Mars Landing and Islamic Schools

Two news items that attracted my attention today are NASA's new probe landing on the surface of Mars and a town in Australia opposing new Islamic School.

Mars Landing: One of my dreams for a very long time is to see human colony in space. We all know how important is that for human survival. Like all other species before us our days are numbered on this planet and if we need to survive we need to get out.

I guess it was 'Star Trek' which put this idea into my head when I was around 10 years old. As I started growing up, I was very attracted to Astrophysics. I used to save all my savings and subscribe to a magzine which used to be edited by Carl Sagan. The subscription used to cost me Rs. 1200 a year and $ rate hovering around Rs. 12 it was pretty difficult for a 10 year old to arrange that kind of money. Hence I gave up the idea after a few years. This was the same time Doordarshan showed the famous 'Cosmos' series by Sagan and the fascination in me kept on growing.

Coming back to the topic I really believe that we need to get out in the space. I know, in the huge thread of time we live for a very small spec of it. Almost half of my life is gone and to expect humanity to get out in the next half is pretty ambitious. But who knows, maybe one technological breakthrough would do it.

When we were kids we used to make these small walkie talkies like 'Star Trek' using match boxes and rubber bands. They looked pretty neat to us. But in last one decade all of us actually carry a similar device in the form of cell phones.

So I really hope that we find some traces of water on Mars. I hope that we get out and explore it.

That raises another question, is NASA or government funded organizations best suited for this job. I think we should let this whole thing get into private hands. The best exploration of our planet also was done by highly motivated and daring individuals and not by governments. Maybe we would loose some of them in process of getting to Mars but their lives would give us far more information on how to get there.


Islamic School in Australia: A city called Camden is opposing a Islamic School in its area, the residents are even going ahead and calling for total ban Islamic migration. I have two points to make:
1. I am against all religious schools. Even in India we have Religious schools, christian convents, madrassas and arya-samaj schools. I think its time when we as a society take religion out of our schools and classes. I think we end up breeding some kind of biases right there. These had a role to play during our developing years but now its time to seriously look into this matter and bring them into Public schooling system.
2. I am sure Australia has a lot of Christian schools or schools funded by Churches. If they oppose an Islamic School all those schools should be shut down too. There can't be two different system and standards in a good democracy.