????

[maggiebee]

This came to me from a friend via Facebook.

Congratulations to India in sending a rocket to Mars. No sewage system, half the country in poverty, money well spent! So Mr. Cameron, not about time we reviewed this aid package, thought we were supplying essentials and not very expensive fireworks. PS still heaps of homeless in this country, living below the poverty line and going to get food from food banks. Have a nice Xmas you to**er.

[ummmm]

UK have stopped their aid to India?? No??

[factor-fiction]

There were a couple of threads on this recently
eg http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1289106.html

[factor-fiction]

I can see why eyebrows might be raised but on this basis I'm not sure at what point even a major economy like the US could ever justify exploration like this, since even the US has serious issues with poverty

[sunny-dave]

It's not that they have done it factor - that is up to their own consciences (or lack thereof).

It's the fact that they still are touting their poverty around to get aid from other countries that rankles.

[jno]

to repeat something I posted yesterday: the UK decided a full year ago to end aid to India.

[sunny-dave]

I know that jno - but the space nonsense has been going for years (alongside their nuclear weapons programme) during which time we poured millions (billions?) into aid for their country.

And I know that we should provide humanitarian help without pre-conditions, triggs ...

... but it still rankles (even in my lefty, do-gooding, guardian reading brain).

[sunny-dave]

Ah but that leads to another whole kettle of worms, triggs,

At what point does our guilt over the Colonial/Imperial damage wrought by our ancestors evaporate?

When do we say to the previously pink bits of the world map :

"We've helped you along for several generations - but none of us now alive actually did any of the bad stuff you keep banging on about - how about you accept that the responsibility for where you are now is entirely your own?"

[Mamyalynne]

Speaking generally and for a moment discounting (hard I know) the many advantages in everyday life that space exploration has brought us.

I am a firm believer that we should first try to sort out the planet we live on, before travelling further afield.

[tonyav]

Wasn't Teflon invented for space travel, look what that did for Tony Blair !.

[jno]

no nation has ever devoted its entire GDP to eliminating poverty - certainly not Britain - so we just need to accept that other countries will have big projects and small projects, some will help the rich, some will help the poor. Britain developed atomic bombs in an age where people still had outside loos; that didn't invalidate the work.

[woofgang]

much of the pressure relief research that so helps people with neurological disabilities and the frail and elderly was driven by the space program. I would say (but I was involved with the people who it helped) that that was a big step in sorting out the problems of this world.

[jake-the-peg]

The Indian Mars mission is incredible - I can't imagine a nation doing this so cheaply

It equates to about 300 yards of the HS2 project ( about 3.5p for each member of the Idian population)

India's ability to improve the standard of living of its people depends critically on its development and that means high tech education systems and projects projects that allow those graduates to develop their skills.

Much of the Indian space effort is actually directly targetted at improving nfrastructure in the country - Meterology, land management, navigation and emergency services etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Space_Research_Organisation#The_INSAT_series


Of course it's prime material for those with a right wing agenda to appeal to the cynicism of others and ignore the details to tell the story that they want to tell.

[Dee Sa]

its totally disgraceful that we give them all this money when the obviously don't need it and we are making cuts here there and every where. Shame on you Mr Cameron I hope you never get in on the next election.

[factor-fiction]

>Shame on you Mr Cameron I hope you never get in on the next election.

So there was no aid to India under Callaghan/Thatcher/Major/Blair/Brown?

Anyway, as ummmm and jno have pointed out.....