Sir, – The West sends much-needed aid to support programmes that will help the poor of India. There are more desperately poor people in just three of India’s states than there are in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.
Yet that country now chooses to follow up on its nuclear ambitions (nuclear weapons arsenal since 1974) by spending massive sums on sending a space probe to Mars, an unmanned mission that has no guarantee of a successful conclusion (World News, November 5th).
To the starving millions in India, the success or failure of this experiment is of little concern. They will continue to live lives of abject misery while their “betters” remain stubbornly oblivious to the rising stench from the ghettoes.
There seems little will on the part of the Indian Government to wake up to its responsibility to provide a better life for all of the citizens of that great country. Promoting vanity projects ahead of the needs of starving people is unforgivable. – Yours, etc,
NIALL GINTY,
The Demesne,
Killester,
Dublin 5.