YARDSTICK FOR DECIDING ADMIRATION

                                

When somebody is rated as an admired person, the society requires to know about the reasons for this decision. The YouGov for The Times, some days back conducted a worldwide survey to select 20 most admired persons. It contacted 14,000 people in 13 countries including India, Germany, France, Russia, Great Britain, the US, Australia, Pakistan, Indonesia, China etc. Details about the targeted individuals are not available. We are also not aware about the scale on which the involved individuals were tested. However, the list of the selected celebrities may help the interested people to draw their own conclusion.

The survey gave first position to the business magnate Bill Gates who is globally acclaimed as a philanthropist, engaged in several projects for poverty alleviation, improving life conditions of the poor in developing countries and promoting environment. Barack Obama is on the second position. Still in his second and last term of presidentship, we have yet to see his any extraordinary contribution to the humanity. Still like the hasty awarding of the Nobel Prize, this credit also surprises others. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin has been placed on the third position. He has been rated as the richest politician but the greatest credit that goes to him is keeping together his country which had almost collapsed in 1990s.There is no hesitation in anybody’s mind about the fourth slot allotted to Pope Francis.

India should feel happy for a good representation in the list. Sachin Tendulkar(4), Narendra Modi (7), Amitabh Bachchan (9), APJ Abdul Kalam (10), Anna Hazare (14), Arvind Kejriwal (18) and Ratan Tata are the proud entrants. There is no problem if you add the Dalai Lama in this list for the obvious reasons. The Chinese President, Xi Jinping enjoys a higher position at number 6.

In this connection, another British survey, which was seen on a TV channel on Jan 15, 2014 is slightly more surprising. It has found the Big B as the most admired personality in the world. Why this big gap between the two? To conclude, we will feel satisfied only after knowing the measurement rationale.