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I’m pretty sure most or rather all of you have noticed the big hoo haa over Dr Sheikh Muszaphar launching himself to outer space. I mean yeah, it’s a big step for us Malaysians considering we’re a Third World country. Took us 50 long years to do something that might perhaps bring us closer to being of equal eminence to other leading countries.
But wait … didn’t I just say that we’re a Third World country? Yes, that’s right. We’re not first or even second but Third World country. According to Wikipedia a third world country means:
In general, Third World countries are not as industrialized or technologically advanced as OECD countries, and consequently developing nation is the current term in use in academia.
So we’re an underdeveloped country although not as bad as countries like Afghanistan or Chad. But still we spend millions just to send one Malaysian up there into space to carry out a couple of experiments. Why couldn’t we have used that money to curb poverty or to improve the local schools? What’s the point having sent one Malaysian astronaut into space but still have thousands of people living in poverty?
I mean I don’t want to sound derogative but I notice that we tend to focus on bigger but less important issues rather than on matters of greater significance like what I’ve mentioned above - poverty. My dad was telling me just now that yesterday he saw on TV, one channel going on about how many millions of RM was spent to send an astronaut to space but another channel was showing the lives of the really poor people in Malaysia.
So you see the thing here? That colossal amount of money could have been channeled towards the poorer people to help improve their lives. And that’s definitely going to help more than one person. The government is trying to create a name for us in the international playground but what’s the point of that if foreigners come to our country to see beggars punctuating the streets?
I foreshadow that there will be a number of people who will want voice to their opinions regarding this. I’ll keep an eye open to see if my dad buys DAP’s newspaper The Rocket. Most likely they’ll have an article or two about this.
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erm, actually the financing of sending our ‘cosmonaut” was not by ourself, but by russia if i’m correct. sorta like we hitch a ride onli. lol
Seng Chee 10.15.07 @ 5:55 pm