14 December 2014

Gentlefolk

One of the things I am going to talk about in my Western Culture classes this week is how we (westerners) view China.  As part of that discussion, I will describe who we see as the most influential people in the world, and why.  I will refer to the annual list compiled by Forbes, which I have spent the last few hours analysing.

Forbes 2014 “List of Most Powerful People”

Every November since 2009 Forbes Magazine has published a “List of the Most powerful people on earth”. The list has one name for every 100 million people; the 2009 list contained 67 names, the 2014 list contains 72 names. Click HERE for the full list.

Selections are based on the amount of human and financial resources they command, as well as their influence on world events (basically, their 'soft power').  It would probably be more accurate to call it “List of Most Influential People in the world”.

Time Magazine publishes a 'Top 100' list usually in April every year, but my assessment is that the Forbes list is more considered and solid.

The following table shows the Top Ten names on the 2014 list.

Table 1: Forbes 2014’s Top Ten

Ranking on Forbes 2014 list	Name	Position	Age
#1	Vladimir Putin	President of Russia	62
#2	Barack Obama	President of the United States	53
#3	Xi Jin Ping	General Secretary of the Communist Party of China; Chairman of the Military Commission; President of the People's Republic of China	61
#4	Pope Francis	Spiritual leader of the Catholic Church	77
#5	Angela Merkel	Chancellor of Germany	60
#6	Janet Yellen	Chair of the US Federal Reserve	68
#7	Bill Gates	Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Former Chairman of Microsoft	59
#8	Mario Draghi	President of the European Central Bank	67
#9	Sergey Brin &  Larry Page	Co-Founders of Google	41 & 41
#10	David Cameron	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom	48

Do you agree with their Top Ten? What would you change?

Obama obviously has more resources than Putin, but Putin has demonstrated his ability and willingness to use his power, especially this year.  

Personally, I would put Xi Jin Ping ahead of Obama because he is less constrained.  He is head of the Communist Party of China, and once the CPC determines a course of action, it happens.

I wouldn't rank #4 Pope Francis as high.  I agree he has influence, especially with 1.2 billion Catholics, but I would rank him lower, perhaps around #50. What do you think?

The 2014 list contains leaders of seven important international organisations.  They are:

#4 Pope Francis (Catholic Church)
#8 Mario Draghi (European Central Bank)
#33 Christine Lagarde (International Monetary Fund)
#40 Ban Ki Moon (United Nations)
#45 Jim Yong Kim (World Bank)
#67 Margaret Chan (World Health Organisation)
#70 Joseph Blatter (FIFA)

Regional origin

The regional origin of the 65 individuals on the Forbes list is shown below.

Table 2: Forbes 2014 list, by region

Region	Number	% of 65
USA	24	37%
Latin America	3	5%
Asia (including Australia)	19	29%
Europe	11	17%
Middle East + Africa	8	12%
Leaders of 7 International Organisations are in the list:   Pope; United Nations; World Health Organisation; World Bank; IMF; European Bank; FIFA. They are not included in Table 2.

The 2014 list of 65 individuals (excluding the international organisations) contains 24 Americans, 8 Chinese, 5 Russians, 4 Japanese, and 3 Indians.  One Aussie is included: #66 Gina Rinehart (#32 Rupert Murdoch is shown as American). 

{By way of comparison, the 2009 list contained 22 Americans; 6 Chinese; 3 Russians, and 5 Indians}

The eight persons of Chinese origin are:

#3 Xi Jin Ping (President)
#13 Li Ke Qiang (Premier)
#28 Li Ka Shing (Hutchinson Whampoa, Hong Kong)
#30 Jack Ma (Alibaba, e-commerce)
#41 Robin Li (Baidu, search)
#43 Ding Xue Dong (China Investment Corp)
#53 Ma Hua Teng (Tencent, social networking)
#71 Terry Gou (Hon Hai Corp, Taiwan)

Age distribution

The age distribution is shown in Table 3.  #22 Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is the youngest on the list (30 years of age) and #11 King Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia is the oldest (90 years of age).

Table 3:  Forbes 2014 list, by age

Range of age	% of all names
30 – 39	3%
40 – 49	15%
50 – 59	30%
60 – 69	32%
70 – 79	15%
80 – 89	4%
90 – 99	1%

18% are younger than 50; 62% are aged between 50 and 69; 20% are 70 and older. The median age is 61. 

Women

There are nine women (12.5% of total) on the list. They are:

#5 Angela Merkel (German Chancellor)
#6 Janet Yellen (US Federal Reserve)
#31 Dilma Rousseff (Brazilian President)
#33 Christine Lagarde (IMF)
#46 Park Guen Hye (President of South Korea)
#55 Ginni Rometty (IBM)
#62 Mary Barra (General Motors)
#66 Gina Rinehart (Hancock Prospecting)
#67 Margaret Chan (WHO)

Although lists like this are subjective, I find them quite stimulating.  One can have spirited discussions about names on the list – for example, the inclusion of #70 Joseph Blatter, head of FIFA.  Is he really more ‘influential’ than say Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia, or Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia who are both not on the list?

A controversial inclusion in the 2014 list is #54 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State movement. Do you think he should be there?  Should people like Edward Snowden or Julian Assange be included in such lists?  Their actions have had big impacts, but do they wield real power and influence?  What about leading actors, artists, architects, scientists, or talk show hosts such as Oprah, or authors such as Rowling?

Postscript: I'm glad someone else compiles these lists -  big challenge!

...

That's it for this post.

Keep well and keep smiling (it's only 10 days to Xmas!)

Best wishes,

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn/english
Sunday 14 December 2014