Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space • Hacker News Board

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#81

Post by kriro » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 5:25 PM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #16

There is a dead comment by someone whose grandma kept donating to charity for Ethiopia. The grandma died poor save the poster is upset that nobody from Ethiopia ever thanked her and now they are prospering. I don't like that comment, but it is actually quite interesting, especially if taken together with another comment on a parallel discussion about the huge growth in Africa and the very visible Chinese influence. I…

Very anecdotal evidence here but I worked in the African Union in the 2000s. There were already many Chinese businessmen around which surprised me a bit. To be honest the difference in the interactions couldn't have been much clearer. Most European and U.S. consultants/business people that I met basically treated Africa as a lesser continent to be exploited. I got a very colonial vibe, except with some sugarcoating. Either that or a obnoxious "we need to save poor Africa" attitude.

At the same time the Chinese almost religiously mentioned that they saw Africa as an equal partner. It seemed like a very conscious and deliberate strategy.

So my anecdotal summary would be...the Chinese got involved early, went in guns blazing (money wise) and didn't behave like total pricks out for a quick buck but rather like friends and real business partners.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#82

Post by reaperducer » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 5:28 PM UTC

trophycase wrote: post #53

chirau wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do these countries need satellites anyway, what exactly are they using them for?

Why does anyone need satellites? This might have been a relevant question in the 80s.

Why does anyone need satellites? This might have been a relevant question in the 80s.

Or in the 1940's, when communications satellites were first proposed by Arthur C. Clarke.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#83

Post by cmdshiftf4 » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 5:29 PM UTC

Sub-Saharan Africa feels like a missed opportunity now for Europe and the US.

While the US and EU has been focused on donating aid, or through NGOs merely shipping Africans into Europe without much of a plan and then shrugging their shoulders when problems arise, China has been making deals there and investing an utterly staggering amount on an on-going basis into its development and future prosperity.

Some will proclaim "But they'll owe China! That won't end well!", which is shortsighted, lacking in self-awareness and playing into the "everyone that isn't us is the boogeyman" narrative the West likes to maintain.

In the same time that China has been spending its money on African investment, the US has been spending literally trillions on literally baseless wars, directly costing the lives of a countless amount of people in doing so and upending the lives of countless others.

Good on China, and good for Africa. I hope to live to see that continent prosper, although if any success is in sight I'm sure we'll see the US find some reason to deploy the so-richly invested military there.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#84

Post by dragonwriter » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 5:37 PM UTC

dmix wrote: post #47

dragonwriter wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And like all countries with weak or nonexistent judicial oversight or independent courts, it was used immediately to target the ruling parties political adversaries phones. Including journalists and lawyers. To be fair, that was done in the US (though not immediately, that came to light), which is why we have FISA.

I don’t consider secret courts like FISA sufficiently comparable to independent judicial oversight. It’s oversight theatre. The FISA rulings and arguments never become public, most of the domestic surveillance warrants are justified merely by the fact the people will never find out they were surveilled and therefore won’t be “harmed” by such behaviour (this was the exact argument which Yahoo was given and lost trying…

> I don’t consider secret courts like FISA sufficiently comparable to independent judicial oversight.

I never said they were, that's a different discussio. I said the concrete fact of abuse of the national security surveillance apparatus against political opponents when we didn't have even that is why we have FISA (the law, which involves a lot more than the two courts it creates.)

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#85

Post by api » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 5:37 PM UTC

rburhum wrote: post #42

I am very familiar with the purchasing process of satellites by LATAM countries. Basically the Chinese or the French (i.e. Airbus) come in and offer you a satellite that ranges between 180M-380M USD in price depending on what you want. The price includes a building with a ground station, the launch, and some basic training. If you negotiate correctly, the full telemetry is send only to you and you process it all loca…

Nothing is "truly yours" at a national scale. Inventions happen everywhere and nations get concentrated expertise by either accumulating it by being on the receiving end of brain drain, purchasing it, or stealing it. This is purchasing, like buying a national course in basic space ops.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#86

Post by VonGuard » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 5:38 PM UTC

Ethiopia is on a real tear right now! The prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, came into power about 2 years ago and the first thing he did was release 100% of political prisoners in the country. It's the first time the country has had no political prisoners in decades. He then grabbed all his opposition together and worked with them. The reforms he's introduced are incredible, and show how things can be fixed in a nation that's torn apart for years by dictatorship and war. Abiy is definitely the greatest leader of our modern era. The man took a totalitarian country at war with its neighbors and flipped it 180 degrees in 18 months. He ended the war, removed totalitarian policies, and the country's people can even admit that there were government funded murder campaigns, something that if you'd talked about previously, you'd have been murdered. A great story all around. He heartily deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#87

Post by kilroy123 » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 5:40 PM UTC

wiremine wrote: post #6

Ethiopia's GDP growth has been on a tear since 2000. [1] If you visit the capital, you can't miss the Chinese influence. Last time I was there, a huge Chinese bank building was going up kiddy corner to the Airport in Addis. BTW, if you haven't visited Ethiopia, put it on your list. It's an amazingly beautiful country. [1] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...

I'm actually going there in a exactly a month from now. I'll be staying there for ~5 weeks. Any advice on what to see or go do?

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#88

Post by filleduchaos » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 5:49 PM UTC

faizshah wrote: post #52

chirau wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do these countries need satellites anyway, what exactly are they using them for?

I dunno how true this is but my african friends have told me that telecom in africa is extremely expensive and calling someone the next village over can have huge charges. So african countries under the African Union created the African Telecommunications Union to send out an african owned telecom sattelite instead of having to pay for western owned telecom sattelite usage. Again this is second hand info and I don't…

Call to the next village? Really?

Unless you were having that conversation two decades ago, they 100% were just having you on.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#89

Post by ChuckNorris89 » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 5:51 PM UTC

kriro wrote: post #81

ajmurmann wrote: post #16

There is a dead comment by someone whose grandma kept donating to charity for Ethiopia. The grandma died poor save the poster is upset that nobody from Ethiopia ever thanked her and now they are prospering. I don't like that comment, but it is actually quite interesting, especially if taken together with another comment on a parallel discussion about the huge growth in Africa and the very visible Chinese influence. I…

Very anecdotal evidence here but I worked in the African Union in the 2000s. There were already many Chinese businessmen around which surprised me a bit. To be honest the difference in the interactions couldn't have been much clearer. Most European and U.S. consultants/business people that I met basically treated Africa as a lesser continent to be exploited. I got a very colonial vibe, except with some sugarcoating.…

>Most European and U.S. consultants/business people that I met basically treated Africa as a lesser continent to be exploited.

Not just Africa. For US/Western Europe even their close Eastern European neighbors are seen as a lesser continent to be exploited.

An Austrian colleague kept boasting how his dad made a fortune buying illegally chopped wood from Ukraine.

That pretty much sums up how most of the western countries are wealthy today, by exploiting less fortunate countries.

Like you said, it's a modern form of colonialism except it's done with money instead of bullets.

Re: Ethiopia has launched its first satellite into space

#90

Post by chatmasta » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 5:54 PM UTC

pergadad wrote: post #76

mirajshah wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you read the linked article: > The 70 kilogram remote sensing satellite is to be used for agricultural, climate, mining and environmental observations, allowing the Horn of Africa to collect data and improve its ability to plan for changing weather patterns for example.

I guess the real question is whether this is cheaper than to just license these services. And a second question: how much power do others have over you? I'd your agricultural output or tax system becomes dependent on a certain provider/country they have a lot of leeway over you. Same reason Europe and Russia and China built their own satellite-based positioning system: can't trust the US to keep GPS accessible. On th…

I wouldn’t underestimate the political value of a satellite launch. There is a lot of propaganda value, both domestically and internationally, to entering the “club” of space-faring nations. Not to be crass, but “launch a satellite” is literally an achievement in the Civilization games. The very act of launching it means something, even if only symbolic.