False National Pride
Sunday, September 30th, 2007
Being born and raised in Malaysia, it saddens and angers me when millions of taxpayers money could be otherwise put to better use rather than pulling on stunts such as this which has no foreseeable economic benefits.
According to the star:
According to NASA:
The Expedition 16 crew members pose for a portrait at the Johnson Space Center. From the left (front row) are Russia’s Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, flight engineer and Soyuz commander; astronaut Peggy Whitson, commander; and Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. From the left (back row) are European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Léopold Eyharts, astronaut Garrett Reisman and astronaut Dan Tani, all flight engineers.
Crew Profile taken from the official expedition website:
Commander Peggy A. Whitson
Whitson is the commander for Expedition 16. This is her second tour of duty aboard the station. She also was a flight engineer and science officer for Expedition 5 in 2002. Whitson also worked underwater as a NEEMO 5 crew member in 2003.
+ Biography
+ Interview
Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko
Expedition 16 is Malenchenko’s second tour of duty aboard the station. He also served as commander of Expedition 7. Malenchenko was a mission specialist for STS-106 in 2000 and commanded Mir 16 in 1996.
+ Biography
+ Interview
Flight Engineer Daniel M. Tani
Tani will fly to the station aboard space shuttle Discovery on STS-120 and join Expedition 16 as a flight engineer. He will return home aboard space shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-122.
+ Biography
+ Interview
Flight Engineer Léopold Eyharts
Eyharts, a European Space Agency astronaut from France, will join Expedition 16 as a flight engineer after launching to the station aboard space shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-122. He also visited the Mir Space Station for three weeks in February 1998.
+ Biography
Flight Engineer Garrett E. Reisman
Reisman will fly to the station aboard space shuttle Endeavour on STS-123 and join Expedition 16 as a flight engineer. He will also stay aboard the station to join Expedition 17. In 2003 Reisman worked underwater as a crew member for NEEMO 5.
+ Biography
Spaceflight Participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor will launch with Expedition 16 and land with Expedition 15.
As per wikipedia, NASA Public Affairs has used the term Spaceflight Participant to designate space tourists. Tito, Shuttleworth, Olsen, Ansari, and Simonyi were designated as such during their respective space flights.
With the exception of Dr Sheikh, the other crew member has extensive qualifications and experience and are knowledgeable enough to carry on experiments. Then comes the question of what Dr Sheikh would be doing up there in space? He has neither academic qualifications nor experience to carry out any experiments. Could he be the tea-boy in space?
In addition, according to The Press Association, it appears that Malaysia’s Science Minister is keen to send a second “Astronaut” to space.
Jamaluddin said Malaysia is hoping to send a second astronaut into space, depending on public support for the first mission. He said the second mission would cost 30 million US dollars (£15 million), but the long-term benefits would be worth it. – The Press Association
As far as I’m concern, I don’t see any benefit Malaysians are able to derive from this. $30m USD per “astronaut” is equals to about RM 114 million. That would mean about RM230 million of tax payers money going to waste. That money could have been better spent on improving the public transport system, the police and judiciary force, the health-care and education system for example.
One of Malaysia’s pride, the Petronas Twin Towers are certainly one of the tallest and grandest building in the world. However, when it was being built, are there any office shortage in Kuala Lumpur? The bill was foot by oil from the ground, and the construction was contracted out to a South Korean companies. Is there anything that Malaysia can claim as its achievements? Heck, even the shopping centre in not fully run by Malaysians (KLCC (Holding) Bhd owns 60 per cent of Suria KLCC, while 30 per cent is held by Rotterdam-based Rodamco which is part of the RM35 billion public-listed Robeco. The remaining 10 per cent is held by Westfield which owns/manages over 50 shopping centres in Australia and the United States). Malaysia Boleh? The space project aren’t even theirs.
Back in July 2006, the Malaysian Government announced that it would spend RM490 million on a sports complex near the London Olympics site so that Malaysian athletes can train there and “get used to cold weather”. But the summer Olympics are held in the summer. =.=”’ The huge cost incurred for building Sepang F1 Circuit and hosting a race that barely anyone watches is another testimony to wasteful spending. Heck they couldn’t even maintain it properly. Dirty grandstand seats or overflowing toilets where the flush system doesn’t work, its no wonder that Bernie Ecclestone aka F1 Supremo is contemplating removing Malaysia from the Grand Prix map. Building a new capital city and an international airport that is running under-capacity are also a few projects whose bill are all footed by Petronas.
As it stands, Malaysia is in for some troubling times when the oil runs out. According to Malaysian Institute of Economic Research Executive Director Mohamed Ariff, Malaysia will become a net crude importer by 2009 or 2010. According to a forecast by state-owned Petronas, Malaysia has total crude reserves of more than five billion barrels, equivalent to 20 years of the nation’s oil consumption. However, Ariff said independent research bodies have found the country now has only 4.2 billion barrels of oil reserves on hand, equivalent to 14 years of Malaysia’s oil consumption. (source: Energy Current)
Its sad to see money gone to waste just to inflate Malaysian’s false sense of pride, to fuel Malaysia’s grossly inflated sense of its place in the world. It is sad to see how much money is being wasted. Stunts like sending Malaysians to space such as this is simply a waste of scarce resources which could otherwise be invested in other useful projects.
Tags: malaysia astrocannot, malaysia bodoh, malaysian astronaut, malaysian oil runs out, oil runs out | Posted in Articles | 9 Comments »
Been really busy these past two weeks and didn’t have time to update the blog. First of, had been busy preparing for the mid semester tests. Frankly i prefer assignment based exams to those. I feel that exams are not a very accurate way to assess a person’s abilities. Panic and nervousness will cause you to get mind blocks and there goes your future.
