http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/600836/Ethiopia-launch-space-programme
Now Ethiopia launches SPACE PROGRAMME - while receiving MILLIONS in
British foreign aid
POVERTY-STRICKEN Ethiopia is to launch its own SPACE PROGRAMME - all
while receiving MILLIONS of pounds in foreign aid from Britain.
By Levi Winchester Levi Winchester
PUBLISHED: 00:00, Wed, Aug 26, 2015 | UPDATED: 11:51, Wed, Aug 26, 2015
The east African country, which is one of the poorest nations in the
world, aims to put a state-of-the-art satellite into orbit within five
years as part of its plans to improve communications.
Ethiopia, which is receiving £300 million in British aid this year,
will now become the fourth country to have developed a space programme
while receiving support from UK taxpayers.
It follows on from India, Nigeria and Pakistan who have all been
granted millions of pounds in aid from the Department for
International Development (DfID).
The programme in Ethiopia has already kick-started with a £1.9million
observatory being built in the hills above the capital of Addis Ababa.
The first step was building two metal domes, which will be used to
house two computer-controlled telescopes, on the top of Mount Entoto.
The observatory was paid for by Mohammed Alamoudi, an Ethiopian-Saudi
businessman and the country's richest man, who used funds from the
Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS) which he set up in 2004.
Solomon Belay, the director of the observatory, insisted the space
programme was not a luxury, despite a quarter of the 96 million
population of Ethiopia living in extreme poverty.
He said: "Being poor is not a boundary to start this programme.
Engineering and sciences are important to transform our [traditional]
agriculture into industry.
"People said we were crazy. The attention of the government was to
secure food security, not to start a space and technology programme.
Our idea was contrary to that."
After completing the first stage of the project, Ethiopia then plans
to build another observatory in the northern mountains around
Lalibela.
The country's government will then hope to launch a national space
agency, with its main aim of sending a satellite into orbit within
five years.
Abinet Ezra, communications director for the ESSS, said the ultimate
goal of the project is to inspire young children to be involved in
science and technology.
He added: "Science is part of any development cycle - without science
and technology nothing can be achieved."
In the last Parliament, Prime Minister David Cameron made it a legal
requirment for Britain to spend 0.7 per cent of gross national income
on foreign aid each year.
DfID, which has an £11.1bn budget, last night defended its funding to
Ethiopia and said "not a penny" of British cash is going towards the
space programme.
A spokesman went on to claim that DfID funding had helped to reduce
child mortality by a quarter in Ethiopia and saved almost eight
million people from needing humanitarian food aid.
The spokesman said: "Not a penny of British aid goes to Ethiopia's
space programme.
"The aid we do give is saving lives and addressing the root causes of
poverty, migration and extremism, which directly benefits Britain."
Received on Thu Aug 27 2015 - 08:13:11 EDT