Top Ten International Focus Figures in 2008： Dark Horse Jumping into the White House and Ge Lao Going to the Altar.

　　BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua)-The latest issue of "Half-monthly Talk" named the top ten international focus figures in 2008. The following are the top ten people on the list and their reasons.

　　Greenspan: Slipping off the altar

　　"The world is in danger. Those (economic) demons that were once invisible and intangible have come out. " Paul krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, made these remarks. The economist who predicted that the real estate bubble would burst three years ago believed that the "culprit" who lured the devil into the room was Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of the United States.

　　From 1987 to 2006, Greenspan was in charge of the most influential economic decision-making body in the United States. Greenspan was deified. Advocating free economy, fully trusting Wall Street and strongly supporting the development of financial derivatives, he even succeeded in persuading Congress to abolish the laws of the Great Depression, which separated commercial banks from investment banks to reduce the risks of the financial system.

　　Greenspan finally bowed his head and admitted that he had "some mistakes" and the other part was the Internet. In fact, Greenspan can find American consumers as scapegoats. The American government promotes "overdraft economy", they believe in "overdraft consumption", advance the future without restraint, and lose the present as a result.

　　Obama: Dark Horse Doubts Cloud

　　It took only 11 years for Obama to be elected as the head of state of the United States. In February 2007, when Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency, half of Americans were still asking each other: Who is Obama?

　　Americans, who should have awakened four years ago, finally woke up. They elected the first African-American president and the first black president of the United States, giving him the same mission as President John F. Kennedy.

　　On the night of winning, Obama passionately shouted "American change" and "America is about to see a new dawn." However, the bleak economic data did not stop because of shining words. In the face of the once-in-a-century economic crisis, the new york stock market has fallen back to 10 years ago, and even Warren Buffett failed to create a myth. At the same time, the smoke in Iraq and Afghanistan has not dispersed, and the nuclear cloud in Iran is still there.

　　Sober people should ask: How cold and how long is winter in America? To what extent can Obama change all this?

　　Medvedev: Go forward pragmatically.

　　On the day when the dust settled in the US presidential election, people in many other countries were cheering and excited, as if 63 million Americans had elected a new world leader. Wise politicians don’t do this. On November 5th, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev delivered a State of the Union address, giving Obama a "duel". He said that Russia will deploy missiles in the Baltic Sea region in response to the US missile defense plan, and he also "beat" the United States on security and the global financial crisis in a trite tone.

　　Putin once said that it is the characteristic of the Russian nation to be competitive and unwilling to lag behind. In safeguarding Russia’s national interests, the 43-year-old Medvedev is not behind his predecessor. In August’s Georgia-Russia Five-Day War, Russians saw the firmness and toughness of this former university teacher.

　　Although his rhetoric is fierce, Medvedev, who studied law, is not as rash as Georgian President Saakashvili. He is cautious and methodical with Prime Minister Putin, leading Russia on the road of pragmatism.

　　Kim Jong Il: Calling for Sunshine

　　The vast majority of politicians have attracted the attention of the media because of their public appearances and high speeches, but Kim Jong Il’s absence for a long time has caused long-winded speculations and discussions all over the world.

　　The rumors may be false, but it is true that North Korea needs "sunshine" in the face of many challenges. After the United States removed North Korea from the blacklist of supporting terrorism, the relationship between North Korea and the United States appeared dawn, and North Korea obviously expected more from the Obama administration.

　　It is Lee Myung-bak who disappoints Kim Jong Il the most. Since the change of the Korean government in February this year, instead of grain and fertilizer, anti-DPRK leaflets were sent from the south by large balloons.

　　The "freezing" inter-Korean relations and the confusing Chairman Kim Jong Il have left more expectations for the future of North Korea and the DPRK nuclear issue.

　　Sarkozy: heartthrob+new strongman

　　French President Nicolas Sarkozy would be more popular with China people if he had not stubbornly had an improper relationship with the Dalai Lama.

　　In France, Sarkozy is a "heartthrob". Books such as "Breaking Up" and "Sarkozy and the Woman" talked about the love story between Sarkozy and supermodel Carla Bruni, and TV stations adapted the story of the French first couple into a series.

　　People are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong. The "voodoo doll" with the president as the prototype for people to vent their anger with needles came out. Sarkozy sued for it six times, but the result was counterproductive. The day when the prosecution was rejected, it became the time when the doll was popular. Even more annoying, T-shirts with the words "Sarkozy is narrow-minded" came out.

　　Fortunately, Sarkozy has "reformed" and no longer pays too much attention to his personal life. He is active in the international arena and has built himself into a new European strongman.

　　After the outbreak of the financial crisis, Sarkozy, as the rotating president of the European Union, took an active part in the battle. He proposed an ambitious "European response plan", joined hands with other countries to promote the reform of the international financial system, attacked "the dictatorship of the market" and declared that "laissez-faire capitalism has ended".

　　Bolt: Fly together.

　　Jamaican Bolt was a lightning bolt at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. On the 100-meter runway, when other runners were grinning and struggling to catch up, he began to slow down, spread his arms, looked around triumphantly and slapped his chest confidently before running across the finish line. Next, he won two more gold medals in the men’s 200-meter and 4×100-meter relay races with an unstoppable attitude. The fastest guy in the world won easily and celebrated his success in a special way: taking off his running shoes, barefoot, twisting his ass and making faces at the stands.

　　The "King of Sprint" conquered the world with speed and made China feel his love. The 22-year-old boy donated $50,000 to children in the Sichuan earthquake-stricken area and invited six children in the disaster-stricken area to travel to Jamaica, the "World Sprint Center". He leaned down to kiss a Wenchuan girl who lost her left leg and vividly interpreted "One World, One Dream".

　　Raul Castro: Cuba is bright

　　The State Council likes to look at people under the door, and it scornfully calls Raul Castro "lightweight Castro". Today, Raul has taken over the supreme power of the country from his brother Fidel Castro for more than two years.

　　Under Raul’s leadership, Cuba’s electricity supply has been improved, restrictions on the sale of mobile phones, computers, televisions and other electrical appliances have been lifted, and the socialist beacon on the Caribbean coast has become brighter. Allowing farmers to contract idle land proves that Cuba’s gradual reform is progressing steadily. To this end, in June this year, the EU agreed to lift the diplomatic sanctions against Cuba to show its support.

　　"Soybeans are as important as cannons, or even more important." Raul said this famous saying many years ago, which showed his insight. Now, global food prices have risen, and the number of hungry people has approached 1 billion. As early as 20 years ago, when Raul served as Cuba’s defense minister, he tried how to deal with the dilemma of food aid being interrupted. He advocates that citizens turn parking lots and open spaces into farmland. As a result, Cuba’s "urban farming plan" has achieved amazing and unexpected success.

　　Shama: Democratic raw rice

　　Love Jiangshan, but also love cooking. On January 28th this year, samak sundaravej, an ally of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and a 72-year-old Chinese politician, happily ran to the open-air vegetable market in Bangkok on the day he was elected as the new Thai Prime Minister, saying, "We have recorded a new cooking program for three months. The Constitution does not prohibit the Prime Minister from participating in TV programs. "

　　The prime minister was obviously happy a little too early. Less than eight months after democratic rule, Thailand fell into turmoil again. Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled that Samak’s remuneration for hosting TV cooking programs was unconstitutional and he was removed from the post of Prime Minister. In the previous half month, all kinds of protesters camped in the Prime Minister’s Office, which kept Shama from entering the office.

　　Although Samak has shown his superb cooking skills on TV for seven years, he has done a terrible job in the dish of democracy in Thailand. Like large-scale demonstrations and protests in South Korea and India, excessive democracy has harmed Thailand’s national interests. The chaotic behavior of demonstrators like rushing to a temple fair made the world realize that democracy without the support of people’s wisdom and morality is fragile and dangerous.

　　Somali pirates: a new force of terror

　　In mid-November, the Saudi Arabian supertanker Sirius was hijacked about 450 nautical miles off the coast of Kenya. The tanker is 330 meters long and contains more than 100 million dollars worth of oil.

　　The rampant pirates demanded a ransom of $25 million for Sirius. This "unprecedented" ship hijacking incident seems to indicate that Somali pirates have successfully squeezed into the "blacklist" of global governance in 2008, which includes: nuclear proliferation, terrorist attacks, global warming, energy crisis, food crisis …

　　The international community can no longer turn a blind eye: the war in Somalia in the eastern part of the African continent has lasted for 17 years, and the domestic chaos has reached 1.1 million. Piracy has become the most attractive "occupation".

　　Ali: Run for freedom.

　　Poor family, dropped out of school, married a man several decades older than himself at the age of 8, suffered from domestic violence and sexual abuse, ran away from home at the age of 10, went to the court to ask for a divorce, won the case and became famous. Together with celebrities such as Hillary Clinton, she was elected as one of the top ten "women of the year" in 2008: the story of Yemeni girl Noujude Ali is more like a legend in the movie.

　　Ali is lucky. At present, 51 million girls under the age of 15 are forced to get married all over the world. On this planet, as many as 300 million children live in a miserable world of exploitation, abuse and violence. Among them, there are as many as 165 million children aged 5-14, and hundreds of African children are sold to Britain every year, which is only the tip of the iceberg of the new slave trade.

　　Those children who should snuggle up to their parents and coquetry, with their blood and tears, with their virginity and even death, write the shame of civilization and torture the conscience of the whole mankind.

Editor: Zhao Xuanxuan