(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been named as an international achiever alongside humanitarian Queen Rania, actress Julia Roberts, pop star Fergie and 23-year- old Katie Spotz who rowed 2,817 miles alone in 70 days.
The Prime Minister also has been placed in the exalted company of Dr Hawa Abdi, a 63-year-old woman who has been working with her two daughters, also doctors, to educate and lift women out of poverty in Somalia. Persad-Bissessar has been listed with fashion designer Donatella Versace and acclaimed American sportswomen Mia Hamm (football), Lindsey Vonn (skiing) and Lisa Leslie (basketball). The Prime Minister and three other female world leaders were honoured Monday night at a function at Carnegie Hall, New York, hosted by Glamour, which was recently named Magazine of the Year. They were each named as Women of the Year and given plaques.
Persad-Bissessar and the other honorees were hailed in video presentations by former US president Bill Clinton and current Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. They were presented by Dr Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations, before a capacity audience of dignitaries. The Prime Minister was credited for fighting poverty and crime and her commitment to bringing more women into public office. The other world leaders who were celebrated were president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania, and Prime Minister Iveta Radicova of Slovakia. The event attracted the participation of media mogul Oprah Winfrey, actresses Hillary Swank and Kate Hudson, television journalists Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer, singer Janet Jackson, media commentator Arianna Huffington and Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the former US president.
