Conquest of Space

  "Billionaire Elon Musk said his private spaceflight company SpaceX has made some progress toward establishing a permanent colony on Mars — a longtime goal in the entrepreneur's push to help make humanity a multiplanet species." (Spacex) It is a technological challenge and it should be welcomed.


     But, when we look at the history of the humans on earth, serious questions arise. Do humans have the right to occupy any space they "discover?" What if there are other species on those planets? Those species may be more intelligent or less intelligent than humans or they are not intelligent at all. Does the relative intelligence level give us a right to occupy that space?


     Christopher Columbus set sail to discover new lands and "found" America and claimed it for his sponsors. Likewise, James Cook "discovered" Australia and claimed it for the King of England. Recorded history tells us that the natives welcomed the visitors initially but resisted the visiting invaders when they tried to occupy. But, superior technical capabilities enabled the Europeans to conquer. The natives were happy with their life style; they generally believed that they belonged to the land; but they did not entertain the idea of ownership of parcels of land. Owing land is a European concept. A justification suggested to usurping land from the discovered lands is that since the natives did not have title to the land Europeans could take over.


     Nearly two millenniums back, warriors from countries led armies to other lands, fought with unwary natives and took their land, their food, and their women. That might is right was the law of the time. If a peace loving people did not build sufficient defenses and forces, they risked losing everything including their lives and liberty to the marauding invaders.


     While they were in their quest for land and resources, various European expeditions found strong resistance in Asia. For example, India already had a large population with well established rulers offering strong defense. That appears to be the turning point when the Europeans turned to trade as the means to gain entry. With trade as the ruse, several invaders entered Asia. They were mainly of four classes: priests, warriors, traders, and combat supporters. While the traders broached deals, they egged on the rival local rulers to fight among themselves and the warrior class provided support to the warring rulers. Once the warrior class gained control, the priestly class moved in. Of course, the combat supporters provided the logistical support in exchange for good living, which they lacked in their homelands back in Europe.


     These four classes attacked the natives and deprived them of the human needs. Deprived of their landholdings due to the defeats at the hands of the warrior class, native workers lost their ability to supply themselves against the basic physiological needs. The local merchants and warriors lost their investments and self-esteem. The priestly class pounced on the local intellectuals and rubbished their religion, culture, languages, arts, and so on. Over time, the invaders found that the trade ruse is a better strategy than head to head fighting. Once deprived of their means to feed themselves, the locals were recruited to fight for the occupiers. Moreover, with the services of locals, they can march ahead and invade more Asian territories. The priests converted locals to their religion and culture by offering morsels of relief in the form of food, money, comforts, and recognition. This process allowed them to boast to their masters in Europe that their religious ranks have grown. During the whole process, marketers, rather than warriors, were the leaders of invasions. Even the priest class was marketers and not scholars as their main function was to knock the indigenous arts, cultures, languages, and religion rather than to engage in philosophical discussions and arguments with local scholars and priests.


     In nearly the last one thousand years, this strategy and process worked in favor of the people of European origin and to the detriment of native Americans, Australians, Africans, and Asians. Furthermore, it appears that easy spaces on earth have exhausted and the marketers have to look into the heavens. Now, if we look at our attempts at the conquest of space, ethical and moral questions arise. Do humans have the right to invade and occupy space on any planet? Do we have to right to kill life on that space, whether that life is intelligent or not, resisting our advances or not? Are we entitled to jeopardize their health and safety through the transportation of our germs and diseases and infecting them? Can we take their resources whether they use them or not? Can we demean their self-esteem and enslave them? 

The critical attribute for a minister

     We always feel assured if a person with high qualifications is chosen as a cabinet minister. But we have to take a pause and discuss if degrees make a manager, leader, and statesman. President Ronald Reagan was an actor with a bachelor's degree and went on to become a highly successful president  from the US point of view.
     In democracies, the leadership comes from the elected representatives of people. People with advanced degrees shy away from politics. It is common to find graduates in arts and commerce gravitating to politics. Countries like India, with large levels of illiteracy and rural populations, village leaders and urban trade union leaders are better known to the electorate. Under such a scenario, when parliamentarians elect their leaders, chances are high that people with low to no educational qualifications will become ministers.
     If a minister knows his limited capabilities, he is likely to perform well. It is very similar to the chief executive of a business. A person who knows everything about his business will be a good fit for a start-up or a small business. But when the business grows to be big or large, the owner is unlikely to know every thing and do everything. There will be several specialists heading various functional areas and giving expert advice to the chief executive. The chief succeeds in running the business if he utilizes the talents he has available to him.
     Hence, the most important attribute for any minister is common sense. His first task consists of assembling a team with the most appropriate talents to advise him and to carry out tasks delegated to them. As a minister receives advice, he becomes more knowledgeable. Using his smarts and native wisdom, he can perform well. But that situation should not make him think that he is now all-knowing and is an expert in the subject matter. Subject matter expertise comes with decades of learning and practice.
     There was apparently criticism about the selection of Ms. Smriti Irani as Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD). For India, HRD is a very critical ministry. With a population of over a billion people and a high proportion of them being illiterate, great leadership is expected. Many higher education institutions, universities, scientific laboratories, and tens of thousands of colleges come under the purview of this department. There will be demands to establish institutions of world standards and to get Nobel prizes. On the other end of the spectrum, millions of young people will be looking for skills to get decent jobs. Perhaps, most people would have applauded if an experienced vice-chancellor of a university with a double PhD from Harvard was selected instead of an actress.
     A successful actress knows that the theme for the movie is not her creation. The script, the lyrics, the music, the screen play, and directing are all created or performed by others. A producer selects the team of specialists, markets with investors, and distributors, and makes sure that the team produces results that is a box office hit, a gem with critics, and a favorite of the fans. The critical feature is the orchestration of the team work and getting every player to contribute their best so that they are all proud of the final masterpiece.
     The question one should ask is if the minister would be able to transfer such skills to her new charge and serve the millions of people who look for better skills to let India harvest the democratic dividend. Just as movie producer looks for a theme, assembles a talented team, and works within the budget, will the honorable minister put together a great HRD team for India?
     When a position of such high responsibility is taken, all past qualifications and accomplishments have to be left at the door. It is a new challenge and a new learning experience. It is not about the person and personal glory. It is all about results that a billion people are eagerly anticipating. The lady has already demonstrated one quality on the first day. When there were critical comments about her lack of educational qualifications, she followed her script - silence.
    Although this write-up is about one minister and ministry, the general criteria apply to all ministers and members of parliament. They were elected by their constituents. Their first job is to work for the people back home. They are a group of several hundred who were given the responsibility of governance of the whole nation, their responsibility is for fairness towards and the economic and social wellbeing of over 1.2 billion people.
     May common sense be their virtue!
    

With the NDA winning a majority of seats in the 2014 elections to the parliament, there is hope that a corruption-free and economic and social development oriented government will take reign. The pronouncements by Mr. Narendra Modi give such an assurance.

After ten years of scam-ridden UPA rule, merely forming a new government is not sufficient. It should start with Mr. Modi announcing values and principles that his ministers, senior bureaucrats, and all government officials and operatives will uphold.

There should be strategic objectives laid out for the nation. Following from there are strategic objectives for each branch of the government, viz., the parliament, administration, and judiciary. Each ministry should set its goals and objectives therefrom.

The next step is to develop performance standards and performance objectives for all ministers and senior administrative officers. The performance of ministers and their ministries can be judged based on their accomplishments. In the end, every government worker should have performance objectives and standards against which their performance and accomplishments will be measured and suitably rewarded. Citizens would know what kind of government they got. 

Since most ministers will be Members of Parliament, they will naturally have responsibilities to the ministries they head and to the constituents who elected them. By declaring, as part of their performance standards, what they plan to do in each area, they would be able to devote time, energy, effort, and resources to tasks appropriately.

I plan to follow this posting up with more on this topic later on.