50 Kinds of Phobia - A Checklist for Self-Analysis

We are Living in Parallel Worlds:  The World of Phobia
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog

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It's a different world you enter into when you are gripped by anxiety, tension and fear, sometimes to the point of panic.  You find yourself surrounded by walls.  You don't only feel as prisoner, you are in a coffin. You must  escape!  You must get out! You are suffering of claustrophobia. 

The world of phobias is virtually endless. A beautiful place may turn out to be a torture chamber (ecclesiophobia - fear of the church), a beautiful relationship becomes a bondage (gamophobia or fear of marriage).  Persistent phobias may graduate into syndrome.  Imagine yourself in a world where you are in constant fear of anything, everything, without any  known cause (panphobia), and worst, if that constant fear is the fear of death (thanatophobia)  
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Imagine yourself being surrounded by different kinds of merchandise like in this sari-sari store, and people milling around plus the typical irritating noise typical in a market . Is this a case of claustrophobia? Or much more? And yet vendors get used to it - and even love their work and make it a lifetime livelihood. So what is phobia?

Everyone of us has phobias, a term that has become very common nowadays. 

The truth is that many of our fears are not actually phobias. Thus a phobia may be regarded as a psychological phenomenon, personality problem, or simply anxiety, shyness, distraught. It could be the result of discrimination, prejudice, after-effect of say, a horror movie, and inability to adjust to a new situation.

Actually there are 1001 cause-and-effect cases that are attributed to phobias, and many of them are just invented terms. There is no end to the list which in the first place are not all supported by scientific evidences. 

If our world is full of phobias how come we still can manage to go on with life? And find it beautiful? Psychologists say we have the ability to rise above uncertainties and fears associated with things and events unfamiliar and strange. Our rationality and high intelligence help us in facing and overcoming them - and even forget them afterwards. This is the wonder of human will and determination.


Is there a term for phobia to cats? Cats are second to the dog as man's best friend. It is ironical that these animals are the cause of phobia, something parents and our values have to correct early with our children.

In the scientific aspect a phobia (from the Greek for fear or morbid fear) is an irrational, intense and persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, animals, or people. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive and unreasonable desire to avoid the feared stimulus. Phobias are generally caused by an event recorded and labeled in the brain as deadly or dangerous. Thus whenever a specific situation is approached again (and again) the body reacts as if the event were happening repeatedly afterward. In which case there is need of medical, psychiatric, or spiritual advise.

Go over this list and mark those that are applicable to you, and rate them as mild or serious. In this way you will be able to assess your fears and overcome them, on your own effort, or with professional help. There are really many phobias beyond this list. No one knows really, and if alleged phobia is an accepted term and condition. This is the consequence of living in a postmodern world.

1. acrophobia – heights
2. agarophobia – open space
3. agyrophobia or dromophobia – crossing the street
4. amaxophobia – riding in a car
5. ambulophobia – walking
6. aviophobia – fear of flying
7. androphobia – men
8. gamophobia – marriage
9. ecclesiophobia – church
10. gerascophobia – growing old
11. thanatophobia – fear of death.
12. thermophobia – fear of heat.
13. tokophobia – fear of childbirth.
14. hagiophobia – saints and holy things
15. anthophobia - flowers
16. aviophobia, aviatophobia – fear of flying.
17. hydrophobia - water (a positive sign of a mad dog)Below are some examples:
18. chemophobia – prejudice against artificial substances in favor of "natural" substances.
19. ephebiphobia – fear or dislike of youth or adolescents.
20. homophobia – fear or dislike of homosexuals or homosexuality.
21. xenophobia – fear or dislike of strangers or the unknown.
22. agoraphobia – fear of places or events where escape is impossible
23. agraphobia – fear of sexual abuse.
24. algophobia – fear of pain.
25. agyrophobia – fear of crossing roads.
26. anthropophobia – fear of people or being in a company, a form of social phobia.
27. arachnophobia – fear of spiders.
28. atychiphobia – fear of failure
29. claustrophobia – fear of having no escape and being closed in.
30. dentophobia, odontophobia – fear of dentists and dental procedures
31. disposophobia, better known as "compulsive hoarding" – the fear of getting rid of or losing things.
32. dysmorphophobia, or body dysmorphic disorder – a phobic obsession with a real or imaginary body defect.
33. genophobia, coitophobia – fear of sexual intercourse.
34. gerascophobia – fear of growing old or aging.
35. gerontophobia – fear of growing old, or a hatred or fear of the elderly
36. glossophobia – fear of speaking in public or of trying to speak.
37. gynophobia – fear of women.
38. hemophobia, haemophobia – fear of blood.
39. spectrophobia – fear of mirrors and one's own reflections.
40. nostophobia - fear of returning home
41. nyctophobia, achluophobia -   fear of darkness.
42. lygophobia, scotophobia – also fear of darkness.
43. paraskavedekatriaphobia, paraskevidekatriaphobia, friggatriskaidekaphobia – fear of Friday the 13th.
44. scolionophobia – fear of school.
45. phasmophobia – fear of ghosts, spectres or phantasms.
46. philophobia - fear of love
47. phobophobia – fear of having a phobia.
48. pyrophobia – fear of fire.
49. sociophobia – fear of people or social situations.
50. Panphobia – fear of everything or constant fear of an unknown cause. ~

After finishing this exercise, proceed to the next post: Anxiety, Phobia and Depression

NOTE: The terms mentioned here are not all recognized scientifically.  Many are not found in the dictionary. Most of these are classified psychological. Other phobias are non-psychological, fictional, jocular, biological, or simply arising from our relationships with the environment, animals and the like. Pause and reflect. Make a list of the phobias you have identified from this list and from other sources. Resolve to overcome them and live a happier and healthier life. You can do it!

References: Time magazine, Wikipedia

A Day at the Museum of Natural History

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog

Skeleton of a tamaraw

Wall. wall, who is the most informed of all? 

History in a glass case

Whale, dead and alive - and threatened.

Kids' world in a natural world through arts 

Teachers on a field trip at the UPLB Museum of Natural History

Author leads group in a field lecture

Museum is...

Museum is where time stands still and the world goes back 
into the realm of the past resurrected by fossil and artifact;

Museum is a capsule of time and space that makes a tour
for the busy soul to break away from daily grind and chore;

Museum is where man's instinct yearning to know his origin 
as a human being comes to terms with unsettled beginning.

Museum is the showcase of biodiversity, past and present 
of the living world - prehistoric, the ancient and the recent;    

Museum is a diorama, fashioned by man's hand, aesthetic
and make-believe, his life in harmony, doubt and conflict;     

Museum is an arena of knowledge, attracting the scholars
to talk about anything on earth, and beyond the stars; 

Museum is a place of reflection where man draws humility 
from revelation, embracing both unknown and reality. 

Museum is a keyhole of a country's wealth and culture, 
a view of awe and beauty, achievements and rapport;

Museum is a center of peace, foreigners and citizens
converging into small United Nations of many friends.    

Museum is a place marked with neither beginning nor end,
it simply takes one into a journey of life down the bend. ~  

Photos were taken at the Museum of Natural History at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, Laguna, 2007

Impressionism and Abstract Nature Paintings of Nature (Article in progress)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Birds (16" 28") 2012

Bugs (11" x 14") 2012

Bullfight (13" 24") 2013

Eyes, Eyes (12" 24") 2013

Autumn Bloom (22" x 22") 2013

Return of Balloon Frog Symbolizes Nature's Victory

But Nature’s victory does not mean man’s defeat; rather it humbles man to be obedient to Nature’s laws and rules which is the key to his very survival. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Views of the Balloon Frog - Uperodon globulosus (U. systoma?)

The first time I saw tukak bat’og was when I was a young farmhand. Its name is familiar because bat’og, battog or battobattog, in Ilocano means pot bellied. At that time anyone who exhibited a bulging waistline was associated with this amphibian. But there were very few of this kind then. The war had just ended and people had to work hard.

Hardship tightens the belt automatically, but peacetime and the Good Life opens a new war - the “battle of the bulge.” Today two out of five Americans are obese and Europeans are not far behind. Asians are following the same trend, as more and more people have changed to the Western lifestyle that accompanies overweight condition, whether one is male or female.

But actually Bat’og is all air. It’s like balloon short of taking off. But once it wedges itself in its tight abode not even bird or snake can dislodge it. Not only that. It feigns dead and its attacker would simply walk away to find a live and kicking prey.

Nature’s sweet lies are tools of survival. When it faces danger Bat’og engulfs air and becomes pressurized and distended, reducing the size of its head and appendages to appear like mere rudiments. And with its coloration that blends with the surroundings, and its body spots becoming monstrous eyes, who would dare to attack this master of camouflage.

Not enough to drive away its foe, Bat’og uses another strategy by producing deep booming sounds coming from its hollow body as resonator. I remember the story of Monico and the Giant by Camilo Osias when I was in the grades. The cruel giant got scared and rushed out of his dark hiding when Monico boomed like Bat’og . Actually it was the unique design of the cave’s chamber that created the special sound effect and ventriloquism. The vaults of old churches were similarly designed this way so that the faithful can clearly hear the sermon.

The exhausted Bat’og deflates and returns to its chores, feeding, roaming around and calling for mate – and rain, so old folks say. Well, frogs become noisy when it rains. Biologically, egg laying is induced by rain. Eggs are fertilized in water and hatched into tadpoles that live in water until they become frogs. Bat’og has relatives that live in trees and their tadpoles inhabit trapped water in the axils of bromeliads, bananas and palms. Or it could be a pool inside the hollow of a tree.

After I left the farm for my studies in Manila, I never saw any Tukak Bat’og again. Only a trace of that childhood memory was left of this enigmatic creature.

Then one day, in my disbelief Bat’og resurrected! For a long time it has long been in the requiem list of species, ironically even before it was accorded scientific details of its existence. Well, there are living things that may not even reach the first rung of the research ladder, either they are insignificant or new to science. Who would take a look at Bat’og?

I believe a lot of people now do. People have become environment-conscious after the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, the emergence of Greenpeace movement, and birth of "heroes for the environment". Who is not aware now of global warming, especially after viewing Al Gore's documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth? Who have not experienced calamities brought about by our changing climate? 

What changed the thinking of the world - a revolution in our concept of survival - is that all livings are interconnected and that the world is one systemic order, that the survival of one spells the survival of all creatures and the preservation of the integrity of the biosphere and therefore of Planet Earth, and that there is no living thing that is too small to be insignificant or useless.

Of all places I found Bat’og one early morning in my residence in Quezon City. I would say it instead found me. There in my backyard, ensconced in a gaping crack in the soil covered with a thick layer of dead leaves lay my long lost friend - very much alive.

Hello! And it looked at me motionless with steady eyes. It was aestivating, a state of turpor, which is a biological phenomenon for survival in dry and hot summer, the counterpart of hibernation when organisms sleep in winter and wait for the coming of spring. My friend was waiting nature's clock to signal the Habagat to bring rain from across the Pacific come June to September, a condition necessary for its amphibious life.

Slowly I lifted my friend and cradled it of sort on my palm. And we rolled time back fifty years ago. And before any question was asked, it was already answered. It is like that when two old friends meet after a long time. I remember when journalist Stanley found the great explorer Dr. David Livingstone in the heart of Africa in the 19th century, Stanley simply greeted, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" and the old man lifted his hat and gave Stanley a firm handshake. This became one of the most famous meetings in the world.

You see an event earns a place in history, or in the heart, when it permeates into the primordial reason of existence, which is Reverence of Life.

Reverence – this is the principal bond between man and nature. It is more than friendship. It is the also the bonds of the trilogies of human society – equality, fraternity and liberty. It is the bridge of all relationships in the complex web and pyramid of life. It towers over equations and formulas in science. It links earth and heaven, in fact the whole universe – and finally, the bridge of understanding between creature and Creator.

Bat’og is back. How easy it is to understand a creature however small it is, if it is your friend. Yet how difficult it is to define the role of a friend. The fox in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’ novel, The Little Prince, warned the little prince, “If you tame me you are responsible to me.” The little prince simply touched the wild beast.

Taming is the ultimate submission to humility. And the greater a person who humbles himself, the truer a friend he is.

How do we relate this principle to our being the only rational creature? The dominant species over millions of species? The God-anointed guardian of the Earth? The custodian of creation?

Allow me to have some time with my long lost friend. Either one of us is the Prodigal Son, but that does not matter now. Let me join Darwin and Linnaeus and Villadolid et al.

That was a long time ago by the pond that had dried in summer. As a kid on the farm I have known the ways of my friend. Bat’og would stake its prey - termites, ants, beetles and other insects. Like all frogs – and toads – the adults and tadpoles are important in controlling pests and diseases.

One of its relatives belonging to genus Kaloula was found to subsist mainly on hoppers and beetles that destroy rice, including leafhoppers that transmit tungro, a viral disease of rice that may lead to total crop failure. Such insectivorous habit though is universal to amphibians, reptiles, birds and other organisms. If only we can protect these Nature’s biological agents we would not be using chemicals on the farm and home, chemicals that pollutes the environment and destroys wildlife.

Bat'og and its kind protect man from hunger and disease. They are an important link in the food chain. No pond or ricefield or forest or grassland is without frogs. There would be no herons and snakes and hawks and eagles. No biological laboratory is without the frog as a blue print of human anatomy. And The Frog and the Princess would certainly vanish in the imagination of children.

Bat’og is a survivor of chemical genocide. It is the timely age of enlightenment of people returning to natural food and the spread of environmental consciousness on all walks of life and ages that came to its rescue in the last minute. So with many threatened species.

Who does not rejoice at finding again native kuhol, martiniko, ulang and gurami in the rice field? Oriole, pandangera, tarat and pipit in the trees? Tarsier, mouse deer and pangolin in the wild? And the return of ipil-ipil, kamagong and narra in the forest? And of course, Haribon the symbol of Philippine wildlife and biodiversity.

It is indeed a challenge for us to practice being the Good Shepherd, but this time it is not only a lost lamb that we have to save, it’s the whole flock.

Tukak Bat’og symbolizes the victory of Nature. But Nature’s victory does not mean man’s defeat; rather it is man’s submission and obedience to Nature’s laws and rules and therefore, the restoration of order on Planet Earth - our only spaceship on which we journey into the vastness of the universe and the unknown. x x x

I asked God for more

"I asked God if I can be god, too, all knowing
     with my technology ..."
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Virgin Forest: only 3 percent is left in the Philippines.

Requiem to a forest, Brooke's Point Palawan

I asked God for food, clothing and shelter
     and He showered me
these necessities I can not live without -
     they are the Earth's bounty;
I settled down on fertile hills and valleys
     and multiplied freely.

I asked God for power to boost my strength,
     and He gave me energy;
I leveled the mountains, dammed the rivers
     and conquered the sea;
raped the forests, prairies, lakes and estuaries,
     a world I wanted to be.

I asked God if I can be god, too, all knowing
     with my technology;
broke the sacred code of life and of matter,
     changed the Great Story;
annihilated life unfit in my own design,
     and set my own destiny.

I asked God if He is but a creation of the mind,
     and rose from my knee;
probed space, rounding up the universe,
     aiming at immortality;
bolder than ever, searching for another home,
     and wanting to be free. ~

Acknowledgment: Photos, Dr Julie Barcelona

Grains Museum Re-opened After 30 Years

The ingenuity at the grassroots cannot be underestimated. Farmers' technology developed with the birth of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago, and spread throughout the world. 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

The re-opening of the museum signifies the revival of commitment under the present administration in pursuing the original objectives of the museum, which the author as its first curator upheld until its closure soon after the EDSA Revolution in 1986. 

The re-opening after nearly 30 years could make history for the Grains Museum to be a unifying element of a diverse and politically divided nation since the Edsa revolution.  

One of the seven dioramas, Rice farming on the Banaue rice terraces

Featured in the Grains, official publication of the National Food Authority, the NFA Grains Industry Museum with address at the Regional Office in Cabanatuan City (NE) is now inviting students, scholars, researchers, and ordinary folks, even while restoration is on-going. 

The feature story is quoted in part, as follows:  (December 2016 Vol. 44, No. 4), written by Ms Lina G Reyes and Ms Josephine C Bacungan), 

"Old farm tools and artifacts had been sitting quietly, gathering dust at the dilapidated museum of the Central Luzon Regional office in Cabanatuan City. National Food Authority Grains Industry Museum was a brainchild of then NFA Extension Director Abercio V Rotor with a vision to highlight the evolution of the rice industry through various images on production, post-harvest activities, processing, storage and marketing /distribution of rice and other grains .  It was intended to serve as NFA's contribution to the preservation of cultural traditions particularly in the agricultural landscape.  It operated for sometime but was closed down due to lack of funds and trained personnel to maintain it.  But thanks to he history-loving team of Director Amadeo de Guzman and Assistant Regional Director Serafin Manalili, and then Asst Director Mar Alvarez, et al ... "(the whole staff of the NFA regional and NFA provincial offices.) 
Rare Artifacts   

Operated by hand this native rice mill made of wood and bamboo separates the husk from the grain, leaving the grain intact with its bran.
Brown rice or pinawa dehusker made of bamboo and hardened earth with hardwood grinder displayed at the former Farmers' Museum of the National Food Authority in Cabanatuan City.c 1981 

The bran contains minerals, vitamins, oil, and digestible fiber which conventional rice mills removed during polishing. Polishing removes the bran leaving the grain white and polished. In the process, much of the grains is broken, particularly the defective and immature ones chalky and powdery.  It is the bran that gives the nutritious tiki-tiki which is extracted in the final boiling stage in cooking rice. Tiki-tiki was developed by a Filipino scientist, Dr. Manuel Zamora, a cheap and practical source of infant food supplement which saved thousands of babies during the second World War. It was later popularized as United Tiki-tiki. . 

 Biggest wooden harrow (suyod) with a span of two meters, more than twice the size of a typical harrow for upland farming.  



The harrow is of two designs and make. One with iron pegs (left) is used on wet paddy. It serves as harrow and leveler.  The second is made of bamboo with natural and embedded pegs used as harrow for the upland.  

Author demonstrates a rare wooden planter with a sliding wooden block at the middle. The block creates a tic-tac sound to let know the worker is busy on the job, while the deep sound warns birds and rodents to keep away from the newly planted seeds. The block vibrates the stake shaking off clinging soil and dirt before it is thrust to make the next hole. Whoever put this mechanism into multiple and unified uses must be a true genius. 

At the background (above) are naturally shaped hame* made of bamboo.  At the foreground is the mould (cross section) showing the formed hame. The process involved is simple.  The mould is placed atop an emerging shoot.  The shoot grows through the mould and grows to maturity. One or two years after, the bamboo is cut with the mould, and cured and seasoned for durability all in the natural way.  (Hame is a curved harness that fits over the nape of a draft animal like carabao and bullock. Hame for the horse is made of two wooden pieces, padded and clamped together around its neck.) 

 

Native raincoats made of leaves of anahaw (Livistona rotundifolia), cowhide, and woven bamboo slats, with matching headgears likewise made of native materials.  Foreground: Sleds, one made of bamboo (left) and the other of wood. 

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All over the world there are similarities, based on a general pattern, save variations for ease and comfort in usage, which we call today ergonomics, Thus primitive farmers were the founders of this new science. Pride in the farmer can be read on face on discovering these simple tools displayed in the museum.   
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These sets of mortar and pestle in different designs came from different regions of the country, principally for dehusking palay into rice, and making rice flour. Other uses include  cracking beans such as mungo, and grinding corn into grits and bran. 

Photo below was taken just after the inauguration of the Museum (1982). The author (left) shows new collection to Dr Romualdo M del Rosario (in barong), deputy director of the National Museum, who helped in setting up the museum. 

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The ingenuity at the grassroots cannot be underestimated. Farmers' technology developed with the birth of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago, and spread to many parts of the world. The commonality of inventions is more on function, rather than scientific explanation, the latter serving as basis in improvement and diversification.
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Rice Industry Showcase
The Farmers' Museum of the then National Grains Authority, now National Food Authority, was put up in response to the administration's thrust in food self-sufficiency.  It was during the time the country gave emphasis on developing cultural pride as a nation and people, as evidenced by the expansion of the National Museum, the putting up of the Philippine Convention Center, and the National Art Center on Mt Makiling, among others, during the administration of the late President Ferdinand E Marcos. The Farmers' Museum occupied the right wing of the Regional NFA Building in Cabanatuan City for two decades, until it closed down.  It was once a pride of the agency, the centerpiece of visitation by foreign dignitaries, convention participants, tourists, professors and students, and most especially farmers who found the museum not only as a showcase of the agricultural industry, but as a hallmark of their being the "backbone of the nation." AVR   

There are seven dioramas, four of these are shown in these old photographs. A wall mural meets the visitor on entering the museum.  Indigenous farm tools and implements are lined on the foreground.  The dioramas are grouped at the center of the cubicles.   

 Rice Industry Dioramas 
                           
                            

The flagship of the Marcos administration Masagana 99, a nationwide

 rice production program that made the Philippines a net exporter 

of rice in the later part of the seventies.

Rainfed (sahod ulan) farming dominates the uplands and hillsides. 

Good harvest depends on generous amount and distribution of 

rainfall during the monsoon. Since ancient times festivals implore 

providence for bountiful harvest. This practice still exists especially 

among the  minorities like the Yakans.  

World famous rice terraces in Banaue in the Cordillera have been declared World Heritage by UNESCO. Rice farming on the terraces is as old as the terraces believed to be as old as the Pyramids of Egypt, and much older than the Great Wall of China. Science is still studying the sustainability of these terraces. 

 The Encomienda System dominated agriculture during Spanish rule over the

 islands for more than three centuries. The friars and Spanish officials were the encomienderos,similar to hacienderos.   Although the system underwent land reform, it still persists to this day under corporate umbrella such as the case of Del Monte pineapple plantation. Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac still retains some features of the system.                          

                  

This mural was destroyed when the wall had to undergo major repairs.

                               

How primitive are farmers' tools and implements? The animal-drawn sled predates the wheel cart, and has not changed since its invention thousands of years ago.  It is still used in the remote countryside. 

Brain coral for shelling corn raises eyebrow to the city bred.  Biggest iron bar scale (timbangan), probably is  another item for the Book of Guinness. 

“Education is the lifeblood of museums. Museum education has the power and the responsibility to do the challenging inner work of tackling tough topics and turning them into teachable moments... If we truly believe in the power of cultural institutions to impact communities and engage authentically with social justice issues, if we believe in museums’ capacity to bring about social change, improve cultural awareness, and even transform the world, than we must also believe that our internal practices have an impact, and must act according to the changes we seek.”

― Monica O Montgomery

“Closing a museum to save money is like holding your breath to save oxygen...”

― Nanette L. Avery  

Ten Most Important people who influenced your life and career: A Survey

Dr Abe V Rotor 

In a survey conducted at the UST graduate school and the Faculty of Arts and Letters, the respondents were asked to list down the names of the ten most important persons  outside of their families and relations who influenced them in attaining their present life condition and career. Here is the result:

1.     Mother Teresa, now St Teresa (Champion of the poorest among the poor);

2,   Jose Rizal (Greatest Filipino, author of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo)

3.    Andres Bonifacio (Leader of the Philippine Revolution, author of Kartilya)

4.    Ramon Magsaysay (Most loved Philippine president; RM Award in his honor)

5.    John Paul II (Most popular pope; author, On the Threshold of Hope)


6.    Mahatma Gandhi (Man of the Millennium; liberated India from British rule)

7.    Jesus Christ (Symbol of Christianity, biggest religion on earth with 2 billion followers)

8.    Buddha (Teaching of the Buddha, the Enlightened One)

9.    St Paul of Tarsus (Greatest apostle, wrote one-third of the Holy Bible)

10. Albert Einstein (Acclaimed world’s greatest genius in our times, Man of the last century)

11. Efren Peñaranda (Push cart school teacher, winner CNN Award)


12. Al Gore (Environmentalist, former US Vice President;  author, An Inconvenient Truth)

13. Confucius (Greatest teacher in the Orient, philosopher)

14. Helen Keller (Born blind, author, If I were given Three Days to See)

15. Anne Sullivan (Helen’s teacher)

16. Rhonda Byrne (author, The Secret)

17. Isaac Asimov (Science fiction writer; author, The Limits to Growth)

18. Princess Diana (Her tragic death humbled the aristocracy)

19. Oprah Winfrey (Internationally famous TV show host)

20. “An old man who takes our garbage every day”