Xref: utzoo sci.space.shuttle:2617 talk.politics.misc:23738
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!kth!draken!tut!santra!tukki!sarnila
From: sarnila@tukki.jyu.fi (Pekka Sarnila)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: First concert from space--update
Keywords: Global concert, superstar
Message-ID: <549@tukki.jyu.fi>
Date: 18 Mar 89 13:36:21 GMT
References: <1885@randvax.UUCP> <522@adobe.UUCP>
Reply-To: sarnila@tukki.jyu.fi (Pekka Sarnila)
Organization: University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Lines: 54

In article <522@adobe.UUCP> jackson@adobe.UUCP (Curtis Jackson) writes:
...
>Americans and Russians can broadcast a concert from space to radios
>and TVs his own people don't have, can't get, and even if they could
>get couldn't afford?
...
>I find the arrogance of Americans as a group very annoying these
>days.  "Mr. Gorbachev, do this because *we'll* like you more for it,
>and that is of course what you want."  Gorbachev wants technology

Sorry to say but that very article displayed the american arrogance.

First, though it is quite true that material standart of living
in USSR is much lower than in the western world, and they have
difficulties in food supply (this means in practise that you
can't find everything every day in the supermarket: last week
there was honey, this week there is no carrots), still it is
a modern country. Nearly everyone has a TV (color is very usual).
Streets in big cities in the night are certainly much safer than
in US.

Secondly, you might not be aware that there has been these
special direct TV-programms between US and USSR where audience
can see each other on the screen and ask questions each other.
These are organized in order to remove old and useless prejudism,
bring people of the world closer to each other and thus promote
peace. It is really not the weapens but the psychological
attitudes that endanger the continuety of human civilisation
on planet earth. On these grounds there might be sence in
some kind of music operation in space. (Even from economic
point of wiew: in long run it saves in defence budget; and this
is what russians are trying to do right now.)

Thirtly, russians are now selling all kinds of space services
to anybody who pays profitable price (meny western companies
are putting they satelites up with them). So there is
nothing arrogant in asking whether they would put passangers
in space. Naturally they give the price that enables them to
make profit out of it.

I agree in that, that at this point scientific use of space programs
should have highest priority, but makeing profitable busines
also with manned flights is absolutely neccessary in long run
to get the required funds to continue rehearch aswell. If
manned flights could be made profitable right now the funds
available for tehcnological development of space vehicles
might easily get ten fold or even more. Also I think it would
be very good for space development if it would be done with
greater global wiew of mankind.

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Pekka Sarnila,  University of Jyvaskyla Finland
sarnila@tukki.jyu.fi
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