20071224

Man of the year

I was choking on my afternoon coffee the other day, when I read that Putin was named "Man of the Year" by Time Magazine. Apparently I was not entirely alone. Johan Norberg writes brilliantly:

"Well, we have seen that before. The man of the year in 1938 was another authoritarian who gave his country national pride."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Per
Thanks for a great blog. On Time and Putin - I agree that it's an instant shocker. Nevertheless, by naming Puting I hardly think one can compare with Hitler, or 1938. What Time has done over the years is at times shock so that we'll be forced to discuss the (dubious) person in question; the why's, the how's... (how about Khomeini in '79!) When it comes to Putin, his legacy is not only having been a despot in the true sense of the word, but also someone who's made changes - however little the Russian people may want to experience these. As a part of contemporary Russian history, his policy choices have been devastating and therefore significant.
Katherine