What world leader do you most admire and why.

Re: What world leader to you most admire and why.

i think angela merkel is one of the most impressive today, she is hard working , intelligent, accomplished, understated, no ego, polite and hospitable, she is also elegant in her own way without over doing it with over the top outfits.
 
Re: What world leader to you most admire and why.

corkgal said:
Obama seems to be doing the decent thing, closing the detainment centers and working on the foreign policy with the middle east.
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US unemployment figures have risen.
US government spending has massively gone up.

Ombama has been disappointing.

If Cowen can implement the MC Carthy report and reform the public sector - I'd give him the tumbs up.
 
Re: What world leader to you most admire and why.

Bill Clinton - admire his involvement in the peace process (also gotta admire the goings on!)
Tony Blair - likewise (peace process that is)
 
Re: What world leader to you most admire and why.

corkgal said:
Obama seems to be doing the decent thing ..
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In general, yes, but has had some moments that make me think 'Tool !'.

- his involvement in the Henry Louis Gates incident
- telling a Pakistani journalist that he reads Urdu poetry
- snippy behaviour to the White House correspondents
 
Re: What world leader to you most admire and why.

Caveat said:
.. is it that you don't believe him?
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Seemed to me like he was spoofing, or that his aides had provided him with some talking points about 'Urdu poetry'.
 
Re: What world leader to you most admire and why.

TarfHead said:
- snippy behaviour to the White House correspondents
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I noticed that last Friday. He walked in to the room and bellowed "SIT DOWN". Very cross looking.
 
Re: What world leader to you most admire and why.

VOR said:
I noticed that last Friday. He walked in to the room and bellowed "SIT DOWN". Very cross looking.
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His honeymoon is over and he now has to deliver.

The US economy is in a right mess.

Obama's stimulus packages have not worked.
 
Bill Gates - he made money out of nothing (i.e. an OS that he licensed from another company and then further developed).

He shares his wealth in a considerable fashion like €28.7m to Irish aid agency Concern to help fight spiralling baby and mother death rates in developing countries.

Take that Bono with your €5 over 6 years while avoiding paying tax in Ireland but reaping in the money from your Irish fans.
 
Chilean finance minister, Andres Velasco

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"You save in times of abundance, and you invest in lean times." But there's a problem. It might be straightforward, but during the good times, it's not popular. Being tight with public money is not something that voters tend to appreciate, especially not the special interest groups who are always keen to soak the government and other taxpayers for all they can get. As late as last November, reports Bloomberg, government workers were striking for higher wages and burning Velasco's effigy in the Chilean capital Santiago.
Of course, now that the money is available and being used for "tax cuts, subsidies and cash handouts to poor families," at a time when the rest of the world is panicking about debt levels, Mr Velasco is very popular indeed. But getting to that point takes the kind of guts, conviction, and elephant-like hide that Western politicians and central bankers seem to lack.
 
I was wondering what people here thought about Angela Merkel and remembered this thread where many people thought she was great. I wonder if she's still quite so popular?
 
Nelson Mandela has to be admired I think. I don't follow American politics enough to know too much about Barack Obama but he seems to have some good ideas. I admire Bill Gates, he is not a political world leader, but he is a great world figure in many ways. I know that this question was only about those people that are alive, but I want to mention some of those who have died, such as Daniel O'Connell, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
 

Bill Gates has placed Microsoft in Ireland and does so because of our genourous corporation tax. He therefore reduces the amount of money he pays to the United States revenue, although he still pays tax in America. He must still run a profitable company in a recession in a difficult competitive market as he has a duty to his employees and shareholders and family. He then helps poor people and donates money to charity. He is applauded for this.

Bono has placed U2 in Holland and does so because of the genourous Dutch artists' tax. He therefore reduces the amount of money he pays to the Irish revenue, although he still pays tax in Ireland. He must still run a profitable company in a recession in a difficult competitive market as he has a duty to his employees and shareholders and family. He then helps poor people and donates money to charity. Some people applaud him for this. Some people call him a hypocrite. Personally I greatly admire him (as I do Bill Gates).

Sorry to the OP for changing the subject. Hopefully it would detract from the main subject.
 
Truthfully I cant think of a world leader I admire… If there is anyone I admire now it is Bob Geldof. Not because of the whole Band Aid or Live Aid charities or his music which I though was poor but for something he did and said back in either 1979 or 80.

He appeared on the Late Late Show and berated Ireland. He said on live TV that its people were under the thumb of the church and we were nothing more than a priest ridden society. He was berated from the audience by a nun and he put her in her place by telling her she had an easy life, abdicating responsibility so that she could worship a God in relative comfort. He said the real heroes were the mothers of Ireland who were struggling to bring up 5 or 6 children in poverty while the religious orders in Ireland led a life of ease.

This was considered an outrageous outburst in an Ireland that was still glowing in the aftermath of the visit of JPII.

It was a brave man who would make that kind of statement at that time in Ireland and in the fullness of time he has been proved correct.
 

Well said.
 
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