
Why Ethiopia is building a space programme - JumpCrisscross
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21720129-and-why-critics-think-it-odd-use-scarce-resources-why-ethiopia-building?cid1=cust/ddnew/n/n/n/2017044n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/na/Daily_Dispatch/email&etear=dailydispatch
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alphakappa
> For Ethiopia, where few scientists have the expertise to make use of the
> flood of cheap data, perhaps the best argument for a modest space programme
> is that it might help the country develop its human capital. But at a time
> when 5.6m Ethiopians need emergency food aid because of a drought, it seems
> an odd priority.

What an odd argument. These are the same folks who complain about poverty in
India anytime ISRO launches a new rocket. Like every country that has a space
program, you cannot wait until you solve all your social ills before you
develop your human capital. Investing in science and technology is something
that every country should proudly do even as they try to resolve poverty,
infrastructure and social issues. They need not and should not be mutually
exclusive.

~~~
jbmorgado
Well, they need to be mutually exclusive when you can't even provide the
minimum necessary for your citizens to live by.

I can understand a poor - but not totally destitute - country to invest in
advanced technology, but no, I can't understand why in a country where
thousands every year die or are severely affected by hunger, is investing in
space technology instead of helping the immediate needs of its citizens.

It would be like a family in a household were you are about to die of hunger
or of some disease by lack of treatment, made their priority to pay your
university tuition fees instead.

~~~
arjie
If you focus all the tooling and construction around your space program
locally, it doesn't seem any different than the Public Works Administration in
the New Deal. I don't know anything about Ethiopia, but if it's just a
roundabout way to make work, then it may be more effective at stopping hunger
than giving out food.

~~~
int_19h
It's different in a sense that public works don't just create jobs, they also
create public infrastructure that is then usable by, and materially beneficial
to, everyone.

A space program would obviously create jobs, but 1) does it create as many
jobs as infrastructure work, per unit of currency spent, and 2) does the
output that it produces materially benefit the public?

Basically, it's not a question whether they should spend money on space
program, or on handing out free food. It's a question of whether a space
program is really the best bang for the buck in terms of creating jobs and
other benefits.

And you could argue that it might be, because the space program will produce
important _long-term_ benefits. But short-term benefits will produce
"interest", so to speak (if you can get more people out of poverty today,
you'll get more people who can become scientists tomorrow - and it might not
even be the same people, but their kids). So such an argument cannot be a mere
hand-wave - it must present the numbers.

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kyleschiller
> But at a time when 5.6m Ethiopians need emergency food aid because of a
> drought, it seems an odd priority.

Not that it's the same scale, but U.S. has ~.5M homeless [0], and I'm very
happy that NASA still exists.

Saying that a government shouldn't have a space program because people are
starving, without first mentioning every other piece of inefficient spending,
seems misleading.

And yeah, while it does seem like they could maybe get similar benefits from
the private cubesat's mentioned, there are good reasons for developing
countries to work towards domestic technology instead of relying on imports.

[0]
[http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/snapshot_of_homelessnes...](http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/snapshot_of_homelessness)

~~~
agency
That's a pretty big difference... 6% of the population versus 0.1%. For
reference at the peak of the Great Depression homelessness in the US was
around 1.5%

~~~
kyleschiller
Yeah, that's why I opened with "Not that it's the same scale".

My point is just that arguing "don't spend money on X, Y is more important"
only makes sense if X is literally the least important thing.

But as far as scale is concerned, it's worth noting that the US spends about
.5% of its budget on NASA (again, IMO totally justified). The economist
article doesn't mention how much Ethiopia plans to spend, but to get a super
rough estimate, their current $3m investment [0] is only about .025% of
national budget [1].

[0] [http://www.sciencealert.com/ethiopia-has-launched-the-
first-...](http://www.sciencealert.com/ethiopia-has-launched-the-first-space-
program-in-east-africa) [1]
[http://www.ena.gov.et/en/index.php/politics/item/1435-counci...](http://www.ena.gov.et/en/index.php/politics/item/1435-council-
of-ministers-approves-over-274-billion-birr-budget-for-upcoming-ethiopian-
fiscal-year)

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vangale
> THE ancient holy town of Lalibela, perched some 2,500 metres above sea-level
> in Ethiopia’s northern highlands, boasts some of the clearest night skies
> imaginable.

When I lived in Ethiopia (Haile Selassie was still emperor so it's been a
while) there were many nights of the year where the starlight was bright
enough you could walk around without a flashlight. Nights with a full moon
almost felt like daylight. You could see stars at the horizon.

------
sdenton4
The Ethiopian government has been engaging in pretty brutal repression for the
last year or so. Much like the famine in the eighties, this one is also tied
up in systematic deprivation of groups outside of the ruling elite.

[https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2016/oct/20/s...](https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2016/oct/20/state-of-emergency-likely-ramp-up-repression-
fractured-ethiopia)

------
kyleschiller
The article fails to mention that U.S./Global Fund/Gates Foundation are
willing to spend exorbitant amounts of their own money on Ethiopia's
humanitarian crises [0][1][2], so there's a pretty strong incentive for
Ethiopia to spend their own money on other things.

To be clear, I'm not at all against foreign aid.

[0][https://ethiopia.usembassy.gov/u.s.-response-to-the-
ethiopia...](https://ethiopia.usembassy.gov/u.s.-response-to-the-ethiopian-
drought.html) [1] [http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-
Links/Grant...](http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-
Database#q/k=Ethiopia) [2]
[https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/portfolio/](https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/portfolio/)

------
finid
Not too long ago China helped Nigeria build and launch a satellite. For a
while, the thing was working until it fell out of the sky. That was the end of
that one. Not sure if they managed to relaunch another one or got a refund
from the Chinese.

I hope the Ethiopians fare better than the Nigerians.

~~~
ctchocula
According to this website [1], "China Aerospace Science and Technology
Corporation (CASC) and its relevant organizations reached a decision to build
and launch NIGCOMSAT-1R with no extra cost to Nigerian customer".

[1] [https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/12/chinese-long-
march-3...](https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/12/chinese-long-march-3be-
launches-nigcomsat-1r/)

------
tempAccount321
> ...but at a time when 5.6m Ethiopians need emergency food aid because of a
> drought, it seems an odd priority

As other commenters mentioned it's an odd argument - putting it into
perspective I understand the writers point

It's not just drought that's crippling the country; huge youth unemployment,
wealth [little of it] distribution & the government itself are some of the
major issues

With the state of emergency being extended for another 4 months & Internet
censorship at all time high - space program is an unlikely prioritized
endeavor imo

PS: I am an Ethiopian

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rurban
Alternate Synopsis: For their military program. Huge country, you need
satellite info, still at war, parts receded, dangerous borders.

