Questions, questions – always questions, in a world eager for answers
IAM passing time during the pandemic setting rounds of quiz questions. So here is a list of ten countries, followed by a list of twenty individuals. Assign two of the individuals to each country by birthplace - as verified by Google of course. Australia Belgium Brazil
Canada Czech Rep Denmark
Ireland New Zealand Nicaragua Wales Shirley Bassey, performer of three James Bond movie songs Neils Bohr, physicist whose work helped create the atom bomb Giselle Bunchen, supermodel and businesswoman
Kim Clijsters, former world number one tennis player Sigmund Freud, deviser of psychoanalysis
Bianca Jagger, human rights activist
Dame Nellie Melba, Victorian opera star
Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi singer/songwriter
Clive James, TV presenter and poet
Kiri Te Kanawa, well known operatic soprano
Daniel Ortega, Sandanista dictator
Nelson Pessoa, showjumper at Olympics in 1956 and 1992 Georges Remi, aka Hergé, creator of the cartoon Tintin Bertrand Russell, the philosopher and mathematician Peter Rutherford, regarded as the father of nuclear physics Peter Schmeichel, former Manchester United goalkeeper Tom Stoppard, wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Shania Twain, whose hits include Man! I Feel Like a Woman Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet in London Duke of Wellington, general at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 Answers: Australia (Melba, James); Belgium (Clijsters, Remi); Brazil (Bunchen, Pessoa); Canada (Mitchell, Twain); Czech Republic (Freud, Stoppard); Denmark (Bohr, Schmeichel); Ireland ( Valois, Wellington); New Zealand (Kanawa, Rutherford); Nicaragua (Jagger, Ortega); Wales (Bassey, Russell).
Let’s have another helping, this time with eleven countries: Australia Austria Ireland
Italy North Macedonia Mexico
Peru South Africa Tanzania
United States Wales
Sir David Adjaye, architect of the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks
Isabel Allende, bestselling author, daughter of a Chile president Atahualpa, last of the Inca emperors
Josephine Baker, once a popular cabaret performer in Paris Christine Bleakley, TV presenter aka Christine Lampard Mother Teresa Bojaxhiu, sainted Christian missionary Zola Budd, athlete who ran barefoot at the 1984 Olympics Christopher Columbus, who explored America for Spain Eamonn Devalera, Taoiseach, President, founder of Fianna Fáil Germaine Greer, feminist writer, teacher, commentator Joaquín Guzmán, aka ‘El Chapo’, drug dealer now in a US jail Ralf Hasenhuttl, manager of Southampton football club Nexhmije Hoxha, who died recently at the age of 99 Adolf Hitler, leader of the Third Reich
Neil Kinnock, leader of the UK’s Labour Party
Allan Lamb, England cricketer,scored more than 4,600 Test runs Gina Lollobrigida, actress in the 1958 movie ‘Anna of Brooklyn’ Elizabeth Matthews, singer, songwriter and broadcaster Freddie Mercury, lead singer with Queen, born Farrokh Bulsara Johnny Robbie, former South African rugby scrum-half Saint Anastasia Guadalupe García Zavala, aka Mother Lupita, founder of the Handmaids of Santa Margherita
Answers: Australia (Greer, Assange); Austria (Hitler, Hasenhuttl); Ireland (Robbie, Bleakley); Italy (Lollobrigida, Columbus); North Macedonia (Hoxha, Mother Teresa); Mexico (Zavala, Guzmán); Peru (Atahualpa*, Allende); South Africa (Lamb, Budd); Tanzania (Mercury, Adjaye); United States (Devalera, Baker); Wales (Matthews, Kinnock).
* Atahualpa’s birthplace is actually a matter for conjecture and speculation but his empire was Peruvian.