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THE FORBES MOST powerful person in the world list is out and this year the title went to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/Press Association Images
The Russian leader knocked his US counterpart, Barack Obama off the top spot. The US president held the title last year.
Obama has been on the top of the list for every year with the exception of 2010, when Hu Jintao, the former political and military leader of China, was number one.
The annual World’s Most Powerful list is made up of heads of state, financiers, philanthropists and entrepreneurs and the list represents the collective wisdom of top Forbes editors, who consider hundreds of nominees before ranking the planet’s top 72 power-brokers.
Newcomers
There are thirteen newcomers which include, Pope Francis (No. 4), Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee (No. 41), Volkswagen’s Martin Winterkorn (No. 49) and the South Korean President Park Geun-hye (No. 52), to name but a few.
There are just nine women on the list, but that is an improvement on both 2011 and 2012 which featured six women leaders and the inaugural list from 2009 included only 3. Two of the world’s most important NGO’s run by women feature on the list - Christine Lagarde (No. 35) who leads the IMF and Margaret Chan (No. 59) who steers the World Health Organisation.
Here are the top ten. To view the full list click here.
#2. Barack Obama, President of the United States
Charles Dharapak/AP/Press Association Images
#3. XI Jinping, General Secretary Communist Party of China
AP Photo
#4. Pope Francis, Roman Catholic Church
Source: Vatican/YouTube
#5. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
Yves Logghe/AP/Press Association Image
#6. Bill Gates, Cofounder Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
PBG/PBG/Empics Entertainment
#7. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve
Alex Brandon/AP/Press Association Images
#8. King Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the King of Saudi Arabia
Carolyn Kaster/AP/Press Association Images
#9. Mario Draghi President of the European Central Bank
Steven Senne/AP/Press Association Images
#10. Michael Duke CEO Wal-Mart
April L. Brown/AP/Press Association Images
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A captive portal that requires a code that lasts only 30 mins, get a code with every cup of coffee (or whatever) bought. Problem solved.
Or just use the Wi-Fi hot spot on your phone.
I never go to cafes in ireland unless I am getting a coffee to go. They are overcrowded and people don’t seem to respect personal space.
One way to stop it. 30 minutes free internet with every purchase. You will find the code on the receipt. That’s what I would do if I ran a coffee shop. The spongers can go sponge someplace else.
Dear jaysus let’s hope so, we are turning into a nation of zombies. Ironic that I post this using my phone all the same
Monty..It would only be ironic if you were using that phone in Starbucks after sitting there all day..
I know this is going off on a tangent here, but reckon 3G / Wifi signals should be blocked in some cases in public places!! The pub scene is ruined with groups of people, heads down staring into phones!?! The chat n banter will be a thing of the past in the pub at this rate!
Me & 3 mates waiting 20mins for seating in Star-B’s last week.
Finally got one tiny high stool spot.
We Had 2 coffees each & chat.
We were In & gone within 45 mins.
Crammed into one tiny spot.
Entire time this guy was sprawled out at comfy 6 seater on his tod with an empty coffee cup. His head stuck in a lap top which was plugged in..
Daft isn’t it. I’d have sat beside the sponge.
Maybe the church should embrace wifi, might fill up the place more :)
That was me!
I was in Belfast a few weeks back and more people outside a Starbucks on phones than people sitting in the shop. Obviously using the free internet. The owner pulled the plug on the modem they all walked off.
Turn it off in all pubs!! Talk to each other!!!
Ahh relax the kaks!
I agree with mick it’ll ruin the craic in pubs if everyone inside is logged on.
Sorry , Mike
I’ll admit I once sat outside the Maldron hotel in Smithfield for 2 hours to rob their wifi when I Locked my self out!!
All you can eat data for me. Hate to be smug about it, but aside from holidays abroad, it makes no difference if a place has WiFi or not.
30 minutes per purchase seems a fair approach to deter the wifi spongers in taking up valuable seating space. There’s a lot to be said for interacting with people around you as opposed to getting lost in the virtual world of social networking. I type this while alone just home from watching the hurling double header in my local, for those wannabe troll naysayers. :)
‘a market niche for not having wi fi’, is there no end to corporate greed?
No
Feck it. I have a 4g connection with an ‘unlimited’ (15gb) plan.
I have no need for their slow, insecure wifi.
Have to turn it off going into some places now.
It must be scary being old
It is Reagan.
Turn it off on trains and look out the widow.. :-/
.. at the graffiti and rusty shopping trolleys?
Leave the widows alone. They’ve been through enough.
Ah feck off. Should people not read books or magazines on trains too? Should we just look out the window for the whole journey?
Would ya ever go away and done be annoying me.
Even when it’s dark outside?
Great Idea!
Look! This is a load of tosh…cafe’s can easily monitor overuse by insisting the customer buy’s more product.
Any A-Hole hogging the wi-fi for hours on end should be shown the door…
I refuse to use a place if it doesn’t have wifi. Recently complained to Costa about it…. logged in to check whether the person I was meeting was on the way…. grabbed a coffee (waited in line) there was only 10 mins left on the timer when I got back. Ffs.
I get it about ppl hogging seats…. but they used to do that b4 wifi… sitting around a cold cup of coffee for ages. That’s not new.
If you don’t offer the service in this day and age then you don’t get my business.
Why didn’t you just ring the person, or text them?
What ever happened to the Dublin Free WiFi? Never works…
Pointless pointless waffle, if businesses are trying to increase customer volumes they are really scraping from the end of the barrel with this angle
Wifi is free in most public libraries – for as long as you want!
How would the girls get in touch with me Tinder??
People have WiFi at home and most likely a data plan on their smart device. So…. Coffee shops are for coffee and maybe even shock, horror,- talking to someone?
Wifi is a basic right.
There are cafés here that have free wifi?
In all fairness, most public wifi spots are so slow you are better off using your own phone’s 3g. If you have 4G there is no competition or point on using a public wifi spot unless you have reached a data limit or so.
I think that public laptop users in Ireland may have a higher regard for manners. I am one of the owners of August First the cafe described in your article. We always felt that if lap top users had a sense of manners it would never have been a problem. Once they see people coming in and wanting a table to eat at, they should know that it’s time to leave. But I watched over and over again as people would come in and leave because there were no open tables while several tables had zombies staring at screens. Even though we would only have 2 or 3 at a time, it had an effect on the overall culture of the place. Our biggest surprise was how much the culture of the space improved when there were no longer any screens. A very happy change!
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