Mother Teresa polled 'Most Loved Mandela-Like Figure'

ANI

Tue, 01 Jan 2008: 

London, July 20 (ANI): Mother Teresa has topped the list of the world's 90 most inspirational icons in a poll commemorating Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday on July 18.

 

Telegraph readers have chosen Mother Teresa as their most loved Mandela-like figure over Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Winston Churchill, Matma Gandhi and even Jesus Christ.

 

The poll, conducted by Telegraph Travel and South African Airways, invited the readers to vote for the people - living or dead - who have best demonstrated Mandela's key characteristics: courage, dignity, humility, persistence, forgiveness and kindness.

 

Mother Teresa was a Roman Catholic nun, who was born in Albania, and worked for the welfare of people in India.

 

The poll listed may icons from the world of music, which include John Lennon, Bob Marley and Sir Elton John. There were many sports heroes in the list like Muhammad Ali, Sir Steve Redgrave, Jesse Owens, Ellen MacArthur and Tiger Woods.

 

The most popular figures in politics were Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Churchill, while in science the most highly placed were Sir Alexander Fleming, Albert Einstein and Marie Curie.

 

While Oprah Winfrey was in 31st position between the footballers Pele and Bobby Moore, there were many leading figures who narrowly missed out on the top 90, which included David Livingstone, Beethoven and Yehudi Menuhin.

 

Those who voted were invited to enter a prize draw to win one of 45 pairs of tickets for a return flight with South African Airways from London Heathrow to either Cape Town or Johannesburg.

 

The top 50 of the world's 90 most inspirational icons are :

 

1 Mother Teresa

 

2 Archbishop Desmond Tutu

 

3 Sir Winston Churchill

 

4 Mahatma Gandhi

 

5 Sir Alexander Fleming

 

6 Muhammad Ali

 

7 Martin Luther King

 

8 John Lennon

 

9 Albert Einstein

 

10 Marie Curie

 

11 Sir Steve Redgrave

 

12 Jesse Owens

 

13 Dr Christiaan Barnard

 

14 Oscar Schindler

 

15 Bob Marley

 

16 The 14th Dalai Lama

 

17 Antonio Gaudi

 

18 Tim Berners-Lee

 

19 Aung San Suu Kyi

 

20 Diana, Princess of Wales

 

21 Audrey Hepburn

 

22 Sir Elton John

 

23 Myriam Makeba

 

24 Ellen MacArthur

 

25 Tiger Woods

 

26 Steve Biko

 

27 F W de Klerk

 

28 Maya Angelou

 

29 Bill and Melinda Gates

 

30 Pele

 

31 Oprah Winfrey

 

32 Bobby Moore

 

33 Albert Schweitzer

 

34 Emmeline Pankhurst

 

35 Fran?ois Pienaar

 

36 Mikhail Gorbachev

 

37 Rosa Parks

 

38 Francis Crick

 

39 Sir Donald Bradman

 

40 Dame Kelly Holmes

 

41 Jamie Oliver

 

42 Bernard Kouchner

 

43 Virginia McKenna

 

44 Anita Roddick

 

45 Sigmund Freud

 

46 James Watson

 

47 Al Gore

 

48 Margaret Thatcher

 

49 Max Planck

 

50 Bob Geldof

 

51 John F Kennedy

 

52 Peter Benenson

 

53 Florence Nightingale

 

54 William Wilberforce

 

55 Bob Dylan

 

56 Elvis Presley

 

57 Damien Hirst

 

58 Pope John Paul II

 

59 Stephen Hawking

 

60 Jackie Robinson

 

61 Roger Federer

 

62 Jesus Christ

 

63 Leonardo da Vinci

 

64 Pablo Picasso

 

65 Charles Darwin

 

66 Sir David Attenborough

 

67 Sir Ian Botham

 

68 Sir Paul McCartney

 

69 Barack Obama

 

70 Jane Tomlinson

 

71 David Beckham

 

72 Franklin D Roosevelt

 

73 Gary Player

 

74 Helen Suzman

 

75 Lance Armstrong

 

76 Paul Simon

 

77 Sir Bobby Charlton

 

78 Terry Waite

 

79 Billy Graham

 

80 Bono

 

81 George Best

 

82 Isambard Kingdom Brunel

 

83 Louis Pasteur

 

84 Morgan Tsvangirai

 

85 Queen Elizabeth II

 

86 Ruben Dario

 

87 Sir Frank Whittle

 

88 Daniel Barenboim

 

89 Ian Douglas Smith

 

90 John Sentamu(ANI)