Persons of the year
Time names Bono, Bill and Melinda Gates Persons of Year Bono is a co-founder of the DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) organization, which fights poverty and HIV in the developing world. From that organization was spawned the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History.
"It has been a great year for global health to get more visibility," Bill Gates said Friday. "The more people know about it, the more they want to act."
The magazine said that while sudden disasters grab the headlines, other tragedies unfold daily.
"And who is proving most effective in figuring out how to eradicate those calamities? In different ways, it is Bill and Melinda Gates, co-founders of the world's wealthiest charitable foundation, and Bono, the Irish rocker who has made debt reduction sexy," Time's managing editor Jim Kelly writes.
In January, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed $750 million to improving access to child immunizations, accelerating introduction of new vaccines and strengthening vaccine delivery systems.
The foundation focuses on education, global health, improving public libraries and supporting at-risk families, according to its Web site.
2004's Man of the Year: George W. Bush. I think Time made a better choice this year; kudos to them for emphasizing global health and poverty.
