President Paul Kagame is in New York where he will, this evening, join a host of celebrities and media personalities at the annual Time 100 Gala at the Lincoln Centre.
The event honours past and present nominees to the annual Time 100 list, which profiles the most influential people in the world, including artists and activists, reformers and researchers, heads of state and captains of industry.
President Kagame was nominated to the list by Pastor Rick Warren in 2009, who said that he was “the face of emerging African leadership. His reconciliation strategy, management model, empowerment of women in leadership and insistence on self-reliance are transforming a failed state into one with a bright future. ”
Rwanda ’s rapid improvements have impressed the rest of the continent and Kagame’s influence is exponentially greater than the size that his small country might warrant.
Paul Kagame is one of few leaders who has successfully modelled the transition from soldier to statesman. During the atrocities of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, the world watched in horror, but did nothing. Kagame, with no outside help, was solely responsible for ending the slaughter that murdered over a million citizens in 100 days.
When his best friend was killed, Kagame was forced to assume the leadership of the Rwandan exiles that ended the killing spree. He was hailed as liberator by his countrymen, but wisely refused the presidency at that point.
“What we needed most was unity”, he said, “and I had not been elected,”
After the genocide, the nation was in shambles. Kagame and other began the slow process of rebuilding. But the process moved into hyper drive when he was elected president in 2000.
He launched a series of reforms and reconciliation strategies that have caught the attention of investors worldwide.
He has since taken Rwanda from division and devastation to unity and stability, fostering a social and economic recovery unimaginable 15 years ago. Even his critics respect his accomplishments.
Ranked 24th in 2009- the highest ranked African- President Kagame outpolled global luminaries such as Russian Premier Vladimir Putin (35th), Morgan Tsvangarai (32nd), Oprah Winfrey (98th), Australian PM Kevin Rudd (114th), UK’s Gordon Brown (132nd), recently elected South African President Jacob Zuma (180th) and, even more surprisingly, US President Barack Obama, who was ranked 37th.
What is the TIME Magazine 100 most influential people in the world list ?
The Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by TIME. Developed as a result of a debate among several academics, the list has developed into an annual event.
The list was started with a debate at a symposium at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center on February 1, 1998 with panel participants CBS news anchor Dan Rather, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, then-political science professor Condoleezza Rice, neoconservative publisher Irving Kristol and Time managing editor Walter Isaacson.
The list was first published in 1999, when Time magazine named the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.
Based on the popularity of the installment, in 2004 Time magazine decided to make it an annual issue, listing the 100 people most influencing the world. Making the list is frequently mistaken as an honor ; however, Time makes it very clear that people are recognized for changing the world, for better or for worse.
Those recognized fall in one of five categories : Leaders & Revolutionaries, Builders & Titans, Artists & Entertainers, Scientists & Thinkers, and Heroes & Icons. Within each category, the 20 most influential people (sometimes pairs or small groups) are selected, for a grand total of 100 each year.
Selection criteria
In 2004 Time’s editors “identified three rather distinct qualities”, when choosing the Time 100 explained TIME’s Editor-at-Large Michael Elliott :
First, there were those who came to their status by means of a very public possession of power ; President George W. Bush is the pre-eminent example. Others, though they are rarely heard from in public, nonetheless have a real influence on the great events of our time.
Think of Ali Husaini Sistani, the Grand Ayatullah of Iraq’s Shi’ites, who in effect has a veto on plans to transfer power from those who occupy his country to its people. Still others affect our lives through their moral example.
Consider Nelson Mandela’s forgiveness of his captors and his willingness to walk away from the South African presidency after a single term.
In the 2007, Time 100 list managing editor Richard Strengel explained that the Time 100 was not a list of the hottest, most popular or most powerful people, but rather the most influential, stating :
Influence is hard to measure, and what we look for is people whose ideas, whose example, whose talent, whose discoveries transform the world we live in. Influence is less about the hard power of force than the soft power of ideas and example.
Yes, there are Presidents and dictators who can change the world through fiat, but we’re more interested in innovators like Monty Jones, the Sierra Leone scientist who developed a strain of rice that can save African agriculture.
Or heroes like the great chess master Garry Kasparov, who is leading the lonely fight for greater democracy in Russia. Or Academy Award winning actor George Clooney who has leveraged his celebrity to bring attention to the tragedy in Darfur.