Powerful people in the world today

Forbes magazine has recently taken out a list of the world's most powerful people. Interestingly enough, because there are 6.7 billion people in the world today, the list was reduced to 67 individuals only.

I am attaching the top 10 in the list as reported on http://weeksupdate.com/2009/11/obama-tops-worlds-most-powerful-list.html:

1. US President Barack Obama

2. Chinese President Hu Jintao

3. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

4. US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke

5. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page

6. Carlos Slim, chief executive of Mexico's Telmex

7. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of media group News Corp.

8. Michael T. Duke, chief executive of Wal-Mart stores

9. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz

10. Bill Gates, co-chairman, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The list makes for interesting reading. Our Indian PM, Sh Manmohan Singh, was at no. 36 followed by Osama Bin Laden at no. 37. The only other person on the list with an Indian connection was Dawood Ibrahim, who was quoted to be the head of the "Mumbai-based crime syndicate". He was at no. 50.

Mom's favourite, Oprah was at no. 45, and the Dalai Lama at no. 39.

I think that it's sometimes scary that people who spread hope and good will are put in the same list as mass murderers and terrorists. There is something quite eerie about that. Can good exist without evil alongside?

There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.
KURT VONNEGUT, JR., The Sirens of Titan

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
EDMUND BURKE

The small man thinks that small acts of goodness are of no benefit, and does not do them; and that small deeds of evil do no harm, and does not refrain from them. Hence, his wickedness becomes so great that it cannot be concealed, and his guilt so great that it cannot be pardoned.
CONFUCIUS, The Wisdom of Confucius