Slashdot Mirror
India Plans Its Own Moon Shot
anzha writes: "CNN is reporting that India is planning an unmanned mission to Luna in 2007. The US, Russia (when it was the USSR), and Japan are the only nations to have done so, or so they say. For some reason, I thought that ESA, the European Space Agency, had sent one also. At any rate, while I'd like to see the Stars and Stripes posted all over the galaxy, more competition is better! So, all I have to say is, 'Go, India! Go!'" I wonder if China is still on track for 2005.
Does this mean they will be recalling all their H1B's to work on it?
Table-ized A.I.
I mean after all, for a quickie-mart to prosper, there has to be a customer base. I must have missed something...
It's almost shocking for me to see this happening. If India has that much money to send a mission to the moon, maybe they should try to feed their population. Sure, those who are known as the brainless-CNN-types will say that India has had a food surplus but that doesn't mean that most of the population has food.
Poverty is unimaginably high in most of India. It has largely been the clever propoganda by the Indian government to show that they are better than their neighbors (mainly Pakistan) in terms of hunger and disease. Sure, GDP may be higher but their society lacks a middle class. The rich are extreme rich but very small in number and the poor amount to most of the population.
The class system in India has held the country down for a long time. Hindu religious and Indian cultural teaching have authorized the top classes to, for example, beat those of the lowest cast if even their two shadows two each other. Furthermore, India has been waging a war and occupying Kashmir for many decades. When the British left in the middle part of 20th century, they purposely left a Hindu Raj in charge of Kashmir which is predominantly a Muslim area. The Raj was a tyranical ruler that did the bidding of India and the population has been fighting against the oppression for many years now. Again, its clever Indian propoganda to paint the Kashmiri freedom fighters as terrorists. India has repeatedly blocked the right of the Kashmiri people to decide their "nation's" fate by not allowing a referendum to occur. India also has almost half a million troops in Kashmir through its occupation.
I could go on and on about what International humanitarian orgs have said about human rights abuses in India and Kashmir. Women in Hindu/Indian society have no rights. If a woman tries to have a relationship with a man, she is burned alive. If a woman decides not to marry the man her parents have picked for her, then she is burned alive. Parents will often times pick men for marriage based upon how much money the man is willing to give for their daughter. Marriages can happen between middle-aged men (40 y/o) with under-18 girls. The examples are endless.
Now please, tell me something, why is it that they want to send someone to the moon? They need to work on their nation and their political system to bring it up to 21st century standards. The money they spend should go to benefit their popuation not a stupid "my-weewee-is-bigger-than-yours" contest. Until they do that, they will always be a third world nation attempting to hang with the big boys but in the end it is the largely poor masses who suffer.
Oh and before someone says that I don't know what I am talking about... I have lived in India as a humanitarian worker for a long time. I've seen it all.