On 13/2/05 7:30, in article , "Franz
Heymann" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
snip
So - Alan Whicker (TV journalist), Derek Warwick, (racing driver),
Billy
Butlin (deceased), Jack Higgins (author of e.g. The Eagle has
Landed), the
Dockers (deceased), John Nettles (while shooting Bergerac), Gilbert
O'Sullivan (singer), Ian Woosnam (golfer) Tony Jacklin at one time,
Gerald
Durrell (zoologist), Sir Giles Guthrie (one time chairman of BOAC,
whose
widow is there still).

None of them are famous in my book.

With respect, Franz, it is not your book that matters. In the mores of the
times in which we live, these are famous people.

As a matter of fact many of them
I have never heard of.
All of them, without exception, will be forgotten within a few decades
of their death.
On the other hane, Rabelais, Galileo, Shakespeare, Einstein and the
like never lived on Jersey.

Again, with respect you are moving the goalposts. I may appear that
ancient but I'm not - I was writing of people that I had met or who had
lived in Jersey during my lifetime (by implication) You perhaps, would
settle for Victor Hugo, Millais, Charles II.

And that doesn't touch the merely rich and/or titled, whose names
you might
or might not know like the founder of one of the successful cut-rate
airlines, some immensely rich property developers, or the now en
desastre
(bankrupt) but soon to be discharged owner of ML Laboratories.
The Channel Islands are tax havens, Franz.

I am aware of that. Ecsaping ones tax obligations is, in my book, a
reason for infamy, not fame.

That is a matter of opinion and is not what we're discussing.

They attract a lot of people who
you will never have heard of and some you have. snip

Sacha, I know there are many people who live on Jersey in order to
avoid paying taxes or to be seen living amongst others of the same
kind. That is not what I call fame. I judge whether persons are
famous or not by the quality of the durable ideas they have produced.
All else are but baubles.
{:-((

Franz

That may be *your* take on it but it is not everyone's opinion. People are
famous for many things and the ones I have named above are famous by most
standards. In the case of e.g. Alan Whicker who changed a great deal in the
way of television interviewing and trod new ground, I would consider his
work to be durable. Gerald Durrell changed the approach to keeping animals
in zoos and pioneered breeding programmes to reintroduce species to their
native countries - that work is durable. I respect your criteria but they
are not the only ones that count. Especially as it would appear that people
have to be dead for centuries before even being considered eligible for a
discussion on current fame!
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds for email)