In English:

Even if we confine our study to a brief span of years, there are countless individuals whose efforts to improve conditions in their communities, countries, or on a global scale deserve attention. This Newsletter pays tribute to the accomplishments of a few important humanitarians and civil leaders from Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa whose influence was internationally recognized in the twentieth century.

Eisaku Sato served as prime minister of Japan from 1964-1972. He is widely recognized for his diplomacy in building peaceful international relations both within Asia and with other parts of the world. His rejection of nuclear arms, which led to the signing of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, earned him the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1974.

From China, Sun Yat-sen (Dr. Sun Yixian) was a revolutionary leader whose political agenda focused on overthrowing the Qing dynasty in China to establish a republic. His aims included large-scale industrialization in China. He served as provisional president of the Chinese republic in 1911 and later led China from 1923-25. Many consider him to be the father of modern China.

Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho was enthroned as the fourteenth Dalai Lama in Tibet in 1940 when he was only five years old. He fled to India in 1959 after the Tibetan people’s unsuccessful revolt against the Chinese government, and established a government in exile in the Himalayan Mountains. The Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to him in 1989, in recognition of his nonviolent methods of protest against Chinese rule in Tibet.

In 1991, the Nobel Committee awarded its Prize for Peace to Aung San Suu Kyi, a peaceful protester for democracy and human rights in Myanmar, then called Burma. For those actions, she was kept under house arrest for six years (1989-1995). She was still in isolation when she received the Nobel Prize.

Golda Meir was an astute political leader devoted to Israel and its independence. She served as prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974 and was recognized for her efforts to maintain peace in the Middle East during those years. Only after her death in 1978 did the public discover that she had been fighting leukemia for twelve years before her death.

Anwar el-Sadat, an Egyptian army officer, served as the president of Egypt from 1970 to 1981. He worked with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to establish peaceful ties between their countries. Both leaders received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1978 for their negotiations. In 1979, peace was reached between the two countries.

Mohandas Gandhi of India (commonly called Mahatma Gandhi) is internationally respected for his method of passive resistance and nonviolent protest against British rule in India. His civil rights campaigns inspired and touched the world, and lent hope to many--even Albert Einstein, who hoped that Ghandi’s promotion of nonviolence could help prevent the violence made possible by the atomic bomb.

Some of these figures of modern history may already be familiar to you. In any case, we hope that you’ve enjoyed this look at a few great leaders and even discovered something new!