People On People

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This year’s TIME 100 --special edition of world’s one hundred most influential people-- is now available. As usual, readers are indulged with quick abstracts on various intriguing topics: tech talks --Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales, Flickr.com’s Caterina Fake and Steve Butterfield, MySpace.com’s Chris DeWolf and Tom Anderson-- and science talks --Richard Davidson (He joined western neuropsychology and eastern meditative cognitive science in a holy scientific matrimony, and work together with Dalai Lama, too), Bill James (He, a statistician, turned baseball statistics into an industry), Nancy Cox (She battles to crack the code of ever mutating influenza virus)-- and politic talks, sport talks, culture talks (I’m running out of breath here).

Some are peer-to-peer pieces. NBA Legend Sir Charles Barkey expressed how Steve Nash, a fellow Phoenix Suns-shiner who became a basketball superhero not by making the most scores but by making players around him score better through his super 11.5 average assists, humbled him. China’s doll and pride, Ziyi Zhang, honors Ang Lee for his multitasking struggle --both reintroducing the Orients and rediscovering the Wild West through the world of cinema, and at the same while, standing true to his Eastern roots. My new hero, Malcolm Gladwell --author of plenty ideas on human thoughts-- wrote how listening genuinely to people made Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics, a man every scientist dream of: an out-of-the-box thinker. Tom Cruise had much to say about J.J. Abrams (with whom he just shared mutual honor of collaborating): an actor, writer, director, closet cartoonist, composer, magician, puppeteer, puzzlemaker, humorist, modelmaker, and husband (coincidentally, both Abram’s and Cruise’s wifes’ names are Katie) --though I think this piece is more like a Mission: Impossible 3’s self-promotion than an appraisal.

Some instant karma took place in this edition --one of them is even a multi instant karma. Al Gore, whom Karen Tumulty described as a man who changed his heart from political fights to protecting the environment, consistently saluted Jim Hansen, a NASA scientist who stands his ground stronger year after year making his point to White House that global warming is no myth and here (Gore called him The Climate Crusader). Condoleeza Rice, having his article written by Leslie Gelb --President of the Council on Foreign Relation in New York City--, wrote about Oprah Winfrey’s --to whom she proudly call a friend-- human touch (whether by founding Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, or building homes for 65 families of Katrina’s victims, or even just by inviting experts to her talk show to advise audiences for better lives). Not done yet. Madam Winfrey, the preacher of meaning of life herself, wrote a heart-warming piece of Elie Wiesel, a 62-year-old Holocaust survivor (then, he was 15) whose spirit and wisdom made him her hero.

Some karma actually took some time to play its hand. How many times does a person get the chance to know and meet and call someone a hero? A hero was what once Bono wrote on Aung San Suu Kyi, Bumeses’ human rights figther. But, how many times does that same person get the chance to be called hero, too? This year, it is only fair that Jesse Helms (former Senator from North Carolina), called the man who pushes leaders of the modern world to erase the strangling debts of extremely poor countries (and is succeeding) just what he obviously is all this time: a hero.

Some articles are big surprises and puzzling. Like, Henry Kissinger the former US Secretary of State talked of Franz Beckenbaur the football victor (yes, Mr. Kissinger used the word ‘football’). And, Edward Norton the Fight Club actor (whose directing debut, Keeping The Faith, I love too much) talked of Ma Jun, China’s environmental hero who is protecting China’s water from poisoning by industrial progress --that’s a super burden, and ironic, too, considering China is enjoying its quick 10% GDP increase. It turned out that Norton’s dad founded US Nature Conservancy and had the honor of working together with Ma Jun. It must have been an amazing father-and-son talk.

TIME may named it TIME 100, but I call it People party. Besides the things written down, the most surprising fact for me is: it has been exactly one year since the last edition hit my head also this hard.