What did we talk about last week? Rosetta and Kim. One landed on a comet, the other balanced a champagne glass on her, erm, comet.
There have been raging debates on both issues. Rosetta and the European Space Agency mission was lauded by many but severely scoffed by others.
In Malta, people complained that we should not be spending trillions of money on space science when we can use the money to, say, end famine in the world or “solve the traffic problem”.
Others declared that the robotic lander touchdown on a comet was totally fake, “just like the landing on the moon”. As islanders, we are suckers for conspiracies with a particular penchant for “staged events” theories.
Kim and her mission were equally discussed. No one complained that Kim Kardashian is getting loads of money for posing in the nude. No one was particularly bothered that it was “all staged” as a promotional commercial event for the reality TV model.
Instead, we had people discussing whether “an arse this big is nice or not”; if she is feminist or anti-feminist; and whether she has been embroiled in an anti-racial photoshoot.
Sometimes, I feel there are too many opinions around and my mind feels like it’s about to explode. People are all the time voicing their opinion, whether they know anything about the topic or not – it’s like our life has become one mega Xarabank.
Can you imagine how easier it was pre-1990? All you had to do was to get the encyclopaedia off your shelf and look for facts. No one threw opinions at you from all directions.
Sometimes I feel we have little time to think and yet we have to give our verdict at the snap of the moment. I am constantly finding myself saying: “I have to think about it for a while before I tell you what I think.” Maybe I am old school but I need to process facts before I am able to take a stand.
What is worrying is that immediate reaction has become by far more important than taking time to understand facts.
Time magazine recently had a feature on how children react to technology. They were given a camera and a film. They took an age to assemble it and they all thought it was incredibly hard work to take a photo.
“You have to wait an hour to see the pictures? What do you do in all that time?” they said. The children said they felt sorry for people like us “who had to go through that”.
If we want people to rally behind outer space studies, we will have to recruit Kim Kardashian and send her in a mothership in a translucent suit
In a sense, it made me understand why we have no patience to sit for long to watch the footage of the Rosetta spaceship and its washing machine-sized robotic lander Philae. “Yeah, yeah, robot lands on comet, so?” We want it to start digging and unearth an alien – otherwise it’s boring. Which is a pity. When man landed on the moon (yes he has), everyone crowded round televisions to watch the event live. Now we fleetingly watched the Philae landing for five seconds on our PCs and went back to contemplating the Kardashian bottom.
What is my take on Rosetta and Kim, after a week of pondering? Well, my knowledge of comets prior to this was from The Little Prince – and our comet – 67P – is not much bigger than his. I think that this was a moment of huge significance for humankind because whatever is collected from this comet comes from the time when our solar system was born some five billion years ago: if we study it, we will know how our planet Earth came to be.
Money on missions like this is well spent. First off, let’s put the cost in perspective: as the European Space Agency says: it is half that of a modern submarine and has been spread over 20 years of scientific and industrial activity, creating thousands of jobs.
Also, development of space technology, always somehow finds its way into domestic gadgets (and if it speeds up the process of inventing an ironing machine that irons clothes at the press of a button then I’m all for it).
Now what do I think about Kim’s photos? If she is happy to balance a champagne flute on her bum and earn truckloads for it, then who am I to judge? I’d say the same thing if David Beckham wanted to balance a football on his backside. I have to say I am fascinated by her huge arse: even I, who always wished for a sizeable bum, draw a line at that one, for my knees would buckle under the weight I think.
What I find odd is that we see naked photos of women every other day – including Kardashian’s – so why is it that every time the world stops in a way that it doesn’t for a major space breakthrough?
I think the only solution if we want people to rally behind outer space studies is if space agencies had to recruit Kim and send her in a mothership in a translucent suit.
Everyone will then be hooked and will suddenly become highly interested in space science.
krischetcuti@gmail.com
Twitter: @KrisChetcuti