There`s just about a week to go before Mark Shuttleworth embarks on his lb13 million holiday, but he`s already making headlines in the UK press - coming in at number 170 in the Sunday Times` Rich List 2002, published last week.
The survey, which the Sunday Times describes as "the definitive guide to the richest 1 000 in Britain and Ireland", lists Shuttleworth as being worth a cool lb187 million - not including the lb200 million he has donated to charity and used to set up the educational foundation TSF, (www.tsf.org.za) and of course, costs related to his upcoming space mission.
This puts our flyboy well above such venerables as the Saatchi brothers and Sir Elton John. With the recent setting up of the venture capital operation HBD, researchers behind the Rich List (which can be seen at www.sunday-times.co.uk/richlist) believe Shuttleworth could well shoot higher up the list next year.
The Web site chronicling Shuttleworth`s experiences in pursuit of his dream of space travel, African in Space (www.africaninspace.com), is interesting, and well worth taking a look at. I found it interesting to try to gauge the amount of media interest surrounding the First African in Space project, as it is called by his public relations team.
On first blush, it seems like Quite A Big Thing, but one can never really tell from looking at the subject`s Web site alone. What I deduce from coverage in South African papers, the Sunday Times included, leads me to believe that the idea of Shuttleworth conducting a number of experiments in zero gravity, with outcomes that could possibly change forever the face of South African medical research fields, is slightly less captivating than the prospect of having one`s name inscribed on a SIM card destined to stay in space upon Shuttleworth`s return to terra firma. To each their own, I suppose.
Grand gesture
Another positive spin-off from the First African in Space project is an orchestrated approach to boost the teaching and understanding of maths and science in SA, which is being done in partnership with the ministry of education.
It`s a grand gesture, and who knows, it might actually motivate teachers and pupils alike in ways never before imagined, but the cynic in me wonders if this would have happened at all without an increasingly public body prodding the government into action.
Stakeholders will argue that the end justifies the means, that as long as the children and teachers alike are benefiting as they should, who cares how it happened?
And perhaps they are right. Perhaps projects such as this serve not to undermine the government`s effectiveness at bringing about sweeping reform in areas that have long since lain stagnant, but instead to highlight the importance and even the unquestioned necessity for public/private partnerships, with the long-term view of producing a skilled, productive and economically viable citizenry.
While Shuttleworth`s space mission has been criticised by those who believe lb13 million could have been spent in better ways, I expect any positive outcomes of this mission, both in space and on Earth, will silence the naysayers for a short time, at least.
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