Doug Kanter wrote:
"NOYB" wrote in message
hlink.net...

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

"NOYB" wrote in message
thlink.net...


What contributions would you consider valid ones?

The light bulb, penicillin, the first computer, the internal

combustion

engine and the automobile, space travel, airplanes, pre-emptive

strikes,

and

supply side economics. ;-)



Hmm. No literature. Not surprising, coming from the court jester.

lit·er·a·ture (ltr--chr, -chr)
n.
1.. The body of written works of a language, period, or culture.
2.. Imaginative or creative writing
I read a lot "imaginary or creative writing" everytime I read yours or
Harry's posts here on rec.boats...or whenever I visit the NY Times or
Washington Post website.

You also spew gibberish when you're trapped.

Trapped? By you? Puh-leeze. I asked you to name *one* Arab living in an
Arab country who has made a significant positive contribution to society

in

the last 100 years, and the best you came up with is a guy who writes
literature that 99.9999999% of the World has never read. Some impact!




Source of numbers, please. And, provide an explanation for the author's
presence in American literary critiques on a pretty regular basis.


Well, there's the late Hassan Fathy, an Egyptian I knew and greatly admired.

Hassan Fathy

Fathy devoted himself to housing the poor in developing nations and
deserves study by anyone involved in rural improvement. Fathy worked to
create an indigenous environment at a minimal cost, and in so doing to
improve the economy and the standard of living in rural areas. Fathy
utilized ancient design methods and materials. He integrated a knowledge
of the rural Egyptian economic situation with a wide knowledge of
ancient architectural and town design techniques. He trained local
inhabitants to make their own materials and build their own buildings.
Climatic conditions, public health considerations, and ancient craft
skills also affected his design decisions. Based on the structural
massing of ancient buildings, Fathy incorporated dense brick walls and
traditional courtyard forms to provide passive cooling.

23 March 1900 Born in Alexandria, Egypt.

1926
Graduated from High School of Engineering, Architectural Section,
University of King Fuad I (now University of Cairo), Cairo.

1926-1930
Worked at the Department of Municipal Affairs, Cairo.

1930-1946 Taught at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo.

1937
Designed and exhibited first mud brick projects - country houses for
Lower Egypt.

1941
Constructed first mud brick structures incorporating the inclined vault
- experimental housing in Bahtim, Egypt, commissioned by the Royal
Society of Agriculture.

1946-1953
Delegated to the Antiquities Department to design and supervise the
project of New Gourna Village at Luxor, to displace the inhabitants of
the Old Gourna from the Antiquities Zone.

1949-1952
Appointed Director of the School Building Department, Ministry of Education.

1950
Delegated Consultant to the United Nations Refugee World Assistance.

1953-1957
Returned to teaching at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo. Head of the
Architectural Section in 1954.

1957-1962
Joined Doxiades Associates in Athens as consultant. Lecturer on Climate
and Architecture at the Athens Technical Institute. Member of the
Research Project for the City of the Future.

1963-1965
Director of Pilot Projects for Housing, Ministry of Scientific Research,
Cairo. Designed High Institute of Social Anthropology and Folk Art for
the Ministry of Culture, Cairo. Worked as Consultant to the Minister of
Tourism, Cairo. Delegated by the United Nations Organization for Rural
Development Project in Saudi Arabia.

1966
Lectured on philosophy and aesthetics in Town Planning and Architecture
Department at al-Azhar University.

1975-1977
Lectured on rural housing at the Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University.

1976-1980
Member, Steering Committee, Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

1977-
Founder and Director, the International Institute for Appropriate
Technology.

Affiliations

Member of the High Council of Arts and Letters, Egypt. Honorary Fellow,
American Research Centre, Cairo.
Honorary Fellow, American Institute of Architecture, 1976.

Awards

1959 Encouragement Prize for Fine Arts and Gold Medal.

1967
National Prize for Fine Arts and Republic Decoration.

1980
Chairman's Award, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

1984 Union Internationale des Architectes, Gold Medal.

(Source: The Aga Khan Trust for Culture. 1989. The Hassan Fathy
Collection. A Catalogue of Visual Documents at the Aga Khan Award for
Architecture. Bern, Switzerland: AKTC.)


And then, of course, there is the Aga Khan. And Sadat.

I am no fan of contemporary or recent Arab/Moslem culture or history,
but there have been some significant contributors to the advancement of
our society.