Nigeria Aims To Put Africans In Space

globalpost.com:

LONDON, U.K. - Recently I received an email labeled "Strictly Confidential" from Dr. Bakare Tunde, who said he was astronautics project manager at Nigeria's space agency. He also told me he was the cousin of the first African in space, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde, and that this poor intrepid astronaut had been stranded on a secret Soviet military station ever since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1990.

Read the whole story: globalpost.com

Comments

[Perry Clease]

"what will you do nights now, Mr. Teece?"

[Thabit]

You have just won the nigerian space lottery , now send us all your details ROFL

[escobar]

It would be far more impressive if their oil rich could launch their people out of poverty, provide clean drinking water, a sewer system, and good school systems.
At least they don't hope to impress the world by building an atom bomb...

[MosheDayanHero]

voila!

[Elyriaohio]

You mean like the United States? :-)

[Watain]

HA! HA! HA!

[Doc0976]

The author write, "Sitting across from Gerald Okeke, it’s hard to fathom that the quietly spoken fellow might one day fly beyond the earth’s atmosphere."

Interesting that she doesn't mention WHY it is hard to fathom picturing him in space. Should I infer that it is because he is soft-spoken? Hardly, but the entire tone of the article is condescending. Commendable effort in trying to point out the merits of the program through it's commercial satellite imagery, but overall weak and insulting, like saying France aims to put Europeans in space. Silly.

[Doc0976]

Meant to add that s behind "write" and "though its commercial satellite imagery..."

Uggghhh, long day at work today.

[mommadona]

Ahhh - I see all those princes got together to do something worthwhile with those fortunes stuck in those Nigerian banks.....

Kudos, Prince AlPhabetSouper - now, you DO know once you fire this puppy out there, you need to bring them BACK, correct? (*sound of crickets)

[Doc0976]

Sounds like you fell prey to one of these scams...you wouldn't sound so bitter and facetious otherwise.

[futate01]

@ DoyssesusNemesis I get your point but the article is not as bad as you mentioned. The intro was a poor choice, playing on the Nigerian stereotype, but the rest of the article is very positive and makes no mention of Nigeria's poverty or cultural clashes as you assume. I hope you realize that by making an "assumption" you just undermined your own argument.

[goddessNdiva]

You must of browsed the article. She wrote "Nigeria spends $20 million a year on its space program, in a country in which for every thousand children born, 137 will die before they are five years old."

I think you undermined your own argument.

[futate01]

No matter where you are in the world there are always going to be positives and negatives. If you choose to only look at ugly than you will only see ugly. Yes there is bias in her story but overall it is a positive story about how an African nation is trying to do something "surprising" in the eyes of most of the world. If you only want to see her unconscious bias over her desire to show something positive than you will only see ugly for the rest of your life.

[OdysseusNemesis]

“Nigeria really does have a space agency”

The intention of Katrina Manson – the author from the GlobalPost – is to invite us to laugh and amuse ourselves at the expense of this African country and its space project; otherwise, why would she spend the first two paragraphs ridiculing that country; and about some email sent to her – how convenient, just in the nick of time when she was about to write an article about Nigeria space project, there arrives an email.

Haven gotten us to LOL (and some of us even falling off our chairs), she calls us to order: she writes, “Nigeria really does have a space agency” (Katrina Manson, Oh Really?). I need not read the rest of the article but I am sure she will mention something about poverty, corruption, mismanagement, malaria, HIV, lack of water, schools etc, – as they all do whenever any African country tries to undertake a bold project.

[goddessNdiva]

Spot on. When she started talking about having received an email from a Nigerian...I knew the article was going to poke fun of Nigerians.

I also knew from the "Nigerians Aim to Put Africans into Space" title that she must be a foreigner...lol. If she had been African the title would of been "Nigerians Aim to Put Nigerians into Space".

Since when does HP ever a good article on Africa anyways.

[Berkeleylefty]

Fanned and faved!!