Below, we share with you some of the e-mail we received in the nomination process and our reasons for picking Dr. Maathi our Person of the Year. Then, at the bottom of this page, you'll find our current poll. The "Bottom Ten" has been a nearly decade-long tradition. You can make your own nominations by sending us an e-mail. Thanks!

Douglas McD., of Phoenix, AZ, USA wrote us:

Rod,

Mulling this over, I think it's Bono, lead singer for U2. O, I can see the eyes rolling now. But as I go over my personal list of heroes who are addressing the fact that the world is less than a better place on a daily basis; and also since if I nominated you, it wouldn't make it in the mag, then I'd have to say that it is a lead singer who hasn't wasted his time on the world stage for frivolou s things like gang bang parties, global terror, revenge by the megaton or universal health care. Here's my working list:

10 - Steve Earle (cool and political, like Bono, who raised the bar for alt-country music, great new album, but, doesn't have the reach of U2)
9 - Michael Moore (Nice try, but ...)
8 - John Kerry (Where were you all summer?)
7 - Lawrence Lessig (who?)
6 - Hillary Clinton (review this in four years)
5 - Probably a lot of people in Israel who don't like what's going on and are trying to change their own systematic neighborhood bullyhood, but, hell if I can spell their names. There was one guy who I heard about ... I'll get back to you on that.
4 - Janet Jackson (if for one brief moment in sports history, a little bit of levity and tit)
3 - Jesus Christ (mixed results, this year. However, I do think he did more good than bad, even if people in power who believe in him are, once again, the very worst of the worst in this current edition of the apocalyptic vibe. If he is back from the dead, well, he's still way under the radar)
2 - Mrs. Dubya (imagine what the world would be like if Mr. Dubya wasn't getting any at all. Nah, check this one off. He apparently isn't. Where is Monica Lewinsky when you need her?)

I could go on, but it's a descending scale. For all of this Aquarian bushwa about this being the century of the era of the earth mother and all, the generation of young women who will someday inherit the earth are also still pretty much under the radar. While all women make the world a better place, I can't think of anybody in particular who fits the mold, other than the one that makes my world a better place, and she's well, way, way, way under the radar right now, so ...
It's Bono. Why, because the band has impeccable timing for when to appear on the world stage, and when it isn't on the world stage, Bono is out in force, trying to enact positive change politically.

Hope this clears up any confusion.

Douglas McD

Rod,

I thought I'd be honest with myself this time and choose [people] I really regard as heroes not those I think stand a chance of coming up in other people's list. Here is my list, it might not be much in other people's estimation, but these guys really impressed me this year and, in my estimation, made the world a better place.

Heroes for 2004 1). My hero for 2004 is the leader of the TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) in SA (South Africa) and the Nobel Peace Prize nominee for 2004, Zackie Achmat. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) was launched on 10 December 1998, International Human Rights Day. Its main objective is to campaign for greater access to HIV treatment for all South Africans, by raising public awareness and understanding about issues surrounding the availability, affordability and use of HIV treatments www.tac.org.za.

Achmat is HIV positive, as a sign of commitment to his campaign he halted his treatment until the SA government could provide the Anti-retroviral treatment free so that even the poor could gain access to the medicines. The SA government eventually succumbed to the pressure and has now started distributing the anti-retroviral treatment In public hospitals free of charge.

2). My second hero is a Kenyan octogenarian, one Kimawi, a Mau-Mau veteran who lost his wife [a] few years ago. To fill the remainder of his days and to enable himself to read the Bible, because "those preachers cheat us," Kimawi started schooling. Additionally Kimawi stated that his reasons for going back to school at that advanced age was so he may be able to count his own money "when I sell my cattle, and not be cheated."

"Its common sense," said Kimawi, "the hoe is heavier than a pencil. So laziness features also in my reasons for preferring school. I don't have to be at the fields if I'm educated."

Since he has never been to school he had to start from scratch. With his grey shorts, socks pulled up to the knees, blue uniform short-sleeved shirt, Kimawi walks to school everyday. His teachers praised him for not being a nuisance at school and not demanding special attention just because he is old enough to be their grandfather. Children feel motivated by their octogenarian classmate old enough to be their great-grandfather. It is reported that his charisma is such that school children are always flocking around him for stories of British colonial times and not sweets. One of his great grandchildren is in the same school [Kiwani attends] at a higher class. He helps Kimawi with his homework.

3). My third hero is the British lady, Dr Margaret Hassan who dedicated thirty years of her life for the health and welfare of [the] Iraqi people. She was a convert to the Islam[ic] religion and married to an Iraqi. Though not political, she criticised the US led invasion of Iraq. Still she was kidnapped and killed in Iraq by those who say they work for the liberation of [the] Iraqi people. Her death went far to demonstrate the senseless brutality unleashed by the myopic reasoning of the Allied Forces who invaded Iraq. Even the Talaban of Afganistan condemned her killing as "... inhuman and un-Islamic."

4). My fourth heroine is Professor Wangari Maathai of Kenya for being the first Black woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Professor Maathai did much to raise the environmental awareness, especially forest preservation, in the continent.

5). My fifth hero for 2004 is the Catholic Bishop Ncube of Harare who has been brave in criticising [Tanzanian] President Mugabe's manipulations of land claims to perpetuate his power mongering.

6). Though in the end she showed more weakness than strength, I number her in my heroes. I'm talking of Brenda Fassie, the South African pop music diva who died this year of [a] drug overdose. I do not remember how many Christmas[es] were made enjoyable because "MaBri" (Brenda) always found a way of releasing just at the festive season. Every black South African house ... during the festive season used to be reverberating from Brenda's voice. Thanks MaBri for filling those vacant hours in our lives, may the good God bless you and may your soul find the perpetual light of His salvation.

7). My seventh hero would have to be senator ... (Rod I could not remember his name) who first criticised Bush II's reasons for invading Iraqi when it was still unfashionable. He accused Bush II's administration for taking the country into war on dubious pretexts and lies. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Mputhumi is referring to U.S. Senator Russ Feingold. - RA]

8). My eighth hero is the late Dr Beyers Naude who turned against [the] apartheid policies couched in Afrikaner church (NGK) language. Dr Naude underwent severe criticism and humiliation from his community until he found himself another community at Alexander township where he was a dominie (priest) for a long time. He went as far as to support the ANC (African National Congress) military wing Umkhoto Wesizwe. Dr Naude died this year at a ripe age of 87 yrs.

9). My ninth heroine is Ferial Haffajee, the first lady to be an editor of a major newspaper in our country. Ferial is the editor of the Mail and Guardian, and is doing a superb job.

10). My tenth hero is Thabo Mbeki for his untiring ways of sorting the African mess.

1. Congressman John Lewis

2. Congressman David Bonior (ret., Michigan)

3. Senator Edward Kennedy

4. Molly Ivins

5. Eric Alterman

INTERNATIONAL

1. Desmond Tutu

2. Nelson Mandela

3. Oscar Ariaz

4. George Soros

5. Edward Said

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I had to write back to Ron disqualifying Prof. Said, who is a personal hero of my own, because he passed away in 2003. - RA]

Dave Chappelle for making life more bearable in this country.

[Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Ali] Sistani for not dying.

Arafat for dying a natural death. (I'd rather it had been Sharon, but you take what you can these days.)

Seymour M. Hersh and all those who brought the light to Abu Gharaib and Daniel Zwerdling's reports that helped stop similiar methods used in U.S. detention centers.

The French for being French.

African-Americans for their example of tolerance and forbearance.

Every American who voted (especially those who voted against the Bush administration).

Every man and woman who followed their heart even if it led to heart break, for now they know the power of the imagination.

And whatever you did to expand the possibilities of love and beauty.

Here they are in no particular order, though with a definite British twist:

1. Kelly Holmes, British Olympian, for wining the 800m and 1500m gold medals at Athens with grace and?style.

2. Jim Wallis, Sojourners, Washington DC, for maintaining a credible and compassionate public oposition to war in Iraq from the outset.

3. Billy Graham, for staying the course and still preaching the gospel from his wheelchair when other notorious evangelists have slipped into scandal and moral compromise.

4. Mordecai Vanunu for boldness in the face of Israeli government threats after his release from prison.

5. Gen. Wesley Clarke for managing to remain a popular American general with many Europeans.

6. Bono, for continuing to keep the issue of debt relief on the political agenda.

7. Bob Geldolf, for the same reason.

8. Angela Kemm, for contining to champion the cause of the landless squatters and tenants of Cape Town's unofficial but vast and squalid townships.

9. The British Parliament, for extending the BBC's charter by another 10 years, thus ensuring the continuation of world-class program making, news reporting and media development, free at the point of delivery and with no need for corporate sponsorship or advertising.

10. The National Health Service, for providing world-class health care to all UK citizens and visitors free at the point of delivery. Marvellous.

Al S.

Hi Rod,

I'd like to nominate Wangari Maathai, of Kenya's Green Belt Movement, currently an MP in the new government and Nobel prize winner. She has sacrificed all her life to protecting the environment, she has that dedication which is always seen as laughably insane and only years later acknowledged as justified. I have been quilty myself of considering her wierd, when I was growing up; she would make dangerous hikes through Karura Forest to plant trees in places which had been illegally sold to government pets, she would lose her temper at people who deserved it, how unwomanly. She was often quoted as an example of what became of a woman who was too uppity, too educated, too strong in her own convictions, too outspoken - her marriage broke up,?which was of course far more important to being a woman of standing in Kenyan society,?and she thus served as a warning, rather than a promise.

As I have grown older, my viewpoint has undergone radical change. I view her rastas, worn from the time they made you an outcast in good society, with awe.?I know a bit more about the environment now, and I can see the depredations of a blind population of mankind?as insane, that Wangari's views are in fact quite restrained. I delivered a daughter last Saturday, and I have considered calling her Wangari, (of the leopard) because she was born with her eyes wide open, as Wangari Maathai's have always been, because the name has a heritage of a kind of female strength which I have come to see as far too rare, and desperately needed if our planet is to survive.

I'm afraid I have no other nominations!

Regards,
Mwara K.

Hi,

My nomination goes to Wangari Maathai - the Nobel peace laureate.

Definitley. The woman has been to hell and back and shows African women that we can hold our own and keep our heads lifted up.

MORAA

From the Editor's Desktop

Rather than profile Dr. Maathai ourselves, we refer you to a profile done by the BBC for the particulars of her biography.

Dr. Maathi also fit our criterion for a GENERATOR 21 (G21) "Person of the Year" because she:

1. reflects the interests and social philosophy of the magazine and its readership;
2. demonstrates life-enhancement and a concern for peace and the welfare of the planet despite social forces which mitigated against such a stance and;
3. provides an example which the average person "on the ground" can both admire and emulate.

Thanks to all those who took the time to respond to our latest poll.

The G21 READERSHIP POLL

DEADLINE: 31 December, 2004. The Losers will be featured in our first edition of 2005. Thanks in advance!

+++ G21 BOTTOM 10 OF 2003 +++ G21 BOTTOM 10 OF 2004 +++ RESULTS OF THE FIRST 2005 POLL +++

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