Why They're Heroes
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Meet 37 extraordinary people who illuminate and inspire, persevere and provoke. They take on challenges the rest of the world often prefers to avoid, reminding us all just how much a single person, even in the face of adversity, can accomplish.
Back in June, just two weeks before the Live 8 concerts, time set up a round-table discussion with the event’s main organizers: screenwriter Richard Curtis and rock musicians Bob Geldof and Bono. Curtis arrived punctually in a nice gray sweater and poured himself a cup of tea. Geldof burst in a few minutes later, cussing and cajoling some unfortunate colleague on his mobile phone. Finally, Bono turned up and everybody got a big hug. A lively discussion ensued, with Curtis, Geldof and Bono talking passionately and perceptively about poverty in Africa and what the West can — and should — do about it. The three men are among Africa’s most eloquent advocates, but are they heroic? We think so, which is why Curtis and Geldof feature prominently in this year’s list of Europe’s Heroes (Bono was named back in 2003).
Heroism often results as a response to extreme events. Sadly, the world has seen plenty of those over the past 12 months. Natural and man-made disasters brought out the best in many of the people profiled here: tube driver Jeff Porter, for example, who led his passengers to safety after the July 7 terror attacks in London; and brothers Jake and Aleksis Zarins, who have helped rebuild a Sri Lankan community devastated by December’s Asian tsunami. Curtis, Geldof and Bono have devoted themselves to stopping a disaster that all too often doesn’t make as much news as terrorist attacks and tsunamis: the 30,000 children who die every day due to poverty. Their heroism consists in relentlessly keeping the pressure on political and business leaders to turn their rhetoric about free trade, debt relief and development aid into reality.
Curtis, Geldof and Bono would be the first to admit that their activism hasn’t yet come close to solving Africa’s problems. Governments are already trying to wriggle out of the commitments to Africa they made after Live 8, and the U.N. has made little progress toward meeting its own goals of ending poverty on that continent. German rock star Herbert Grönemeyer, another of our Heroes who espouses Africa as a cause, told Time that he’s happy to be “finally getting the topic on people’s minds. But the campaign has a long way to go. We’re not even halfway there yet.”
Still, heroism is as much about persistence as it is about any single achievement. Indeed, part of what makes people heroic is their determination to keep on fighting even when events seem to be conspiring against them. That is certainly true of many of the Heroes on this year’s list, such as Maud Fontenoy, who braved sharks and storms to complete a solo row across the Pacific, and signer for the deaf Natalya Dmitruk, who dared to speak the truth about the rigged Ukrainian elections as her country seemed headed for civil unrest. And heroes often succeed even when the causes they support are stymied; activists Nikolai and Tatyana Shchur, for example, have won few of their battles with Russia’s bureaucracy, yet they offer a model for dissidents and dissenters around the world. That’s something all this year’s Heroes share: they are inspiring examples of courage and conviction who succeed even when they fail.
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tom
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JAMES GEARY
time.com/europe/time
Last modified 01.01.2006 19:35
time.com/europe/time
Last modified 01.01.2006 19:35
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