BF2S Forums Name 5 Persons from your Country that make you Proud

Pubic wrote:

1.Sir Edmund Hillary - First person in the world to climb Mr Everest
2.Peter Jackson - For his movie work
3.Jim Anderton - One of the rare few good politicians
4.Temuera Morrison - Awesome actor
5.Russell Coutts - Yachting

And some dead NZers that deserve a mention:
1.Kate Sheppard - Instrumental in NZ being the first country to give women the vote
2.Ernest Rutherford - For his science work, including being the first person to split the atom, helping to usher in the nuclear age
3.David Lange - For making NZ nuclear free (ironic given #2, huh...)
4.Charles Upham - Soldier, third person to win the Victoria Cross twice (commonwealth equivilant of the medal of honour), also the only person to get it twice during WW2 and also the only combat soldier to get it twice
5. Lloyd Alan Trigg - WW2 pilot, the only person ever to be awarded the Victoria Cross based solely on the testemony of the enemy.

I'd have to take out most of your people except edmund hillary, sheppard (even though she only did it so drinking would be banned which would have brought us all the problems america had during the prohibition if successful), rutherford, lange and the war heroes. Throw in Norman Kirk (good prime minister),  Michael Joseph Savage (most succesful labour govt ever) Hone Heke (stood up for the maoris when my pakeha ancestors ripped them off a bit) rewi alley (ask a chinese person)
and for the living ones not mentioned id say Winston Peters because despite his crap policies hes the actually a good politician he decides every government with his shitty old person/skinhead party

weamo8 wrote:

George H. W. Bush, Barbara Bush, George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Ray Nagen.

You disgust me.

Law, Dalgleish, Jordan, Bremner, Baxter

Man, I went to put down 5 Aussies and realised how many good ones are in fact dead. Mega depressed now...

I'll have to do two lists, and to hell with the rules. I am putting up some slightly non-conventional options. Pls discuss.

LIVING:

1. David Helfgott (prodigy pianist)
2. Tim Cahill (World Cup champ)
3. Clive James (the poms will claim him though)
4. Ralph Sarich (invented the orbital engine in the 70s)
5. Nancy Bird (pioneer air-ambulance pilot in the 1930s and still kicking)

DEAD:
1. Phar Lap
2. Fred Hollows
3. John Monash
4. Lawrence Bragg (youngest nobel prize winner at 25 - on X-ray technology)
5. Norman Lindsay (watch Sirens and see why he was a champ)


Btw - found this little tidbit when looking up Sarich again.

The Australian Ballot (Secret Ballot) - the system of casting one's political (or other) vote in a manner that is private and confidential on an anonymous ballot paper. Until the mid 19th century, voting for public office was publicly displayed which left the voter open to intimidation and/or bribery. A secret ballot system was invented by Henry Chapman of Melbourne in 1855 and within a short time of each other in 1856, both the colonies of South Australia and Victoria created a secret ballot system which became known around the world as the Australian Ballot. These Australian colonies were followed at considerable distance by New Zealand in 1870, the UK in 1872, Canada in 1874 and eventually the first presidential election in USA to use Australian Ballot was in 1892. Today the right to a secret ballot as a protection against coercion and intimidation is accepted as a cornerstone for any democratic state or institution.

Other category

James Clerk Maxwell ( all electromagnetic theory )
Sir Alexander Fleming ( penicillin )
David Hume (philosophy )
Adam Smith ( economics and a Kirkcaldy lad )
Andrew Carnegie ( a Fifer who gave money away - very rare )

1. Winstion Churchill
2. Lord Nelson
3. Freddie Flintoff.
4. Jonny Wilkilson - How Ever You Spelt It?
5. Bobby Moore