The Winter Olympics, the Mission to Mars and World Problems

Miles Seeley enjoys life to the full in the Midwest (see relevant posting), and he heartily applauds the Winter Olympics and the mission to Mars. He and I enjoy disagreeing. As for the Winter Olympics, I have watched crazed athletes performing all kinds of weird things on snow and ice, the highlight being an argument about the ballet skating, in which a villainous French judge favored that old ally of France, Russia. This is what they call the sporting spirit.

Steve Torok is less critical: "Do not forget "mens sana en corpore sano" for sports -- of course if overdone, everything is harmful. About investment priorities (poverty vs. space) that is like the decision on budgeting for development vs. exploration in the oil industry. Development is always more rational and supportable on an elimination of poverty basis (for some!), however by eliminating exploration we cut off all future possibilities for our successors... I know I am a hard-headed economist and that Economics is the "miserable science", still, we have to make practical decisions with the long term future in mind, sometimes at the expense of the present!"

On "mens sana, etc", I think I have both, thanks to non-competitive jogging and walking. Keep an eye on those winter athletes, and note their age at death. As for the economics argument, one reason for helping a poor country is that, when it develops, it will be abetter partner.

Marga Jann says: "I remain with Ronald on this one. For me, investing in a mission to Mars (for example) when so many of our planet's citizens are literally starving to death would be, for me, like investing in a Porsche when my children have no shoes. The idea is to bring the underprivileged up to a level where they can access and benefit from education (not just the basics most of us in the West take for granted--like FOOD), and eventually participate in luxuries like missions to Mars (again, only an example). Someone used the example of Columbus--nothing compared in expenditure to space exploration! We need to delay gratification here to uplift others both materially and especially spiritually before we so selfishly continue to spend money on "high tech non-essentials". With proper administration, it is completely possible to bring the "developing world" to a place of substantial and equitable development relative to the rest of us within five years. We have no excuse. Sadly, our imminent one-world government has another agenda".

My comment: The issue of globalization is relevant here. The dangerous confrontation between the developed world and its critics, whose opinions were expressed at the World Social Forum, could lead to civil wars. The civil war in Colombia and the bloody riots among the peasants of the Brazilian Northeast are symptoms of this global problem. One encouraging fact is that the World Economic Forum featured panels at which these issues were aired, as did the World Economic Forum. The French peasant activist José Bové was deliberately not invited to the l,atter, but he went anyway. The two fora are not as far apart as they might be.

Ronald Hilton - 2/15/02