12 Remarkable Global Citizens Honoured by Condé Nast Traveler

Condé Nast is one of the world’s most well-known media brands publishing magazines like GQ, Glamour, The New Yorker, VOGUE, Lucky and Vanity Fair. The Condé Nast Traveler “has always believed that the art of travel cannot be separated from the state of the world.” That being said they are honouring those they have dubbed as visionaries for being remarkable global citizens. In the past, they have featured noted luminaries from Nelson Mandela to former United States president Jimmy Carter. This year they honoured a variety of people from different walks of life like activists, actresses, models and politicians.

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  Olivia Wilde

  Olivia Wilde. The 28-year-old actress and activist is using her celebrity status to help fight poverty. Olivia is the co-founder of The Academy for Peace and Justice, the first free high school in Port-au-Prince which will allow those who cannot afford an education the opportunity to learn. Wilde is on the board of Artists for Peace and Justice, which built the school.

• Ai Weiwei. The daring Chinese artist is using “the Internet [as] a constant challenge to—and rebuke of—authoritarian brutality and opacity.” Ai’s Twitter account with 170,000+ followers is his most powerful tool as he sends daily tweets making fun of the government. An example is ”No outdoor sports are as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship”. “Civil society is beginning to emerge,” says Ai, “People are talking about problems online. Social justice depends on understanding what is going on. The Internet is the most artistic, imaginative thing happening in China.”
• Richard Branson. The founder of Virgin has made philanthropy a priority. One of his current projects is to help build a sustainable Caribbean and his Virgin Holidays helps support these projects. He believes that business can be a force for good in the world and not just take from it. “If every company put aside a percentage of profits for tackling problems in their communities and the world, it would ultimately be good for shareholders and the world would be a better place” said Branson.
• Susan Sarandon and Somaly Mam. Mam is a former sex slave and the founder of Somaly Mam Foundation, Cambodian shelters for former sex slaves. Sarandon is an Oscar winning actress and longtime activist who has been an ardent fundraiser for the Somaly Mam Foundation. The two are raising funds and awareness to help other girls facing the hardships Mam endured.
  Somaly Man Speaking in Half the Sky
  [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuKygSFJBYs[/youtube]
• Nicholas D. Kristof. As a New York Times columnist and co-author of the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide which inspired a television event (above) and movement with the same name, Kristof has been able to bring issues like gender equality into the public consciousness. He has also “forced us to look at injustice around the world.” Kristof said, “People always ask me, Do you get depressed when reporting on poverty and global conflicts? I go back because it is hard to deal with. Gender inequality is not just a women’s issue, just as the Holocaust was not just a Jewish issue. It’s the moral issue of the twenty-first century.”
• Jochen Zeitz. The Chief sustainability officer of the French luxury company PPR, parent company to brands like Puma, Gucci and YSL, is working to make the travel and luxury business industries more accountable for its impact on earth and increase its environmental responsibility. In 2011, he created an Environmental Profit & Loss report, measuring and valuing a brand’s impact on the environment.
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  Hilary Rodham Clinton

  Hilary Rodham Clinton. In 3 ½ years, the most travelled Secretary of State logged more than 800,000 miles (more than 33 times the circumference of the earth) totalling over 1800 hours of travel time and visited 50 countries annually on average. Clinton said, “In the modern world, we’re all interdependent, we’re all interconnected. You just can’t say that you’re only going to deal with your own kind of person, or you’re only going to meet your own kind of person, or you’re only going to listen to your own kind of person. That’s not the way the world is going to work. And we’ll either figure out how to be more integrated, or we will disintegrate.”

• Michael Bloomberg. The Mayor of New York City has been able to reduce the Big Apple’s carbon emissions by 13% over the last five years. He takes his job seriously and believes that mayors can have an impact and should be held accountable. “The environmental stuff, whether or not it reverses climate change, influences you and your kids today—the air you breathe, the water you drink, the economy you have, the opportunities you have. Today. That’s how you sell the environment,” he says. “Don’t try to sell it for 40 years from now. Think ‘my air, my water.’ And cities are where it’s all going to happen.”
• Gary White. He co-founded the charity water.org with Oscar winning writer and actor Matt Damon. White’s game-changing micro-loans for water will help solve the water crisis. “Water.org has helped about a million people in 11 countries gain access to water, and White believes the model will spread more quickly now that it’s proven.”
• Okello Sam. Sam was once a child soldier who escaped Uganda, but went back to help children in need. He opened “Hope North, a secondary school for those uprooted by the rebellion in northern Uganda.” Sam says, “If you empower people with education, they can see a future.” With about 255 students, Hope North has graduated children who are teachers, lawyers, and businessmen. “I am very proud of them,” says Sam. “I may not see it in my lifetime, but I want to be a player in creating a peaceful world.”
• Christy Turlington Burns. The former model is being honoured for her tireless work to raise awareness of maternal health issues through her foundation Every Mother Counts which we wrote about when featuring her No Mother’s Day movement along with the release of her documentary No Woman, No Cry. “Almost 360,000 women die every year during pregnancy and childbirth,” says Turlington Burns, “and it’s 90 percent preventable.”

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