I am writing this post as a combined post in my collapsing WordPress Blog and as a Note in my Facebook profile for a series I began near in time to the September 11, 2010 Anniversary. This is the second to last in this series of posts. They are all written (except the first) in a little bit of a snowball-rolling-down-a-slope style with each including much of the information of all the others in some kind of compressed core and adding some new information. That style will be even more pronounced in the end of this series. In February my blog worked very well as an instrument and bundle of software and it also had a good number of regular and occasional readers. Since then it has become alomost impossible for me to work with and often fails when others try to use it as well. It of course has very few readers. However, having promised to add some final touches to this long process I am trying to do so even if it has very limited utility now. There is also the possibility that some of my Facebook readers will get some utility out of this.
In this series I created a list of people to watch in the second decade after the 9-11 indient of September elevnth 2001. It certainly was a day which changed both America and the world far more than most days do change things and attitudes. I did not want to take a narrow view of things directly related to the incident and its aftermath but rather to see that date as one of the large markers and milestones in history and to create a list of people who are likely to make good watching for GOOD or ILL in the coming decade now that we live in this post 9-11 world. I am quite proud of the list itself. The large list of one hundred is much better in its way than the short list of ten finalists can be for many reasons.
However, the list does have flaws and limitations and I want to just touch on some of its most glaring ommissions:
1. The first and greatest omission is a single individual Wen Jiabao, 温家宝. A wiser list would have assumed that Hu Jintao will leave office in the next decade and that Wen will succeed him at the helm of China’s State in the full sense. He is already very influential. With all respect I left him off in the hard choices and so he is not eligible for final list of ten.
2.The second biggest ommission is that there is nobody who is directly a regular member of the Nobel Prize granting committees and nobody recognized primarily for granting these prizes. That is an ommission of significance because the Prizes shap who and what is watched at the world level very much.
3. Athletes were not given as much a piece of the whole as might have been the case.
4. Scions of nonroyal families were slighted. Few were given many points for the role thay play in families which play a significant role and are not royal. There were a number who did get on this list with this as a factor but not many. I do not mean the nuclear family but for example the Kings of Kings Ranch, the Ochs-Sultzbergers of the New York Times, half a dozen Mexican and Brazilian families could possibly have deserved a representative and had an impressive one to offer.
5. Astronauts and cosomonauts could have been more represented and would have been creditable.
6. African Royalty are almost inexcusable absent.
7. Far Eastern and associated Royals are more inexcusably absent.
8. True Outlaws deserved more representation.
9. There were worthy candidates involved in the rebuilding at New York City’s Ground Zero who did not make the list.
Now, the list is what it is and I am proud of it nonetheless. I think that my final ten will however combine the entirely predictable and the entirely shocking choices in the minds of many and this will make it hard for anyone to adopt the final list in the way they could use the larger list as a guide for their own thoughts. I HAVE LESS THAN A WEEK TO PUT OUT MY FINAL LIST OF TEN.
My ten most watchable people in continuity with what they have clearly begun will be:
Benedict XVI, Prince Charles of Wales, Princess Catherine Elizabeth Duchess of Cambridge, Britney Spears, Queen Sofia of Spain, Philip Lord Norton Baron of Louth, Dr. Carl Brasseau, President Barack Hussein Obama, Vladimir Putin and ten Mark Zuckerberg.
The five taken from those already my list of one hundred who are included for potential to break out and make a different mark are:
Myself, Sir Richard Nicholas Branson, Charles Allan Murray, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and Vitaly Alexandrovich Lopota.
At least eight and not more than nine of the people on my final list will come from those two short lists above. One or two will come from among the remaining eighty-five names on the basis of reasons not so easily categorized. However, whether a long and more satisfactory post will be possible I am not currently sure. But at least a final list of ten will be posted before the eleventh of September ifat all possible.
The last four of my 100 most watchable in the second post 9/11 decade can be found at this link:
https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/four-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/
Ben Shelley, President of the Navajo Nation; Helene Valerie Hayman née Middleweek , Baroness Hayman,
Phyllis Miller Taylor; Robert De Niro, Jr.
My first post on this list appeared in its original version September 11, 2010 and had twenty-five names:
Series Link 1. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/the-last-year-of-the-9-11-decade-has-begun/
President Barack Hussein Obama , Josef Ratzinger, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Her Britannic Majesty, Elizabeth, HRH Charles Prince of Wales, David Cameron, Sarah Palin, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Glen Beck, Hillary Clinton, President Nicolas Sarkozy, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Carl Svanberg, UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon, Hu Jin Tao, Timothy Geithner, Al Franken, Barney Frank, Vladimir Putin, Bobby Jindal, Bill Richardson, Bill Clinton and Osama Bin Laden
The second portion had fifteen people to watch:
SL 2. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/fifteen-more-people-to-watch-in-9112011-9112021/
Barons Rothschild, Britney Spears, Carl A. Brasseaux, Philip Lord Norton Baron of Louth, Carlos Slim Helu, Charles Bolden, Taylor Swift, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, Kate Middleton, Catherine Princess of Wales, Princess William of Wales, Princess Catherine, Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza (born Luís Gastão Maria José Pio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança e Wittelsbach, Ms. Gail J. McGovern, Me, His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Prince William of Wales
The third portion of my list had ten people watch:
SL 3. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/ten-more-people-to-watch-from-9112011-9112021/
Gaudencio Borbon Cardinal Rosales, Queen Sofia of Spain, Su Graciosa Majestad Sofia la Reina Catolica, Oprah Winfrey, Bill O’Reilly, Julie Ann Yannatta, Vitaly Alexandrovich Lopota, Amy Grant, Ratan N. Tata, Mark Zuckerberg and Jean-Cristophe Niel
The fourth portion of my list had five people to watch:
SL 4. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/five-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/
Liu Zhijun: 刘志军, King George Tupou V, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Julie Taymor
The fifth post had thirteen people to watch:
Charles Alan Murray, Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr, Professor Ei-ichi Negishi, Drew Brees, Angela Dorothea Merkel(- Kasner), General Stanley Allen McChrystal, Danica Sue Patrick, Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French, Marilyn Vos Savantt, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi, Madame Nicolas Sarkozy, Air Defense Commander Shigeru Iwasaki and Amy Hungerford
SL 5.
https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/thirteen-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/
My sixth post in this series had eight people to watch:
Howard Lutnick, His Serene Highness Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi), Elbert Leander “Burt” Rutan, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i ( سید علی حسینی خامنه ای), Dr.Tracy E. Caldwell – Dyson(Ph.D.), Lang Lang, Natalie Portman ( נטלי פורטמן, Natalie Hershlag), John Christopher “Johnny” Depp II
SL 6.
https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/eight-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-9-11-decade/
My seventh post added thirteen more people to watch. In it I also published a final decision to make the list one hundred names long.
Joanne “Jo” Rowling, OBE, J. K. Rowling , Nicholas Sparks, Nicholas Charles Sparks, Maria Ioannidou, Μαρία Ιωαννίδου, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, Дми́трий Анато́льевич Медве́дев, Buzz Aldrin, Dr. (Col. {retired})Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., Dalai Lama, Zachary Richard, Chett Chiasson, Dr. E. Joseph Savoie, ” ‘Tit Jo’” Savoie
SL 7.
https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/nine-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/
My second to last post had eleven names:
Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Bill Ford, William Clay Ford, Jr., Michael Fred Phelps, Patriarch Kirill I, or Cyril I Кирилл, Патриарх Московский и всея Руси, born Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev, Владимир Михайлович Гундяев, His Suinine Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus , General David Howell Petraeus, Commander International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) , Father Adolfo Nicolás Pachón S.J., S.T.D. , The Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Serena Jameka Williams , Shakira, Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, Letizia Moratti née Letizia Brichetto-Arnabold , Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall,Camilla Rosemary née Shand, previously Parker Bowles
https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/eleven-more-people-to-watch-in-the-second-post-911-decade/
Some thoughts about the coming era:
This is an era of crtitcal importance for the coming centuries I feel. In all sorts of ways our actions and attitudes are more important than normal. I began the list in the spirit of exploring the future and present we are living with now.
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