# The Ten People That Make You Proud of Your Country



## Mesa

Now, i am not in the least patriotic, i have very little national pride, and i'd much rather be German, French, Italian or North American. But as this isn't likely to happen until my space-time continuum rupturing nationality cannon is finished, i'm kind of stuck with being an Briton.

To quote Cecil Rhodes, '"Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.".

So without further ado,
*Stephen Hawking CBE*. For providing me with hours worth of books and audio lectures that i can pretend to comprehend, and doing a bit of science here and there.
*David Mitchell*. The perfect modern Englishman.
*Sir Edward Elgar*. Nothing more and nothing less than a remarkably fine composer.
*Stephen Fry*. The beacon of light in our dire televisual wasteland in both acting and hosting, and an excellent novelist to boot.
*Sir Charlie Chaplin*. Veritable polymath who's work bears eternal relevance, beauty and charm.
*Sir Charles Darwin*. The father!
*John Barry OBE*. Composer of some of the catchiest pieces of music in history, layer down of some _serious_ grooves.
*Sir Tim Berners-Lee*. Coolest British geek ever.
*Sir William Shakespeare*. Anyone that would take anything other than the complete works to a desert island is a philistine.
*Humphrey Lyttleton*. One of the funniest people to ever grace the earth. And Trumpet virtuoso. And rejecter of a knighthood.


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## Taneyev

I can't found any. Haven't persons nor facts to be proud of my contry.


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## aleazk

^^^


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## Argus

Gary Neville
Shaun Ryder
Karl Pilkington
Fred Dibnah
Anthony H Wilson
Stuart Maconie
Frank Sidebottom
Steve Coogan
Ian Brown
LS Lowry

I may have stretched the borders of the republic a bit but they are all from within Mancunia's sphere of influence.


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## Mesa

Coincidentally, i first heard the Rhodes quote on the Ricky Gervais Guides. If it's a potato or a nut, it's a foodage.

Good call on Tony Wilson and Coogan, too!

Realised i left out Newton, Logie Baird and Alfred Hitchcock. Ho hum. Purcell was left out mainly because Elgar is a luminary in the world of the moustache.

And Argentines, surely you've got Maradona, and, err, these guys?








Granted, they are fictional and nobody's ever heard of them.

Wait, wait, you have Lalo Schifrin too!


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## science

Hard to pick only ten! 

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington 
3. John Brown
4. Franklin Roosevelt
5. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
6. Albert Einstein 
7. Norman Borlaug 
8. George Marshall 
9. Daniel Ellsberg
10. Johnny Cash 

Some other people (in a really random order, as I moved them around while brainstorming) I considered: 

William Lloyd Garrison 
W. E. B. Dubois 
James Watson (of Watson & Crick) 
Benjamin Franklin 
James Madison
John Woolman 
Jane Addams 
Earl Warren 
Linus Pauling 
Carl Sagan 
Mark Twain 
Jonas Salk 
Thurgood Marshall 
Bill Gates 
Eleanor Roosevelt 
Charles Ives
Louis Armstrong 
Duke Ellington
Charlie Parker
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Herbie Hancock 
Woodie Guthrie 
Harriet Tubman 
Edward R. Murrow
Andrew Carnegie
Harry Truman
John Adams
Ansel Adams 
Andrew Wyeth 
Edward Hopper
the Little Rock Nine
James Meredith 
Walt Whitman
Robert Frost
Emily Dickinson 
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau 
Theodore Roosevelt
John Marshall 
Alexander Hamilton


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## science

Mesa said:


> Now, i am not in the least patriotic, i have very little national pride, and i'd much rather be German, French, Italian or North American. But as this isn't likely to happen until my space-time continuum rupturing nationality cannon is finished, i'm kind of stuck with being an Briton.
> 
> To quote Cecil Rhodes, '"Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.".
> 
> So without further ado,
> *Stephen Hawking CBE*. For providing me with hours worth of books and audio lectures that i can pretend to comprehend, and doing a bit of science here and there.
> *David Mitchell*. The perfect modern Englishman.
> *Sir Edward Elgar*. Nothing more and nothing less than a remarkably fine composer.
> *Stephen Fry*. The beacon of light in our dire televisual wasteland in both acting and hosting, and an excellent novelist to boot.
> *Sir Charlie Chaplin*. Veritable polymath who's work bears eternal relevance, beauty and charm.
> *Sir Charles Darwin*. The father!
> *John Barry OBE*. Composer of some of the catchiest pieces of music in history, layer down of some _serious_ grooves.
> *Sir Tim Berners-Lee*. Coolest British geek ever.
> *Sir William Shakespeare*. Anyone that would take anything other than the complete works to a desert island is a philistine.
> *Humphrey Lyttleton*. One of the funniest people to ever grace the earth. And Trumpet virtuoso. And rejecter of a knighthood.


Good list. If I were British, I might go with Shakespeare, Locke, Newton, Adam Smith, Maxwell, Darwin, and Keynes. And then maybe George Fox, Emily Bronte, and Alan Turing.


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## Cnote11

I would definitely go with Stephen Fry and David Mitchell if I were British  Two great modern personalities.


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## Polednice

What's it got to do with my country? These people make me proud of humanity, not the land-mass I happen to share with them. The only people who would make me proud to be British are those rare politicians who were instrumental in making this country a land of openness, fairness, and opportunity. There are still many problems and much work to be done, but it's the government that makes a country, not the people it accidentally gives birth to.


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## Mesa

Everyone's accidentally born somewhere and that's the fun of it, old chum.


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## Polednice

Mesa said:


> Everyone's accidentally born somewhere and that's the fun of it, old chum.


For some, that's the curse.


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## Cnote11

Glad to see some anti-nationalists here... I do adore you Polednice.


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## Crudblud

I consider myself a citizen of Earth, and of the universe. Many of the people listed here make me proud of my heritage as a human being, but I can't say that I feel I am more English than Japanese or Brazilian.

To put it another way; my world is like a symphony, it must contain everything. :tiphat:


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## regressivetransphobe

If there's one thing I know about anti-nationalism, it's that it becomes nationalism as soon as someone from another country talks bad about yours.


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## Cnote11

If you look at all my posts on here you will see me quickly joining in on bad mouthing the United States (where I'm from)


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## Taneyev

regressivetransphobe said:


> If there's one thing I know about anti-nationalism, it's that it becomes nationalism as soon as someone from another country talks bad about yours.


You can say all what you like about Argentina. I'll not be offended. And whatever you said, I sure you that I can say worst things.


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## emiellucifuge

Im not particularly a fan of the (at times) arbitrary political divisions drawn on the Earth's surface, but for the sake of the game (and given that many of these are little known outside NL):

Joost van den Vondel - the "Dutch Shakespeare", who would have an equal reputation did he not write in such a marginal language.
Harry Mulisch - A great Dutch writer and philosopher, who should have won the Nobel prize imo.
Baruch Spinoza - "You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all." - Hegel
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek - "The father of microbiology"
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck - For being such an important composer.
Vincent van Gogh
Rembrandt van Rijn
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld - He has become unpopular for being involved in a number of scandals and affairs, but he instils a certain, perhaps irrational, pride in me. He founded the Bilderberg group, the WWF etc...
Christiaan Huygens - Argued that light was a wave.
Johannes van der Waals - Nobel laureate, namesake of the 'van der Waals forces' (a type of intermolecular bond)


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## aleazk

Domingo Liotta, designed and developed the first artificial heart successfully implanted in a human being in 1969.

René Favaloro, developed the techniques and performed the world's first ever coronary bypass surgery.

Bernardo Houssay, the first Latin American awarded with a Nobel Prize in the Sciences.

Luis Leloir (Nobel Prize), discovered how organisms store energy converting glucose into glycogen and the compounds which are fundamental in metabolizing carbohydrates. The Leloir Institute of biotechnology is among the most prestigious in its field in Latin America and in the world.

Jorge Luis Borges, writer, found new ways of looking at the modern world in metaphor and philosophical debate and his influence has extended to writers all over the globe.

César Pelli, Argentine-American architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks.

Ástor Piazzolla, Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music.

*Martha Argerich*...

Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born pianist and conductor.

Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.


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## science

I have a bit of Dutch ancestry of which I am very proud. In the 17th century, the Dutch basically invented modernity - capitalism, republican government, free press (they published Galileo, Descartes, Locke and so on when those authors couldn't get published in their own countries), secularism - and thank goodness it spread from them to Britain, to America and Europe, and then to the world. Nothing has done more to improve human life.


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## Crudblud

aleazk said:


> Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.


Ginastera rules!


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## Moira

Nelson Mandela. Political prisoner, peacemaker and president.
Dr Christian Barnard. Pioneer of the heart transplant.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Peacemaker.
Gary Player. Golfer and gentleman.
Herman Charles Bosman. Murderer and writer.
Sir Anthony Sher. Shakespearean actor.
Charlize Theron. Movie star.
Miriam Makeba (jazz/soul/'black' singer) and Mimi Coertse (opera singer)
Sibongile Khumalo, songster who is credible whether she sings opera, jazz, soul, traditional or contemporary black music. 
William Kentridge. Director of operas and fine artist.

That's eleven. But how does one choose between Miriam Makeba and Mimi Coertse?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Joan Sutherland
Richard Bonynge
Isaac Nathan
Sir Charles Mackerras
Carl Barron
Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage etc.)
Brett Dean
John Williams
Richard Gill
Gough Whitlam


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## Operadowney

R. Murray Schafer
Jack Layton
Mario Lemieux
Randy Bachman
Terry Fox
Tim Horton
Marc Andre Hamelin
Gerald Finley
Ben Heppner
Glenn Gould

In no particular order.


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## violadude

Aaron Copland
Leonard Bernstein
Charles Ives
George Crumb
John Corigliano 
Steve Reich
John Adams
John Coltrane
Charles Mingus
Thelonius Monk


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## Cnote11

Miles Davis
Eric Dolphy
Duke Ellington
Ian Williams
Bill Frisell
Muddy Waters
Elvin Jones
Munaf Rayani
George Benson
Wes Montgomery


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## aleazk

Crudblud said:


> Ginastera rules!


Indeed!






(the action starts at 4:56!)


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## Xaltotun

Jean Sibelius - composer
Elias Lönnrot - folklorist
Akseli Gallen-Kallela - painter
Walter Runeberg - sculptor
Fanny Churberg - painter
Johannes Takanen - sculptor
Wäinö Aaltonen - sculptor
Eliel Saarinen -architect
Eino Leino - poet
Yrjö-Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen - politician


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## Polednice

So which country wins?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Polednice said:


> So which country wins?


Mine does.


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## Praeludium

I wonder if there are some german peoples here !


Berlioz : I'm not sure I like everything he has written but he was truly a one of a kind.

Debussy : Should I even explain why ?

Messiaen : Same.

Tristan Murail : Same.

Nicolas Poussin

Gustave Courbet 

Gerard de Nerval

Albert Camus 

Arthur Rimbaud

René Descartes

Henri Bergson



I had no difficulty to find 10 since I live in a relatively big (it's actually very small compared with Australia or the USA haha), old and European country, but I must say that, like Cnote11, I'm more in awe of the individuals the France has seen than the nation itself. Unfortunately, there are as much stupid peoples here as anywhere else haha.

edit : This post has been useful : I can see now that I don't even know particularly well the French painters, poets and writers, and that I absolutely don't know the history of sciences in France.
I also almost put César Franck but he was Belgian pfff


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## Philip

When you consider all the great philosophers, mathematicians, composers, writers, painters, etc., that France has produced... you could put 10 names in each of these categories and completely humiliate any other list from any other country.

Of course, times are changing.


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## aleazk

Praeludium said:


> I wonder if there are some german peoples here !
> 
> Berlioz : I'm not sure I like everything he has written but he was truly a one of a kind.
> 
> Debussy : Should I even explain why ?
> 
> Messiaen : Same.
> 
> Tristan Murail : Same.
> 
> Nicolas Poussin
> 
> Gustave Courbet
> 
> Gerard de Nerval
> 
> Albert Camus
> 
> Arthur Rimbaud
> 
> René Descartes
> 
> Henri Bergson
> 
> I had no difficulty to find 10 since I live in a relatively big (it's actually very small compared with Australia or the USA haha), old and European country, but I must say that, like Cnote11, I'm more in awe of the individuals the France has seen than the nation itself. Unfortunately, there are as much stupid peoples here as anywhere else haha.
> 
> edit : This post has been useful : I can see now that I don't even know particularly well the French painters, poets and writers, and that I absolutely don't know the history of sciences in France.
> I also almost put César Franck but he was Belgian pfff


No *Ravel*!!!!!?????????????? , what kind of french are you???????!!!!!!!!!


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## science

Philip said:


> When you consider all the great philosophers, mathematicians, composers, writers, painters, etc., that France has produced... you could put 10 names in each of these categories and completely humiliate any other list from any other country.
> 
> Of course, times are changing.


Maybe mathematicians, but not painters (Italy), philosophers (Greece, Germany, India, China), composers (Austria, Germany, Russia), or writers (England, Russia).


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## Sid James

science said:


> I have a bit of Dutch ancestry of which I am very proud. In the 17th century, the Dutch basically invented modernity - capitalism, republican government, free press (they published Galileo, Descartes, Locke and so on when those authors couldn't get published in their own countries), secularism - and thank goodness it spread from them to Britain, to America and Europe, and then to the world. Nothing has done more to improve human life.


On the negative side of the ledger, they also gave us mercantile colonialism. Look up the Dutch East Indies Company, which seeped out the wealth of places like Indonesia to take the wealth back home. The subjugation of the Indonesian archipelago, esp. Bali, was brutal. So double standards again, as usual in history. We give ourselves _rights_ and _improvements_ but take it away from _others_ at the same time.

Anyway, my being here in Australia, neighbour to Indonesia & learning their history, will put a different slant on what the Dutch did than it does for you.


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## science

If I were French, I might go with... 

Pasteur
Descartes 
Laplace 
Pascal 
Fermat 
Lavoisier 
Curie 
Montesquieu 
Debussy 
Montaigne 

From the 20th century, I think Raymond Aron might be the person who would make me most proud to be French.


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## science

Sid James said:


> On the negative side of the ledger, they also gave us mercantile colonialism. Look up the Dutch East Indies Company, which seeped out the wealth of places like Indonesia to take the wealth back home. The subjugation of the Indonesian archipelago, esp. Bali, was brutal. So double standards again, as usual in history. We give ourselves _rights_ and _improvements_ but take it away from _others_ at the same time.
> 
> Anyway, my being here in Australia, neighbour to Indonesia & learning their history, will put a different slant on what the Dutch did than it does for you.


That's true. They also played a big role in the slave trade.


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## Sid James

Anyway, some Australians I admire.
*
Edward "Weary" Dunlop* - Medical doctor in World War II, treating allied prisoners of war in Asia-Pacific, notably the Burma Railway and Changi POW camp in Singapore.

*Rev. Ted Noffs *- of Uniting Church, among the first to set up drug rehabilitation centres here, and also work with homeless and disadvantaged.

*Fred Hollows *- Eye doctor who set up clinics here and in poor countries worldwide to treat eye conditions, give the poor their sight back. He was born in New Zealand but spent roughly half his life in Australia & became Australian citizen. I like the motto of his foundation, which continues his work today (here Dr. Hollows was talking of saving the sight of people in poor communities) - _"Every eye is an eye. When you are doing the surgery there, that is just as important as if you were doing eye surgery on The Prime Minister or King. "_


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## Moira

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage etc.)


I have a CD where she is narrating something. Now is it Peter and the Wolf or Saint Saens?

Ah, it's a Naxos version of Peter and the Wolf. And Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. And Barry Humphries narrates The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant by Poulenc.


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## Praeludium

aleazk said:


> No *Ravel*!!!!!?????????????? , what kind of french are you???????!!!!!!!!!


I did not want to have to names in the same period ^^ I actually prefer Ravel to Debussy most of the time, but Debussy was first chronologically. But Ravel definitely deserves a place on this list.


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## TxllxT

Sid James said:


> On the negative side of the ledger, they also gave us mercantile colonialism. Look up the Dutch East Indies Company, which seeped out the wealth of places like Indonesia to take the wealth back home. The subjugation of the Indonesian archipelago, esp. Bali, was brutal. So double standards again, as usual in history. We give ourselves _rights_ and _improvements_ but take it away from _others_ at the same time.
> 
> Anyway, my being here in Australia, neighbour to Indonesia & learning their history, will put a different slant on what the Dutch did than it does for you.


Not to forget the Dutch West Indies Company, which was one of the world's biggest slave traders. The praise for secularism originating in Holland also deserves balancing: the Dutch were among the first to look at human beings as commodities, things, objects for trade... and they got rid of the voice of conscience speaking out against this.


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## TxllxT

Mesa said:


> Now, i am not in the least patriotic, i have very little national pride, and i'd much rather be German, French, Italian or North American. But as this isn't likely to happen until my space-time continuum rupturing nationality cannon is finished, i'm kind of stuck with being an Briton.
> 
> To quote Cecil Rhodes, '"Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.".
> 
> So without further ado,
> *Stephen Hawking CBE*. For providing me with hours worth of books and audio lectures that i can pretend to comprehend, and doing a bit of science here and there.
> *David Mitchell*. The perfect modern Englishman.
> *Sir Edward Elgar*. Nothing more and nothing less than a remarkably fine composer.
> *Stephen Fry*. The beacon of light in our dire televisual wasteland in both acting and hosting, and an excellent novelist to boot.
> *Sir Charlie Chaplin*. Veritable polymath who's work bears eternal relevance, beauty and charm.
> *Sir Charles Darwin*. The father!
> *John Barry OBE*. Composer of some of the catchiest pieces of music in history, layer down of some _serious_ grooves.
> *Sir Tim Berners-Lee*. Coolest British geek ever.
> *Sir William Shakespeare*. Anyone that would take anything other than the complete works to a desert island is a philistine.
> *Humphrey Lyttleton*. One of the funniest people to ever grace the earth. And Trumpet virtuoso. And rejecter of a knighthood.


What about another Charles: Charles Dickens? Or the inventor of post-empire greatness for Britain : Ian Fleming (secret agent James Bond)


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## TxllxT

Sid James said:


> On the negative side of the ledger, they also gave us mercantile colonialism. Look up the Dutch East Indies Company, which seeped out the wealth of places like Indonesia to take the wealth back home. The subjugation of the Indonesian archipelago, esp. Bali, was brutal. So double standards again, as usual in history. We give ourselves _rights_ and _improvements_ but take it away from _others_ at the same time.
> 
> Anyway, my being here in Australia, neighbour to Indonesia & learning their history, will put a different slant on what the Dutch did than it does for you.


The idea that the Dutch got rich because of the East Indies / Indonesia probably is a myth. The Dutch got rich first and foremost because of European trade (taking French cognac to the Baltic, bringing iron ore + cannons from Sweden to the south).


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## Dster

Odnoposoff said:


> I can't found any. Haven't persons nor facts to be proud of my contry.


You must be joking! Leo Messi the Greatest


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## elgar's ghost

emiellucifuge said:


> Im not particularly a fan of the (at times) arbitrary political divisions drawn on the Earth's surface, but for the sake of the game (and given that many of these are little known outside NL):
> 
> Joost van den Vondel - the "Dutch Shakespeare", who would have an equal reputation did he not write in such a marginal language.
> Harry Mulisch - A great Dutch writer and philosopher, who should have won the Nobel prize imo.
> Baruch Spinoza - "You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all." - Hegel
> Antonie van Leeuwenhoek - "The father of microbiology"
> Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck - For being such an important composer.
> Vincent van Gogh
> Rembrandt van Rijn
> Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld - He has become unpopular for being involved in a number of scandals and affairs, but he instils a certain, perhaps irrational, pride in me. He founded the Bilderberg group, the WWF etc...
> Christiaan Huygens - Argued that light was a wave.
> Johannes van der Waals - Nobel laureate, namesake of the 'van der Waals forces' (a type of intermolecular bond)


Even if you or anyone else isn't into sport I'm surprised by your omission of Johan Cruijff - without doubt one of the finest sportsmen I have ever seen and, for a while during the 70s, arguably the most famous Dutch person on the planet. Perhaps a similar case could be argued for athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen - she won four golds at the 1948 Olympics and probably would have at least doubled that total had the prior games of 40 and 44 gone ahead.


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## Chi_townPhilly

emiellucifuge said:


> Joost van den Vondel - the "Dutch Shakespeare", who would have an equal reputation did he not write in such a marginal language.


I meant to bring this up earlier... but the whole concept of great authors in marginal languages is something that I think deserves further exploration in the Literature Social Group.

Wanna try??


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## Xaltotun

Ooo let me join the bandwagon! If I was French, I'd go for:

Jean Renoir
Robert Bresson
Charles Baudelaire
Comte de Lautreamont i.e. Isidore Ducasse
Hector Berlioz
Jacques-Louis David
Nicolas Poussin
Claude Lorrain
Blaise Pascal (not for mathematics, but _Pensées_)
Jean Racine


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## Txitxo

These are ten people who make me proud of my _species_:

Cervantes
Shakespeare
Tolstoy
Rafael 
Velazquez
Rembrandt
Beethoven
Bach
Mozart 
Darwin

Two of them are from my country, but that is irrelevant. Unfortunately, having famous compatriots does not make you better or smarter. Genius does not rub off across generations...


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## jttoft

I agree with the previously expressed sentiments that it is not very relevant where various remarkable people happened to be from.

I can say, though, that I'm glad that Denmark has brought such extraordinary people as Søren Kierkegaard and Niels Bohr to the world.


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## Guest

Philip, are you French or live in France - otherwise why not celebrate those people from your own country of which you might be proud. Each nation has its special people.


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## myaskovsky2002

I was born in Argentina... a country in the south...south...south... Boring. Just me and not even.

Martin, unrooted


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## Klavierspieler

I said nothing.


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## science

Xaltotun said:


> Ooo let me join the bandwagon! If I was French, I'd go for:
> 
> Jacques-Louis David


I don't think he'd get on my list at this point.


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## mitchflorida

It's not Barack Obama, that's for sure.


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## graaf

I will put this here...


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## Turangalîla

Odnoposoff said:


> I can't found any. Haven't persons nor facts to be proud of my contry.


You're from Argentina!!! How about Martha Argerich?


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## aleazk

^^^
See my previous post in this thread :



aleazk said:


> Domingo Liotta, designed and developed the first artificial heart successfully implanted in a human being in 1969.
> 
> René Favaloro, developed the techniques and performed the world's first ever coronary bypass surgery.
> 
> Bernardo Houssay, the first Latin American awarded with a Nobel Prize in the Sciences.
> 
> Luis Leloir (Nobel Prize), discovered how organisms store energy converting glucose into glycogen and the compounds which are fundamental in metabolizing carbohydrates. The Leloir Institute of biotechnology is among the most prestigious in its field in Latin America and in the world.
> 
> Jorge Luis Borges, writer, found new ways of looking at the modern world in metaphor and philosophical debate and his influence has extended to writers all over the globe.
> 
> César Pelli, Argentine-American architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks.
> 
> Ástor Piazzolla, Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music.
> 
> *Martha Argerich*...
> 
> Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born pianist and conductor.
> 
> Alberto Ginastera, Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.


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## Il_Penseroso

I don't know if you mean only artists or that includes historical figures, politicians, scientists, etc as well... anyway there we go  

1.Zoroaster

2.Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 BC –530 BC)

3.Ariobarzan (368 BC - January 20, 330 BC)

4.Youtāb, Sister of Ariobarzan ( ? - January 20, 330 BC) 

5.Queen Purāndokht (590–628)

***

6.Rāzes (Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī) (August 26, 865 – 925) 

***

7.Ferdowsi (940–1020)

8.Omar Khayyám (1048–1131)

9.Hāfez (1325 or 26 – 1390 or 91) 

***

10.Nimā Yushij (November 12, 1896 – January 6, 1960)


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## Guest

Neil deGrasse Tyson springs immediately to mind. Not sure I could actually name 10...


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## violadude

mitchflorida said:


> It's not Barack Obama, that's for sure.


Please tell me you at least think he is somewhat better than our previous president.


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