To reach for the stars or to feed a nation?

A while back I heard a tale - possibly apocryphal - of a series of African countries that latched on to the belief that they would not be regarded as viable nations if they did not have established airlines. The airspace race was on. Dictators garbed in leopard-skin fezzes and flowing robes taxed their countries` populations even further into starvation and poverty, or pilfered international aid funds, to purchase whatever winged bucket of bolts upon which they could lay their hands and paint their national flag.

There was definitely a greater sense of national pride engendered by Yang Liwei achieving orbit than us capitalist-at-heart South Africans felt at Mark Shuttleworth`s self-promotion to Afronaut.

Georgina Guedes, Journalist, ITWeb

In some instances, the entire fleet of an airline was comprised of a crop duster and a Zeppelin dating back to World War II. The gaudy colours of the nation`s emblem were retouched daily in water soluble paints not suited to tropical climates, and every so often, the incumbent dictator would stroll onto the dusty landing strip to inspect his fleet.

It seems that we have evolved beyond this milestone, with a number of respectable African airlines having emerged and the rest having faded to obscurity, but now, at the dawn of the 21^st century, we seem to be embarking on a new global space race.

China, with pomp and ceremony, launched its first unnamed astronaut into space from a fiercely-guarded location at an undisclosed time last week, making it only the third nation to send a man into space. Instead of the fanfare being directed at what such a launch means for mankind as a whole, China`s focus was practically xenophobic in how much it lauded the prestige that this bestows upon it as a nation.

The world over, Chinese people were moved by this achievement, and a friend who visited a Chinese takeaway on the day said that the owner had been so excited she "almost" gave them a free lunch. There was definitely a greater sense of national pride engendered by Yang Liwei achieving orbit than us capitalist-at-heart South Africans felt at Mark Shuttleworth`s self-promotion to Afronaut. In a country that supports the growth of personal wealth, his achievements as an individual have nothing on Yang Liwei`s status in China as a representative of an entire communist nation.

SA and Nigeria have both been involved in launching space programmes that rely on superpowers for the launch of satellites. To me, it seems a little quirky for these nations to be pursuing space travel at a time when so many of their people are poverty-stricken and starving. Perhaps I don`t fully grasp the implications of being able to state that a nation has successfully participated in the space race, but when the attempt is being made in the name of national pride, rather than to make discoveries for the greater good of all mankind, I feel that the money should rather have been channelled elsewhere. No wonder China did not disclose the costs of its space programme.

This morning on CNN, there was an article about how rickshaws are being eradicated in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) as they are inhumane. Their drivers earn a minimum wage, sometimes not even $2 a day, running clients through the sweltering streets. What the government has failed to address is the fact that once they have done away with this form of transport, the rickshaw drivers will be left jobless and penniless in a city where there is already a staggering unemployment rate.

With the prevailing common sense shown by governments in pursuit of the stars, perhaps a programme could be launched to help the Calcutta rickshaw drivers find employment as astronauts when India launches its first manned spaceship.