Proud India going to Mars . Do their sick starving see it that way ?

[Frederick]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/a-giant-leap-for-india-proud-nation-counts-down-to-mars-launch-8918125.html

Mr Bagla, the journalist, said that India can afford to

spend on both science and poverty reduction. Others say the problem is

not a lack of money for social programmes, but that corruption and bad

administration means the issues are not tackled

"There

are around 400m Indians without electricity. There are 600m who defecate

in the open and living lives of utter poverty," he said. "But do you

think $100m is going to make any difference. There are already social

problems spending billions of dollars."

They don't need  the hundreds of millions  of pounds from the UK or the Euro Zone  then do they ?

[Quillan]

More to the point if we are to believe Save the Children there are thousands of kids in the UK who only get toast to eat each day according to their current TV advert. If we believe the figures from them, Banardos and other child charities there are 3.6M children in the UK living in poverty. So if this is true is not the UK morally bankrupt when it spends all this money on HS2 and donates aid money to other countries? Does not the phrase "charity begins at home" mean anything? I don't object to helping other countries but lets sort out the UK first.

[NormanH]

Even less can the Uk afford to spend billions in military campaigns of dubious efficiency and morality.

Fortunately Milliband was there to remind Cameron of the fact...

[woolybanana]

Do you mean Miliband the man who has never worked in his life, who has made plenty out of property trading and who is in hock to the commies that run the unions. Hardly someone worth listening to.

Starving kids, well, broken families, feckless parents, plus those never educated to think they have a chance of leaving poverty. I wonder.

[nectarine]

The same Milliband who never got around to putting his name on his eldest child's birth certificate until the papers made a hoo-ha of it and then, being leader of a party, decided to get wed (makes him a little more respectacle). That says a lot about the man ...

[PaulT]

But still,, we are going to stop giving aid to India by 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/18/uk-aid-india

 - perhaps just as in Britain each country should look after their own first but most certainly not by enabling people to increase their benefits by 'knocking 'out' kids like there is no tomorrow.

[woolybanana]

Well, where would we be if a man had to put his name on the birth certificate of every child he fathered?

[AnOther]

Not that I support India's space aspirations or the granting of aid which they say they don't want anyway but IF you believe their claim that it's only cost them the equivalent of £73m and IF the £280m UK grants India in aid annually does represent a mere 0.03% of their national income then £73m is roughly 1/4 of that or 0.0075% so how much poverty and suffering etc. etc. could such a minuscule fraction could really make ?

[Théière]

Does anyone actually know if Martians like curry?

[PaulT]

I suppose though, India could develop a launch service for companies and countries and therefore make a profit on its space business.

[Russethouse]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Well, where would we be if a man had to put his name on the birth certificate of every child he fathered?[/quote]

A lot better off !

[woolybanana]

Only after a DNA test should a man consider doing this as so many young ladies are distinctly flighty in the bonky bonky department these days, IMNVHO!