of Russia's regions and blatantly
fixed elections. He has also brought most strategic industries,
especially in the energy business, under state control. Abroad he has
chosen to pursue an increasingly assertive, anti-Western foreign policy
in the name of re-establishing Russia's greatness. These things can be
expected to continue, only more so."


Beppe Grillo has nominated Anna Politkovskaja as person of the year.
http://www.beppegrillo.it/eng/2007/12/anna_politkovskaja_woman_of_th.html

She (more-so, if she hadn't been murdered) gets my vote too.

Amara

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Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado