p

The Person of the Year

by svip at 01-01-2008 18:46

Every year, TIME magazine names a person of the year. And while Stalin and Hitler and even George W Bush have been the person of the year, they still continue to do so. And for 2007, it is Putin, president of the Russian Federation.

Now, while I do not entirely disagree with some of these candidates, I still find the idea of naming a person of the year laughable. They may have been influencing the year, but it is like forgetting the other people making important agendas during the year. Sort of why I thought TIME jumped the shark when the named "You" as the person of the year last year.

Vladimir Putin had the ability to get us all to think about Russia again. And not as in a former Soviet Republic, but rather a new Russia (which sort of seems to go the other way of Boris Yeltsin's ideas)! The choice of Putin is perhaps obvious, but in these modern times, it should be more difficult picking a single person - another reason to stop doing so.

And while I haven't read TIME's reasoning for this selection, I guess it is because he reminded TIME that Russia still exists. Good job on the parliamentary elections though, Mr Putin.