Influential people . . . and women as presidents and prime ministers

Time magazine's annual "100 Most Influential People" has just been released.  As always, there were some surprising choices (Kim Kardashian???), but that's not what I want to highlight.  What impressed me this time was the writing of the brief bios -- especially a couple of phrases that so aptly captured the person.

About John Oliver, the comedic genius who hosts the satiric news show, "Last Week Tonight," it was written:
"John is powerful because he isn’t afraid to tackle important issues thoughtfully, without fear or apology. But he’s unique because he uses irreverent humor to make people think."

As I often write here on ShrinkRap, it's the comedians who tell the truth to power -- going at least back to Shakespeare.

About Hillary Clinton:
"She is a realist with a conscience and an idealist who is comfortable with the exercise of power. . . .  Hillary knows how to draw opponents out of their fighting corners and forge solutions on common ground. She practices the politics of reconciliation and reason. Which, not coincidentally, is also the politics of progress."

And, speaking of the woman who is likely to be the United States' first woman president, there is also circulating the web a list of nations that had women as presidents or prime ministers long before the U. S. did.   This list omits the royal women who were not chosen by the people and their representatives, like:   Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I and II, Catherine the Great of Russia, Queen Victoria.

Women chosen by the people begins in 1960 with Sri Lanka's Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, and followed by these especially notable women leaders:

1966 India:  Indira Ghandi
1969 Israel:     Golda Meir
1974 Argentina:   Isabel Peron ("Evita")
1979 Great Britain:   Margaret Thatcher
1988 Pakistan:  Benazir Bhutto
2005 Germany:   Angela Merkel

There's a long list of other countries that have had women leaders, including:  Central African Republic, Portugal, Bolivia, Dominica, Iceland, Norway, People's Republic of China, Yugoslavia, Malta, Phillipines, Pakistan, Lithuania, Nicagarua, Ireland, Haiti, Myanmar, Bangladesh, France, Poland, Canada, Rwanda, Turkey, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Switzerland, Chile, Brazil, South Korea, Ukraine, Liberia, Finland, Croatia, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Australia.

The United States looks like the caboose on this train.

Ralph