Answerer 3
Then can anyone translate this?
Wael Ghonim
Wael Ghonim embodies the youth who constitute the majority of Egyptian society — a young man who excelled and became a Google executive but, as with many of his generation, remained apolitical due to loss of hope that things could change in a society permeated for decades with a culture of fear.
Over the past few years, Wael, 30, began working outside the box to make his peers understand that only their unstoppable people power could effect real change. He quickly grasped that social media, notably Facebook, were emerging as the most powerful communication tools to mobilize and develop ideas.
By emphasizing that the regime would listen only when citizens exercised their right of peaceful demonstration and civil disobedience, Wael helped initiate a call for a peaceful revolution.
The response was miraculous: a movement that started with thousands on Jan. 25 ended with 12 million Egyptians removing Hosni Mubarak and his regime. What Wael and the young Egyptians did spread like wildfire across the Arab world.
Azim Premgi
If anyone personifies India's economic transformation, it is Azim Premji, chairman of the information-technology powerhouse Wipro Ltd.
A pioneer of India's IT-outsourcing industry, Premji helped unleash a generation of skilled technical professionals who make up India's growing middle class.
Inspired by his belief that a strong educational system is essential to sustaining the economic growth needed to pull millions of Indian citizens out of poverty, Premji, 65, is deeply involved in efforts to provide universal primary education in India. The Azim Premji Foundation supports programs that reach more than 2.5 million children.
But it may be his pioneering leadership in India's nascent field of philanthropy that will be Premji's lasting legacy. His recent $2 billion donation to his foundation was the largest charitable contribution in the history of modern India.
Ultimately, how he approaches philanthropy could prove to be just as important as how much he gives. His philanthropic work has been characterized by collaboration and transparency. He is setting a remarkable example for those who have benefited so enormously from India's economic expansion and are looking for ways to give back.
Saad Mohseni
I was introduced to Saad Mohseni, 44, by a mutual friend, and I quickly realized he was worth listening to. In my experience, he's the best-informed person in the world about Afghanistan, which is why we're in business together. He and his brother returned to their home country from Australia after 9/11, partly out of commercial interests but largely out of patriotism. Through his ownership of newspaper and TV properties, he has become, without a doubt, the most influential media figure in Afghanistan and plays a big role in shaping public opinion there. He has shown great courage in publicly and strongly criticizing the Karzai government for corruption and incompetence. He hasn't been afraid to show men and women on TV — a practice the Taliban did not allow. With shows like the talent contest Afghan Star, he has broken a lot of conventions, and I think he's broken them in the right way: they were extremely detrimental to women; ending them makes a huge difference in their lives. He has got into trouble for what he has done, but he keeps on doing it. He's not afraid to do what's right
Sarah Palin
There have been times in the past 2½ years when Sarah Palin's political stock was higher, but she's still the Republican Party's most dynamic and divisive power player. With two best-selling books and a full slate of winning candidates she endorsed in last year's midterm elections, the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate holds the answer to perhaps the biggest political question of 2011: Will Sarah Palin run for President? Her entrance into a relatively sparse field could upend the contest for the Republican nomination. Candidate or not, Palin's mastery of social media and identity politics ensure that whatever she's doing, her party and the media will take note.
Zaha Hadid
The first time I experienced Zaha Hadid's work — in 2000, at an exhibit of 20 years of her designs at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London — I had a visceral reaction. The sensuality, the effortlessness, the sculptural quality of her work resonated with me immediately. She was taking these elements to the next dimension with architecture. I was mesmerized by the scale and form of her designs. I had to meet this woman.
Zaha's work evokes that passion. Her buildings are like a gust of wind — organic, forceful and utterly natural. Her oeuvre is diverse: she has done structures from the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein, Germany, to the Terminus Hoenheim-Nord in Strasbourg, France, to the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, Ohio. Then there are her products, interiors and furniture. I couldn't imagine opening my flagship Madison Avenue store without her signature pieces in it.
When I finally met Zaha, I found she personified the work. Strong. Sensual. Iconic. She commands the space around her — not in an imposing way but in a way that seduces you with excitement. She's got great personal style — her hair, her voice, her clothes, her luminosity. She is a woman of culture. Born and raised in Iraq, she bridges East and West with pure sophistication.
To me, Zaha's womanliness is what makes her designs so compelling. She brings a female sensibility and a goddess's touch. Her work is light and lyrical, like an Asian artisan's brushstroke captured forever in the environment. Because her approach is so international, her designs are comfortable anywhere in the world. However you view her work, Zaha, 59, is a visionary. Her style is legendary now and completely original. Whether it's a building or a sofa, you know you're experiencing a unique, individual expression. Zaha is a woman and an artist of her time — and yet she is very much ahead of it too.
Bill Clington
There are professors who pretend to be populists and populists who pretend to be professors. But there have never been a head and heart so perfectly matched as the pair within William Jefferson Clinton. It's an impossible equilibrium: wonky intellectual meets "Oh, hell" card player, oxygen and hydrogen. He defies the laws of physics as his daily exercise, but without him the universe just wouldn't be as friendly to humans.
Especially those who have it the toughest. And there was no tougher place to be on Jan. 12, 2010, than Haiti.
Bill Clinton, 63, has been in love with this tiny, captivating country for a long, long time. In love with Haiti as it is — and in love with the idea of what Haiti could be.
That's why he was a brilliant choice to coordinate U.S. support earlier this year, along with President George W. Bush. And a brilliant choice by the U.N. to be its envoy to Haiti in 2009. Involved long before the earthquake struck, he will be there long after the buildings are back up, working alongside Haitians to make sure things do not return to normal but are better — much better — than before.
That's a much harder job than bricks and mortar. He knows that the catastrophe in Haiti is not, in fact, a natural one.
Tackling extreme poverty is something Clinton is no stranger to — he has worked in Africa for many years, kicking off debt cancellation, which resulted in an additional 42 million African children going to school. He had a huge hand in slashing the price of AIDS drugs for people who couldn't afford them.
Where I'm from, he's a mythic figure. Ditto Haiti, ditto Africa — a huge crowd puller wherever he goes. Rock stars can't be President (lucky for you), but we've all got reason to be thankful that Presidents can be rock stars.
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Danny