Quote:
Originally Posted by kato13
The beliefs of Muslims in Muslim dominated nations seems radically different from what I have been exposed here in the US. I live near the highest concentration of Pakistani immigrants in the country. One thing that i find so ironic is the conflict between India and Pakistan evaporates once they hit our shores. Their cultures are so similar (and so different from American culture) that they band together in shopping, restaurants and recreation. For example they are the only two immigrant cultures I have seen play cricket (often against each other).
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This will be equally true for every community living in a foreign environment. I have seen the same being done by Israeli, Palestinians and Christian Lebanese residing in France where they are often best friends. It has nothing to do with the common point in their culture but simply with the fact that they perceive (follow me I'm talking of a perception not of a reality) the country in which they arrive as being aggresive toward them. In a sense they are right but this aggression comes equally from their own attitude that from anything else.
I didn't do anything else when I arrived in US and it is only after six month that I grew tired of sticking with the french community and took some distance. I was not sitcking with them because we had so much in common (several of them were such jerks that under normal circomstances, I would have not even talk to them) but because I was distrustful of US citizens. Being often threaten by decerabrated Christian US youngsters doesn't help. Then, after a while, you get out or leave. When I explain to most of my friend that I'm writing on this board they ask me how many times I get screamed at, LOL
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Patent is the least relevant element you can use to qualify a society. It is not relevant because we are now putting patent on everything and because US patent are not always held by US citizens. Moreover, holding a patent doesn't solely mean that you are inventive and creative, it means that you put money in getting them. It, however, can signify three things: that your country is perceived as rich (therefore, people acquire your patents in order to make money), that your country is stable (It is much harder to invent anything when you spend most of your day running for your life) and that it grants you a real freedom (You don't claim to have invented anything when that can throw you into jail). All of this has nothing to do with religion but only with politics. By the way, it is interesting to note that for the last 50 years, most of the countries you are talking about have been held by secular, socialist dictators while all have been dominated by a strong military (and that includes Turkey). Would military domination be a limitation to civil development?
Here are the 10 top current individual patent holders in US (2005):
1) Shunpei Yamazaki, Japan,
1,432 patents (semiconductors).
2) Donald Weder, Highland, III.,
1,322 (flowers and no, I'm not kidding).
3) Kia Silverbrook, Sydney,
801 (in 1997, no Australian was present in the top 100).
4) George Spector, New York,
723 (Among his patent, a computerized mousetrap).
5) Gurtej Sandhu, Boise,
576.
6) Warren Farnworth, Boise,
547.
7) Salman Akram, Boise,
527.
All three work for Micron Technology, Idaho. To note, the patent attorneys' offices are right in the labs.
8) Mark Gardner, Cedar Creek, Texas,
512 (microprocessors).
9) Heinze Focke, Verden, Germany,
508 (packaging).
10) Joseph Straeter, Highland, III.,
477 (flower... again and most of its patents are shared by Weder for whom he works).
source:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columni...3-patent_x.htm
By 2011, the first place in US patent holder has been taken by Kia Silverbrook (4097). He is also holding the first place in International Patent (9042). Funny to see that the current most prolific inventor is coming from a country which is among the most stable you can find. That must makes Australia being far superior to the rest of the world.
Also, Thomas Edison long held a record of 1093 patents. Does it means that he had been the most important genious of all time? Then does the fact that Donald Weder currently holds 229 more patents (on flowers) means that Weder did more to society progress than Edison?
The most prolific current woman inventor in US only holds 126 patents. Do I have to conclude from it that US women are so much inferior or simply that US is almost as much a backward country when it comes to women than Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan? Of course my answer to both question is no! It, however, illustrate the danger of jumping to quick conclusion using a single element.