India launches spacecraft to Mars ... UK gives India £200m foreign aid

[BigGully]

It should be pointed out that Indian government officials have gone on record as saying they don't want the aid.

However, I think you'll find that the £200million inward investment we put into India is to our benefit, which is why we persist in doing it.

I only wish we had the fire power of the Chinese who appear to be rebuilding parts of Africa and cleaning up on various contracts.

I tend to think we simplify these stories down to the level where we just allow our prejudices to paint only part of the story. In this case it has been aid = something India should be focusing on rather than going to space.

I think an emerging market that we can trade with going to space is good news for jobs here as long as our country's reputation there is strong.

Its a strange interpretation of why our money should be given to a country that you have confirmed has said it doesnt want it !!!

The prejudice is within our own arrogance that we should even consider giving it in the first instance, even having said they dont want it, we stuff their breast pocket with it anyway, with a Del Boy knowing tap and wink.

'You know it makes sense' whilst the Indians laugh and hand a massive defense contract to France and shoot a rocket to Mars and spend their annual £22 billion on their military.

They must think we are tossers and I tend to agree.

 

[Nibble]

Its a strange interpretation of why our money should be given to a country that you have confirmed has said it doesnt want it !!!

The prejudice is within our own arrogance that we should even consider giving it in the first instance, even having said they dont want it, we stuff their breast pocket with it anyway, with a Del Boy knowing tap and wink.

'You know it makes sense' whilst the Indians laugh and hand a massive defense contract to France and shoot a rocket to Mars and spend there annual £22 billion on their military.

They must think we are tossers and I tend to agree.

100% agree.

Cameron must be getting summat out of it otherwise he wouldn't do it, he's a self serving ******* who wouldn't do this out of the goodness of his heart.

But the Indians hate us Brits anyway, they happily take our folding and call centres and aid and laugh at us as they zoom into the cosmos on our pound note. Quite funny really if we didn't need the money ourselves.

 

[Bold Seagull]

i've just never heard a convincing enough argument. If someone were to furnish me with one I'd happily consider it. All seem slike one big pissing contest to me.

agreed...it costs an absolute fortune and how does it really benefit us? Let's sort out our own planet first

pissing contest is a good explanation

So you two would be happy with the world without satellites then? Best not watch any telly, answer the phone, use gps or anything like that if that's the position you're taking for starters!!

 

[Guinness Boy]

100% agree.

Cameron must be getting summat out of it otherwise he wouldn't do it, he's a self serving ******* who wouldn't do this out of the goodness of his heart.

But the Indians hate us Brits anyway, they happily take our folding and call centres and aid and laugh at us as they zoom into the cosmos on our pound note. Quite funny really if we didn't need the money ourselves.

I worked in India for 4 months and for an Indian company for just over a year. On our first stint out there we met a group of British engineers by our hotel pool who were doing a water treatment project. Basically this may / may not be paid for by aid but they were telling us that 50% of the budget was not for materials or labour but for bribes. While we obviously could not corroborate this it doesn't take a genius to extrapolate that this final tranche of "aid" could be anything but. The amusing thing is that as bushy pointed out it doesn't mean you'll get the contract if someone else has "put a bit more effort in".

You're wrong about them hating us though. The lower castes who you would think would hate us are actually the most generous. One of our colleagues met a local family who insisted on inviting him for a meal in their house even though all they had was a little rice and sauce. Many of the higher castes (the older ones anyway) are very keen on trade with the UK and many actually want to be British. If there is anti feeling then it is with the younger middle class who identify with the US and with the more radicalised Muslims in the North.

 

[Nibble]

So you two would be happy with the world without satellites then? Best not watch any telly, answer the phone, use gps or anything like that if that's the position you're taking for starters!!

Yeah, if they need maintenance etc, get up there but exploration? Not needed. Waste of time/space.

 

[Insel affe]

Its a strange interpretation of why our money should be given to a country that you have confirmed has said it doesnt want it !!!

The prejudice is within our own arrogance that we should even consider giving it in the first instance, even having said they dont want it, we stuff their breast pocket with it anyway, with a Del Boy knowing tap and wink.

'You know it makes sense' whilst the Indians laugh and hand a massive defense contract to France and shoot a rocket to Mars and spend their annual £22 billion on their military.

They must think we are tossers and I tend to agree.

This

 

[Pavilionaire]

It's a long way to go for a curry.

I totally agree. Things are going from "Lamb Bhuna" to "Bam, Lunar!"

 

[BigGully]

So you two would be happy with the world without satellites then? Best not watch any telly, answer the phone, use gps or anything like that if that's the position you're taking for starters!!

I suspect there was some slight grumpyesque humor in their posts.

If we were unable to use the aforementioned satellites, then I think the gadget world wouldn't have evolved as it has, but it would have evolved just differently.

So somehow we might still have telly, phones, a form of gps etc, just accessed and delivered differently.

 

[Nibble]

I worked in India for 4 months and for an Indian company for just over a year. On our first stint out there we met a group of British engineers by our hotel pool who were doing a water treatment project. Basically this may / may not be paid for by aid but they were telling us that 50% of the budget was not for materials or labour but for bribes. While we obviously could not corroborate this it doesn't take a genius to extrapolate that this final tranche of "aid" could be anything but. The amusing thing is that as bushy pointed out it doesn't mean you'll get the contract if someone else has "put a bit more effort in".

You're wrong about them hating us though. The lower castes who you would think would hate us are actually the most generous. One of our colleagues met a local family who insisted on inviting him for a meal in their house even though all they had was a little rice and sauce. Many of the higher castes (the older ones anyway) are very keen on trade with the UK and many actually want to be British. If there is anti feeling then it is with the younger middle class who identify with the US and with the more radicalised Muslims in the North.

They were outback, tucking into KFC and high fiving. .

 

[Guinness Boy]

They were outback, tucking into KFC and high fiving. .

EDIT - if there's one thing I could imagine was GUARANTEED to give you a week long dose of the shits in India it'd be KFC. And if the bribe money hasn't been paid there's a chance the C stands for Cat

 

[Bold Seagull]

I suspect there was some slight grumpyesque humor in their posts.

If we were unable to use the aforementioned satellites, then I think the gadget world wouldn't have evolved as it has, but it would have evolved just differently.

So somehow we might still have telly, phones, a form of gps etc, just accessed and delivered differently.

It would probably look like Terry Gilliam's Brazil!

 

[Bold Seagull]

Beautifully put.

 

[Nibble]

Then you have literally given it ANY thought.

The earth has limited land and resources, and they are running out fast. Space has possibly an infinite amount of both these things - maybe even some (or even new) fossil fuels.

The scientific and philosophical understanding of the cosmos that are yet to be learned, and all the potential discoveries to be made are so important and profound - that going into space is possibly the most important thing for mankind to be doing, after the preservation of our home planet.

Besides, the technologies we need to accomplish this, many of which are yet to be discovered - will improve the quality of lives of everyone.

Here's a nice philosophical video by the late astronomer Carl Sagan that may prompt you to give the benefits of space travel more thought:

What, go into space and smash that up for our own benefit like we did this planet? Nah, heard that dreamy nonsense for decades. Must try harder. As for that video, what possible argument did that give for space exploration. Plenty against it though "Other worlds waiting for us with endless possibilities", yeah, to strip them of thier resources and leave it a husk. Other than that a load of day dreaming hippy bullshit.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

i've just never heard a convincing enough argument. If someone were to furnish me with one I'd happily consider it. All seem slike one big pissing contest to me.

agreed...it costs an absolute fortune and how does it really benefit us? Let's sort out our own planet first

pissing contest is a good explanation

I know it might be a while but you do realise our sun only has so long before it implodes Given how long it took us to get to the moon it might seem prudent to start sooner rather than later on finding a new planet !

 

[Nibble]

I know it might be a while but you do realise our sun only has so long before it implodes Given how long it took us to get to the moon it might seem prudent to start sooner rather than later on finding a new planet !

I think if the sun goes we may as well call it a day.

 

[BigGully]

It's clear that you don't know much about this topic, so it may surprise you to learn that Mars is currently a baron waste land that can only be improved. Yet it has a great potential to be a lot like earth - a planet with seas, trees, wildlife and buildings. A second planet to take the strain off this one and act as a stepping stone to the greater beyond.

Colonisation of Mars has already begun, the first permanent residents of Mars are likely to arrive in 2023.

Just run the 'Sea and wildlife on Mars' past me again .......

 

[Bold Seagull]

I know it might be a while but you do realise our sun only has so long before it implodes Given how long it took us to get to the moon it might seem prudent to start sooner rather than later on finding a new planet !

If the Sun implodes (in approx. 5 billion years) we'll need to find a new solar system let alone new planet! We'd need to head to the nearest star, the cluster of 3 stars of Alpha Centuri, just 4.37 light years from our Sun.

Voyager 1 is currently travelling at 35,000 mph. Since 1972 it has travelled a total of 17 hours of light speed from the sun.....

 

[symyjym]

It's clear that you don't know much about this topic, so it may surprise you to learn that Mars is currently a baron waste land that can only be improved. Yet it has a great potential to be a lot like earth - a planet with seas, trees, wildlife and buildings. A second planet to take the strain off this one and act as a stepping stone to the greater beyond.

Colonisation of Mars has already begun, the first permanent residents of Mars are likely to arrive in 2023.

I doubt it would be that soon and if anything you would have to start with a permanent moon base. Getting to Mars before then is highly likely to be a suicide mission and you would have to remotely set up a tried and tested survivable habitat before any human arrival.

I wouldn’t fancy Mars until there were oceans, trees and plant life. The thought of having an itchy nose in a space suit doesn’t really appeal to me.

Edit: I haven't got a problem with people trying it though.

 

[Nibble]

It's clear that you don't know much about this topic, so it may surprise you to learn that Mars is currently a baron waste land that can only be improved. Yet it has a great potential to be a lot like earth - a planet with seas, trees, wildlife and buildings. A second planet to take the strain off this one and act as a stepping stone to the greater beyond.

Colonisation of Mars has already begun, the first permanent residents of Mars are likely to arrive in 2023.

Have you not seen Aliens? this can only end badly.

 

[Nibble]

It's already begun. http://applicants.mars-one.com/

There is no guarantee of safety - but we have successfully delivered enough probes and rovers to Mars now to be fairly confident that a manned craft will arrive safely too.

It's a one way trip launching in 2023, and the crafts being sent will also double up as a living space on arrival and then connect to form a Mars base, comparible to the International Space Station.

"Honey, next doors cat has shit in the garden again!"