The Good Samaritans

By James Kelly, Managing Editor

Natural disasters are terrible things but what ultimately defines us is not what happens to us but how we react. After the tsunami hit, the world donated billions of dollars; Americans alone gave $1.6 billion, more than to any other disaster overseas. And four months after Hurricane Katrina, the donations approach $3 billion. This got me to thinking about the nature of giving, and what makes for temporary relief vs. lasting change. Sudden disasters get the big headlines, but day after day other tragedies of avoidable dimensions unfold: the one child who dies of malaria in Africa every 29 seconds, the one person who is infected with HIV every 6.4 seconds, the 8 million who die every year because they are too poor to stay alive. And who is proving most effective in figuring out how to eradicate those calamities? In different ways, it is Bill and Melinda Gates, co-founders of the world's wealthiest charitable foundation, and Bono, the Irish rocker who has made debt reduction sexy.

Nancy Gibbs makes the case for why they are TIME's Persons of the Year. Josh Tyrangiel explores how Bono gets his message across. Amanda Ripley and Amanda Bower spend time with the Gateses and dissect their charitable approach. Michael Duffy hangs with our Partners of the Year: George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the onetime rivals who joined forces to raise relief money. My thanks to Priscilla Painton, who deftly ran the project, and to all my other colleagues who made this issue so special.

For the past four years, Eileen Naughton has served as president of TIME--and my business-side partner. In a company consolidation, Ed McCarrick, the worldwide publisher of TIME, now adds the role of president to his portfolio. Eileen, Ed and I are good friends, and Ed joins me in saluting Eileen and thanking her for all that she did here. This one's for you, Eileen.