198 CHAPTER Six ■ The IndIvIdual
Individuals with financial resources are able to develop programs and support
causes that governments are unwilling or unable to fund. The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, with resources of $60 billion, gives about $1 billion a year to international
health programs for childhood immunizations, AIDS research, and to strengthen
health and education programs. George Soros, a Hungarian- born American business-
man, uses his im mense fortune through the Open Society Foundation to support
democracy and human rights in Eastern Eu rope and Central Asian states.
Some private individuals have stood for and supported specific causes, which has
enhanced public knowledge of these issues. With celebrity status, they are able to
effectively use the media and even gain an audience with public officials. These
so- called celebrity diplomats, as discussed in Chapter 5, include George Clooney,
well- known crusader for the people of Darfur; his wife, human rights lawyer Amal
Clooney; and Angelina Jolie, a spokesperson for children, women, and refugees.
A few individuals become crusaders for a cause because of what they have achieved
or stood for. No better example exists than Malala Yousafzai, the youn gest ever recipi-
ent, in 2014, of the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2009, blogging for the BBC, she gained a
worldwide audience by describing the harsh life under the Taliban and condemning
the discriminatory treatment of girls who were banned from public schools. In 2012,
a gunman shot her for speaking out, elevating her status as a fighter for women’s and
children’s rights. Using that celebrity status, she is able to lobby heads of state and
delegates to the United Nations, as well as use the public media and her own founda-
tion to promote the cause of education for girls. Her book I Am Malala and a recent
documentary “He Named Me Malala” have won high accolades.^17
There are other individual crusaders, as well. Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian ven-
dor, set himself on fire outside a government building after state authorities confis-
cated his goods in 2010. The video posted on the Internet of his self- immolation was
seen around the Arab world, not only leading to the overthrow of the Tunisian presi-
dent, Zine al- Abidine Ben Ali, in the Jasmine Revolution but also providing the spark
for the broader demo cratic opening in the Arab world, the Arab Spring.
Aung San Suu Kyi became yet a dif er ent symbol: the face of the opposition move-
ment to the repressive military government of Myanmar (formerly Burma). Her father,
General Aung San, negotiated that country’s in de pen dence from Great Britain in 1947,
becoming known as the father of modern- day Burma. His daughter’s public acts began
after the 1962 military coup. Defying a ban on po liti cal gatherings, she spoke to large
crowds, demanding demo cratic government. Advocating nonviolence and civil disobe-
dience, she traveled across the country, speaking to large audiences. In 1989, the gov-
ernment placed her under house arrest, where she stayed for more than two de cades.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi became an interna-
tional symbol of the opposition, demanding both the release of po liti cal prisoners and
broader po liti cal change. As a free individual, she rebuilt a po liti cal party and won