On The Chinese Space Program

So I have been published again, this time in the online edition of the Globe and Mail. They actually do filter what they publish so its not like anyone with a keyboard and a sense of spelling can get on their web site. I actually reused something that had been printed in the paper edition of the Globe. But first, the letter that provoked me:

Joseph Tsai from Victoria, Canada writes:
There is not much people in North America can do about [China's rapid expansion in R&D]. We have a structural societal problem where our youth here aspires to be on American Idol as their end all and be all goal in life. The youth in China on the other hand are aiming to be doctors, engineers, and other worthy professionals as their goals.

The zeal of which the Chinese have attacked their goals is commenable. We are just a bunch of fat ass lazy twits that deserved to be overrun by others.
October 12, 2005

To which I responded:
I wrote a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail, it was published in February, I quote it here as a rebuttal to Mr. Tsai's (for lack of a better description) angry rant:

[From my web page, open quote]
In the February 24, 2005 Globe and Mail the following letter to the editor appeared, I quote the letter in its entirety.

Re China's Military Might Worries World Leaders (Feb. 23): Horror of horrors! What if China indeed does take over the world and we are all forced to study hard, work, establish businesses and abide by the law?

- Irwin Diamond (Toronto)

Now I had to respond to that one, I even emailed it to the letters department of the Globe and Mail. Remarkably it was published, in the February 26 Globe and Mail, on page A18, the letters to the editor page.

Skewed picture

Irwin Diamond writes "[If China takes over the world] we are all forced to study hard, work... and abide by the law." Mr. Diamond, I have worked in China, I have taught English there, I am married to a Chinese woman. You sir are two things:

1. stereotyping
2. completely clueless

Some Chinese are hard workers, some are lazy, some Chinese students are very studious and some are as bad as anything my parents (former Ontario Public School teachers) ever had to deal with. But to make such wild claims, while ignoring such points as rampant government corruption, excessive nationalism and a disturbing lack of equality under the law makes Diamond's letter a dangerous tract of misinformation.
[close quote]

Mr. Tsai, the only "structural societal problem" I detect is that we allow people to make such broad generalizations as "We are just a bunch of fat ass lazy twits" in otherwise reputable forums.
October 12 2005

I mention all of this not to show that gee wiz, I can get written up, using the same letter twice in the same paper. And I certainly did not do this to brag about teaching English in China, shockingly I don't consider being an English teacher the high point of my career, (given that I have a B.Math and an M. Eng, being an English teacher is a definite step in the wrong direction for me... Math or Computer Networking teacher, that would be a different story.)

Rather I write this on while the second manned Chinese space capsule orbits overhead.

That Shenzhou VI flight makes me think back to the Glory days of the American Empire, President Lyndon B. Johnson was egging NASA ever faster, ever higher, ever stronger. Sure there was a lot of Patriotism, probably even some Nationalism. But you look at the Motto of Apollo 13 as selected by Navy Pilot Jim Lovel, Ex Luna, Scientia, derived from the Navy Motto, Ex Mare, Scientia. NASA was, and is, a research agency. They develop and promote new technologies, Velcro, Microwave ovens, Integrated Circuits, Six Billion pound Saturn 5 missiles, and while such things can happen without a space agency, its awful hard to get those truly amazing images of Saturn without a Voyager fly by.

I wonder, when it is proclaimed that China is the dominant super power, will Beijing continue to explore, to send up a bigger, better space telescope? The thing about living in a totalitarian state is, besides the fact that we will never hear about an Apollo 1 style Shenzhou (Apollo 1 burned to a crisp killing the three astronauts aboard), when the state decides that a bigger and better army is preferred to some silly experiments in space Chinese rocket nut cases (like me a Canadian rocket nut case) will just have to bite the bullet as it were and content themselves with reading about the exploits of the NASA. I hope the American's can maintain their supremacy for a good while longer.

October 2005