Guardian’s Icons of Decade
The British Guardian selected the 10 people they feel defined the past decade. Making the newspaper's list of figures are Osama Bin Laden, the Obamas, Tony Blair, Britney Spears, David Beckham, Carrie Bradshaw, Harry Potter, Madeleine McCann, Google and Jamie Oliver.
Osama Bin Laden:
On Sept. 11, 2001, Bin Laden changed the world for ever. Since that infamous day, the Bush and Blair governments have failed to capture the man who has been referred to as a warrior, engineer and pious believer who turned his back on his family's boundless riches, a selfless fighter against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, mass murderer, terrorist mastermind, face of evil and the man who on a bright September day in New York at the start of the 21st century, changed the world for ever. Osama bin Laden's actions have defined the decade and, without doubt, could define the century. Wherever you live, and whatever your faith, he is a part of our age.
The Obamas:
The Obamas have already surpassed the Kennedys'influence on the 60s. Simply put, they express a profound breakthrough: the most powerful couple in the world is black, a fact that many Americans, and many others, never thought would come to pass in their lifetime.
Tony Blair:
Iraq was Tony Blair's downfall, engraved eternally on his reputation. Sadly, his one act of political bravery turned into ultimate failure; persuading a reluctant parliament and people to join the war, he risked all his political capital on George W. Bush's disastrous adventure.
Britney Spears:
"Spears became central to one of the decade's major narratives: the depiction of young women as insensible, incompetent, insatiable, intoxicated."
David Beckham:
He's the image of mobility ― an emissary of intercontinental understanding, equally content to hang out with Sepp Blatter, Nelson Mandela or Tom Cruise. There's his gentleness, too: the new man, the metrosexual, the doting father.
Carrie Bradshaw:
The"Sex In the City"character Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) liberated young women eager to explore their sexuality. Carrie was a "real-life" female groundbreaker, shifting society's outlook on certain women's issues.
Harry Potter:
As is often the case with cultural phenomena, it seems to have helped that Potter defied the conventional wisdom of the time. A focus group would surely have concluded ― as the eight publishers who turned down the original manuscript presumably did ― that there was no modern market for stories about a bespectacled wimp at a boarding school. But within a decade he was a billion-dollar brand.
Madeleine McCann:
Most remarkable of all is that despite the many thousands of -articles and the millions of words written about Madeleine McCann, there remains, more than two and a half years later, just one solitary fact that we know for sure. In the early hours of May 3, 2007, she vanished without trace from her parents'holiday apartment.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin:
The ambition of the Google founders' mission ― "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" ― is exceeded in scope only by the profound impact they have had on our world: on how we think, interact, manage and govern; on media, retail, education and the economy.
Jamie Oliver:
British TV chef Jamie Oliver might have started out as little more than a mockney celebrity who had fun with food, but he's now earned a reputation as a canny businessman with a social conscience.