Fly Me

All the hoopla about our first man in space is getting out of hand. Seeing the absurd headlines in the dailies is even more disheartening. Submarines and space explorations are still way out of our league. The so called important experiments carried out that had probably been done decades ago before us. Why is there such need? Cos the big G created it. All because they want to show the world that we've been there, done that; conveniently forgetting that we did that not in our own spaceship, we simply hitched a ride. Being called a tourist (because that's the ugly truth) is nothing to be proud of, neither would recognize the hero as an astronaut or a cosmonaut. There we were, spending billions to hop on technnologies that were developed by other countries and took pride in that.

There's no doubt that most kids around the country went ga-ga about going to space. As a kid, I was amazed by the vast space, and how much there was to explore. I took Dad's binoculars and camped outside the house while gazing up at stars, matching patterns with the ones I saw on my astronomy books and spot constellations. I stayed up to watch meteor showers; and I've seen lunar and solar eclipses. I poured over books on astronomy that I made Mum buy for me, mostly through postal orders from Readers Digest and also those I borrowed from the school library, lucky me, Mum was supportive of my odd reading habits.

Back then, the AlorSetar skies were not polluted, and there was not much artificial lights that lighted up buildings and streets, at least in my neighbourhood. Cloudless nights mean that I'll get to see of stars in the sky. Blackouts and power trips were very much a joy. That was when the dimmest of stars came to light, it felt as though all the stars were in attendance, in full view. I'd spend hours gazing up until my neck hurts.

I wrote down Astronomer/Astronaut as cita-cita in my report card during my primary years. Mum chuckled upon seeing that, and showed Dad. He grinned and asked me what does a person in that position do. I replied, "Go to space one day or work at NASA."

Does that childhood dream still stand? *waves* (second Angkasawan program~)

The fact that I've read so much about space lead me to think that it's simply a waste of money to send someone up there to do nothing, while there is still work to be done to improve the conditions this country which is clearly still underdeveloped and plagued by alot of unsolved internal problems. Space explorations can only happen when there is excess funds at your disposal.

If you tell me that you came up with a cure to cancer with the experiments you've done in space, then yes, you have my respect.