more disgust, with the spaceflight participant
of all the hullabaloo of sending the first malaysian into space, only to find that the great sheikh muszaphar shukor is just a spaceflight participant (link). not an astronaut, but a space tourist. one that the government used tax payer dollars (okay, ringgit) to push him into. thats rm100 million to play children’s games and make teh tarik (pulled tea).
someone like mark shuttleworth, forked out his own cash, between USD$15 to USD$20 million to see space. this was an out-of-pocket expense, and now he’s the first south african in space. why are the malaysian tax-payers funding a space tourist?
malaysian spin-doctors better not make sheikh a laughing stock. now they’re talking about him praying more than 80 times a day, as the first muslim to go to space during ramadhan. was this one large joke?
p/s: rm100 million roughly equates to around USD$30 million. why was mark’s independent trip cheaper than this tax-payer-funded instance?
Update: Read Ditesh’s take titled The Angkasawan Programme is a political sham.
Technorati Tags: politics, tax payer, spaceflight participant, malaysian in space, first malaysian in space, sheikh muszaphar shukor, corruption, laughing stock, malaysia
I fully agree. This is the tax payer’s money at work eh? And all this while, they still agree to hand out increment in toll rates.
If you ask me LDP is the worst of all the roads cos it only taxes those at the 2 ends of the Toll and everyone in between gets a free ride.
Ramadhan: facing Mecca would be more straightforward than using a dodgy compass inside a steel-framed train carriage, anyway. Also, a simplistic view says he was closer to Allah in orbit than en terra.
Shuttleworth: he was actually useful. If you get a chance to sit through his space station talk, grab it with both hands & grip hard. (-: see if you can record the bit about the parachutes releasing from the Soyuz :-)
@leon: i’ll refrain from comments on ramadhan, since i myself have no idea what its all about, beyond what i (and the rest of the public) already know…
Yeah, I saw his talk at a linux.conf.au iirc, it was most interesting. I don’t remember most of it now, since I’m not that large a space buff, but it was an interesting talk.
@lotso: whats annoying is that its tax payer money for a tourist mission. its like asking the government to pay for your vacation! and the public cheering that it happens. seems like its debauchery thru & thru
this wouldn’t stand if it happened in australia. or even the usa i’m sure. its just plain, utter, ridiculous.
@byte: Well, if I’m the dude off to space, I’m sure not to complain. (right?) But since it’s part of my money funding him and I’m already up to my neck in like (incremented) road toll bills, (incremented) petrol bills and the subsequent rise in the overall cost of living. ( I mean face it, I’ve always maintained that our cost of living is way higher than that of the USA for the amount of money that we earn and the amount of money we have to spent just to obtain the same items. take a look at the big mac index http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9448015)
Malaysia’s currency, is 50% undervalued, compared to 20% undervalued for Singapore and Australia. That’s the reason why each time I go to singapore I tell my significant other that everything is 50% cheaper compared to Malaysia. (based on 1 to 1 $ amount)
Our economy sucks and the government likes to still pump in money to fund these sort of non-beneficial activities.
BAH!