‘Malala ahead of Obama among world thinkers’

[Spring Onion]

‘Malala ahead of Obama among world thinkers’


WASHINGTON: [MENTION]Malala Yousufzai is number six on US magazine Foreign Policy’s list of 100 top global thinkers in 2012. She is ahead of US President Barack Obama who is number seven.[/MENTION]The other three Pakistanis on the list are former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, his wife Farahnaz Ispahani and blogger Sana Saleem.

Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s reformist President Thein Sein, a former general, top the 2012 list.

Others on the list include US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former US president Bill Clinton and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Teyyap Erdogan.

The Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers list is published annually. It lists people who are believed to have influenced the thinking of the international community in a particular year.

In previous years, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and current ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman have also been featured in the Top 100 Global Thinkers lists.

“The Taliban’s most fearsome enemy in Pakistan isn’t US drones or the military’s tanks: It’s a 15-year-old schoolgirl,” says a one-page introduction of Malala Yousufzai attached to the list.

“Malala Yousafzai’s tool of defiance? Her own bravery in speaking out for the simple idea that girls should have access to the same education as boys.”

The magazine points out that even as Pakistan bristles with roughly 100 nuclear warheads, up to 60 per cent of women are still illiterate and two out of every five girls fail to finish primary school.

The magazine notes that the Taliban gunman, who attacked Malala as she headed home after an exam, announced that she must be punished for insulting “the soldiers of Allah”. Then he shot her in the head. The introduction also refers to Malala’s diary published on a BBC blog.

Pakistani internet activist Sana Saleem has been added to the list “for insisting that free speech is not blasphemy.’’


‘Malala ahead of Obama among world thinkers’ | DAWN.COM

 

[Edevelop]

ROFL why is Hussain Haqqani and his wife on the list ?

 

[Hindustani]

This girl is an inspiration. Hope she continues

 

[Saifullah Sani]

The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers | Foreign Policy

The Taliban's most fearsome enemy in Pakistan isn't U.S. drones or the military's tanks: It's a 15-year-old schoolgirl. Malala Yousafzai's tool of defiance? Her own bravery in speaking out for the simple idea that girls should have access to the same education as boys. That shouldn't be a radical notion in 2012, but even as Pakistan bristles with roughly 100 nuclear warheads, up to 60 percent of women are still illiterate and two out of every five girls fail to finish primary school. Challenging the tyranny of those low expectations can get you killed in today's Pakistan.

In October, as Malala headed home after an exam, a Taliban gunman stopped her school bus and announced that she must be punished for insulting "the soldiers of Allah." Then he shot her in the head.
Malala, who was grievously wounded but miraculously survived, has fit a lifetime of activism into her few short years. When Islamist militants overran Malala's native Swat Valley in 2009, banning girls' education, she penned an anonymous blog for the BBC about the daily horrors of life under Taliban rule. "My five-year-old brother was playing on the lawn. When my father asked him what he was playing, he replied 'I am making a grave,'" she wrote in one entry. The journal offered a ground-level view of the creeping totalitarianism in Pakistan -- and some soon compared it to Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, but set in modern-day Swat Valley.

Armed only with her convictions and the firm support of her father, who runs a private girls' school, Malala refused to be silenced. She became a celebrity in Pakistan through her outspoken interviews, chaired a "child assembly" that aimed to expand opportunities for youth in the Swat Valley, and pleaded with late U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke to help halt the Talibanization of her country. "I shall raise my voice," she said last year. "If I didn't do it, who would?"

It's a lesson in courage that is inspiring others to stand up to the forces of barbarism in their midst. Too bad it took a tragedy to do it.

 

[Skallagrim]

Good to see Nobel Suu Kyi and Thein Sein top the list..

 

[isro2222]

I wish Malala shift to uk or usa.... i fear she dont have much time to live in pakistan.... Only pakistani people are pro-malala while rest of them are (gov military etc etc) against malala even when they claim they care for malala.... Malala threat to corrupt people. i wish she was indian.... Malala can change pakistans image in world. She can make pakistan a developed nation....

 

[Spring Onion]

I wish Malala shift to uk or usa.... i fear she dont have much time to live in pakistan.... Only pakistani people are pro-malala while rest of them are (gov military etc etc) against malala even when they claim they care for malala.... Malala threat to corrupt people. i wish she was indian.... Malala can change pakistans image in world. She can make pakistan a developed nation....

thats the most ignorant comment as expected from and Indian.

 

[cyphercide]

I don't think that the Malala incident showcases Pakistan in the right light. A minor and two of her friends are shot up in broad daylight, is then transferred abroad for treatment and in all probability will not retain her single citizenship or return to Pakistan isn't something worth publicizing by Pakistan's POV.

Learn from your brethren. China knew well in advance that the Nobel Peace prize for Liu Xiaobo was an attempt to name and shame them. Hence, they did everything in their power to keep the ceremony from being a success. You don't hear the Chinese talking about him as a matter of state pride.

 

[xyxmt]

I just laugh

 

[third eye]

thats the most ignorant comment as expected from and Indian.

Maybe he didnt put is across in a manner that would be well received, he does have a point though.

When she returns she is forever going to be a targeted person if not due to hate but definitely due to her publicity value.

The majority of Pakistanis I am sure support the child but its always the fringe elements who do the max damage and undo all the good the majority does.

 

[Spring Onion]

Maybe he didnt put is across in a manner that would be well received, he does have a point though.

When she returns she is forever going to be a targeted person if not due to hate but definitely due to her publicity value.

The majority of Pakistanis I am sure support the child but its always the fringe elements who do the max damage and undo all the good the majority does.

third eye the topic does not call for such stupid comment in his post (the bolded part) as far as risk then its not just her, everyone is at risk due to terrorists.

the publicity part is indeed true no objection over.

I don't think that the Malala incident showcases Pakistan in the right light. A minor and two of her friends are shot up in broad daylight, is then transferred abroad for treatment and in all probability will not retain her single citizenship or return to Pakistan isn't something worth publicizing by Pakistan's POV.

Learn from your brethren. China knew well in advance that the Nobel Peace prize for Liu Xiaobo was an attempt to name and shame them. Hence, they did everything in their power to keep the ceremony from being a success. You don't hear the Chinese talking about him as a matter of state pride.

that doesnt matter if it dosnt showcase us in right light we are more happy for the response Pakistan gave to the incident. Thats what matter.

 

[Audio]

I don't think that the Malala incident showcases Pakistan in the right light. A minor and two of her friends are shot up in broad daylight, is then transferred abroad for treatment and in all probability will not retain her single citizenship or return to Pakistan isn't something worth publicizing by Pakistan's POV.

Learn from your brethren. China knew well in advance that the Nobel Peace prize for Liu Xiaobo was an attempt to name and shame them. Hence, they did everything in their power to keep the ceremony from being a success. You don't hear the Chinese talking about him as a matter of state pride.

ah, the famous smoke and mirrors to portrait a harmonius middle kingdom to the outside world.

on topic:
kudos to the little girl for the results. That's the type of immigrants we like to see....i know y'all will hate me for saying it, but it's the truth.

 

[Developereo]

Leaving Malala aside, I don't agree with the characterization of these people as top thinkers.

I mean, the Clintons, Melinda Gates, Obama?
Thinkers? Seriously?

Given their positions, they are certainly top influencers and that would be a more appropriate designation.

 

[cyphercide]

that doesnt matter if it dosnt showcase us in right light we are more happy for the response Pakistan gave to the incident. Thats what matter.

Pray, what response was that(Yuppie Pakistanis changing their online avatar to Malala's pic don't count)? What ground reality in Pakistan underwent a paradigm shift due to the Malala incident? Do you really think that global community is sympathizing with Pakistan's plight or is it milking the affair to perpetuate their agendas? Do you understand that an average non-Muslim of the world makes no distinction between a Pakistani and a militant or even a Muslim and an extremist?

Still think Pakistan came out of the deal smelling like roses? Good on you!!!

 

[Jango]

Leaving Malala aside, I don't agree with the characterization of these people as top thinkers.

I mean, the Clintons, Melinda Gates, Obama?
Thinkers? Seriously?

Given their positions, they are certainly top influencers and that would be a more appropriate designation.

Sherry Rehman, Haqqani, Farahnaz Isphahani, Aitzaz Ahsan, CJ Iftikhar Chaudhary aren't worthy to be called top 100 thinkers of the world either.

Influential, knowledgeable they may be, but certainly not thinker. They haven't given out a philosophy have they? Nor brought any radical idea to the fore.

Well, Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize, so why not a thinker award to go with it?