Phoenix Lander Setting Down on MarsThe Phoenix lander completed it’s 711-million kilometer journey to the Martian north pole this past weekend with a successful soft-landing and some beautifully clear pictures. Over the next 90 days, this stationary laboratory will continue our quest to find evidence for life on our closest semi-habitable planet. With this landing, JPL’s tradition of handing out peanuts before landing has continued to bring luck. As it stands, less than half of all spacecraft sent to the Red Planet arrive intact. That said, the craft that do make the journey in one piece often return far more data and operate far longer than the original mission called for. It’s a testament to the intelligence, creativity and tenacity of the human spirit to see these machines boldly go where no one has gone before, and I look forward to seeing what feats of technological prowess mankind will enjoy in the future.

I am a big fan of space exploration and astrophysics. Although I don’t have any formal education in this field, I try to follow it as much as possible through technical journals and documentaries. When a big event is happening, I want to watch it unfold on TV or, when it comes to theoretical physics and other non-observable topics, read a well-written article outlining cause and effect, with supporting calculations or references. Rarely do I forget my location when a big event happens.

  • January 28, 1986 - Challenger is Lost - I was in 2nd grade and had just left for school for lunch when the news broke. Teachers had put TV’s on the local news channel to see the horrible tragedy.
  • February 1, 2003 - Columbia is Lost - A horrible day … another shuttle lost, and the skuttling of all future shuttle missions. This event prompted a severe overhaul of the Space Shuttle’s safety systems and protocols, so hopefully we will not lose more people the same way in the future.
  • January 3, 2004- Spirit Lands - I was at work for this one but, thanks to the internet, I was keeping an eye on the NASA website for updates.
  • January 25, 2004 - Opportunity Lands - Just like with Spirit, I was at work and watching online.
  • May 25, 2008 - Phoenix Lands - I was at the Ogaki Bank in Kakamigahara with my wife. When I mentioned how great it was that the vehicle had safely landed, she immediately responded with: “What’s the point of going to Mars, it’s a waste of money. We should give that money to the poor.”

Think Of Your Happy Place (x100)

I’ve heard this argument from so many people, and I’ve tried to share the other side of the coin so many times. But to hear my wife say that we should piss more money away on the poor is utterly deflating.

Last year alone the world “gave” over one trillion dollars to the world’s poor. Of that money, quite a bit went to schools, hospitals and medicines for those in need. Some went to food. Some went to shelters. Some went to providing clean water to those who have never seen the transparent fluid so many of us take for granted. Naturally there was quite a bit of “skimming” that went on by many in charge of collection or distribution of this wealth, but many benefited from last year’s contributions. Let’s also not forget that wealthy nations have been giving to the poor, both domestically and internationally, since before the second world war, and more so since so many European nations have backed away from colonialism.

In the last sixty years, wealthy nations have “donated” a combined total of over $200-trillion in money, resources, as well as relief and military aid. Yet, despite this incredible sum of money, the world is barely better off. We still have people starving to death. We still have leaders refusing to accept responsibility to provide the basic necessities of a comfortable life to their people. We still have hypocritical humans from all over the world who say we should do more, but do nothing themselves.

No, we don’t need to forfeit the advancement of science, technology or our understanding of the universe for the sake of those in need. But, at the same time, we don’t need to forfeit human lives for the sake of knowledge. What we need to forfeit is human greed, and the vicious cruelty that results from it.

The Poor Exist For A Reason

Although most don’t like to admit it, the poor exist for a reason: we’re greedy and selfish.

A huge gap exists between rich and poor, but an equally large gap exists between poor and dirt-poor. This can be clearly seen in almost every city around the world, but I’ll use Vancouver as an example.

In Vancouver you will find lots of people who drive cars worth more than I could earn in two years as a computer programmer. But, you will find most people drive a simpler vehicle priced between $12,000 and $40,000. You can also see people that could only hope to own a reliable used car, but rely exclusively on public transit. And, finally, there are those that can’t afford a loaf of bread, and live in some filthy downtown alley. The gaps between these four groups is quite large, but they don’t need to be.

In 2002, I had gone from the second category to the third, and just about the fourth. When I moved to Vancouver I made several big mistakes and, as a result, was less than two weeks away from being homeless. However, after a series of just-in-time bursts of luck, I managed to get some solid work and maintained my position in the third category. Because of my good fortune, I decided to help out at a local homeless shelter and even bought and shared lunch with a few people that had nothing but the dirty rags they called clothes.

Empty Food Bank ShelvesI did this for over a year in Vancouver before quitting. Why did I quit? Was it because many of the people that came to the shelters or had lunch on my dime abused our generosity? Was it because most of these people refused to accept work or some skills training, insisting welfare was their right? Was it because I couldn’t stand seeing all the young mothers tell their hungry children that there was no more to eat at the food bank because nobody donates until Thanksgiving and Christmas?

No. Witnessing those events play over and over for 20 months taught me quite a bit about the rich/poor divide, and what realities these people often trap themselves in. Instead, I stopped going because I wanted to have a personal life again. I wanted to see friends, meet people and have fun again.

I hadn’t been hungry in over two years, and I became selfish.

When people who demand we all donate more to help the poor hear me say this, they often say things like “you deserved to have fun,” or “wow, 20 months”. What they don’t say, though, is “it was the same at my shelter”. There are dozens of reasons for our avoidance of community service and reaching out to those in need, and 90% of these are probably valid. But the fact remains: the poor are poor for a reason. When someone chooses not to be poor again, they will have the motivation to build a better life for themselves. This is true for obscenely broke Canadians, ridiculously poor Africans, and a good two-thirds of all the poor around the world.

We Can Have Our Cake And Eat It, Too

What really gets me upset about statements like “we should give more to the poor” is that many think it’s just money they need. Money is a terrible thing to give because, unless you have lots of it, it’s a worthless commodity that gets mismanaged or stolen, and often does little more than drive up the cost of the daily essentials at the market. Money is important, there’s no doubt about it. But what many poorer people need is much less tangible: knowledge.

Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.

These words could not be more true. Rather than throw money at poorer nations, we should throw more educators and skilled trades-people at them. With the right mix of education and resourcefulness, these countries could become completely self-reliant in a generation or two. They might not have the same technological advantages as the Western nations, but they’ll be in a better position to make use of them. The same can be said about the poor in the wealthy nations. A little education can go a long way to solving our problems.

With all the intelligent people we have in the world, it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to have skilled people visit an impoverished region to act as an educator. This, in conjunction with fiscally responsible spending, can do wonders in very little time. Perhaps this could be offered to retired people who want to ‘give back’, or to young graduates who want to see the world and do something other than teach a language (an important skill, but often an unnecessary luxury for many).

Knowledge Can Never Stop

Learning more about the universe and how we fit in is one of the most important areas of scientific inquiry. Not because we should know how black holes function, or why the Higgs Boson is so coveted, but because it works to answer one of our oldest questions: why?

We can no more stop asking this question than we can stop breathing. Both activities are an integral part of who we are and what we do. While some might be too scared to ask the big questions, or try to deafen us with their interpretation of reality, the fact of the matter remains. We are a curious species. We must know how and why things work.

I agree that something should be done to help the world’s less fortunate, but it shouldn’t be examined in such a black and white light. There’s an awful lot of gray in this world, and an incredible amount of wealth. Giving up on one socially beneficial budget item for another would be more than unfortunate, it would be irresponsible.