@mekkaokereke @davidnjoku Goddamnit, I didn't even realize China landed a robot there last year and even created a small biosphere there! I'm annoyed that didn't spray across my feed then. I'm not really a space junkie beyond sci-fi enjoyment, but would have loved moon joy back then too.

For others who didn't know, h/t to @alienghic who shared a link with biosphere info:

China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout

The seeds, inside a sealed container, are the first plants ever grown on the Moon's surface.

(www.bbc.com)

@jonobie @mekkaokereke @davidnjoku @alienghic

The cotton seed sprouting on the Moon was in 2019.

The First Shoots on the Moon - Space Botany

The hope of being able to grow plants on the Moon will last much longer than the first seedlings to sprout there.

Space Botany (spacebotany.uk)

@UnconventionalEmma I completely missed it at the time!
Thank you for pointing out which part of that horrendous picture was the sprout at my house we'd been debating it.

@flowerpot @davidnjoku

Yup:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lqXHd-KaRhk

And the Chinese space station has working Hall effect ionic impulse engines, similar to how the impulse engines in Star Trek work. So it doesn't just burn rocket fuel and oxygen for propulsion. It also uses a stream of ions.

@RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00

You've either completely missed, or completely ignored, the point of my post.

I'll say it much more bluntly, to let you react to it:

It's not "cheering for humanity" if you only cheer when Europeans or Americans do it. Instead it's a weird kind of nationalism or eurocentrism that is the opposite of what Star Trek is supposedly selling.

And it's super obvious to non-white observers how we "cheer for humanity" when Elon or NASA does something spacey, but to not even talk about it when China or India do something.

India has also landed a probe on the moon, and India has sent a probe to Mars orbit. India is the first nation to successfully enter Mars orbit on the first try. And their mission control and science and engineering teams are a lot more gender balanced than most places.

I'm saying that we should "celebrate humanity's space achievements" when they do stuff too, but I don't see that happening.

This isn't "Don't cheer for NASA." I cheer for NASA!

This is "Don't try to sell me that US space race fever, is a win for humanity, because it's not."

It's "We can have a Federation of Planets, just as long as Earth is the head of that Federation, and the US is the head of Earth, and Starfleet headquarters is in San Francisco. Anything else is Romulans! "

@mekkaokereke @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00 Basically - yes. In general - yes. But I feel, that I hesitate to cheer for china, 'cause I fear for military abuse by chinese non-democratic background. And yes, that is true now for US-activities (Nasa and private companies) as well.
And while US-space things will have military abuse in the future, Chinas space things have military design right from the start.

@mekkaokereke @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00 Basically - yes. In general - yes. But I feel, that I hesitate to cheer for china, 'cause I fear for military abuse by chinese non-democratic background. And yes, that is true now for US-activities (Nasa and private companies) as well.
And while US-space things will have military abuse in the future, Chinas space things have military design right from the start.

@mekkaokereke @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00 Basically - yes. In general - yes. But I feel, that I hesitate to cheer for china, 'cause I fear for military abuse by chinese non-democratic background. And yes, that is true now for US-activities (Nasa and private companies) as well.
And while US-space things will have military abuse in the future, Chinas space things have military design right from the start.

@Reinald @mekkaokereke @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00 exactly! I don't cheer for Artemis, but I more interested in ESA missions.

China is a totalitarian regime abusing human rights in many different forms. Sadly the USA is now like that too. So I don't cheer for undemocratic countries, whether they may be China, Russia, North Korea or the USA.

@s1m0n4 @Reinald @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00

mekka okereke :verified: (@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)

@Reinald@nrw.social @RunRichRun@mastodon.social @cyberlyra @davidnjoku@mastodon.world @piquant00@mastodon.online I fear you might still be thinking about this in the wrong way, if you're still thinking in terms of "cheer for China" or "cheer for the EU." Don't cheer for governments. Cheer for scientists. And as someone born in Africa 🙋🏿‍♂️, the EU was, is, and is likely to still be a much greater and more abusive military threat than China. Like, it's not close.

Hachyderm.io (hachyderm.io)

@mekkaokereke @Reinald @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00 Scientists in a dictatorship exclusively suit the interests of the dictator. I'm not pointing fingers at them, it's not their fault trying to make a living, however I can't cheer for them.
As for EU's military, it doesn't yet exist as a unified power. Each MS has its own military and they're are generally weaker than the US or China's.

@s1m0n4 @Reinald @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00

And again, from the perspective of an African born person, the EU governments are most definitely a dictatorship, and have never not been since colonization.

@mekkaokereke @Reinald @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00 France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and Italy have a colonialist past and are guilty of horrible crimes in the African continent. Each one to a different extent, I might say.
That's 7 countries out of 27, though 4 of them are the most populous.

Analysing the current situation, China is influencing African economies little by little. And the USA are making deals to run eugenics experiments on black people

@s1m0n4 @Reinald @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00

"China is influencing African economies little by little."

I didn't say influencing economies. I said colonizing.

European people genuinely think that China doing trade and paying for things, is the same as how Europeans treat Africans. It is absolutely not the same. Not even close.

In Belgium today I can still buy chocolate hands. Because King Leopold murdered 10 million people, and maimed countless more. If you did not collect enough rubber, his men would take your children and cut their hands off. (Belgians, don't try to talk about Druon Antigoon or Hand Werpen. That's not when the chocolates hands became popular).

And Europeans abusing and exploiting Africans hasn't stopped. Margaret Thatcher's son was caught trying to overthrow a democratically elected African government in 2004.

Europeans talk about nuclear power as clean green energy, but don't like to talk about the fact that most European countries have no uranium, so where do they get the uranium from, and how? Because then you have to talk about Patrick Lumumba's tooth,.and how many Africans have died in the Congo and then Niger, and why can't Africa seem to have a stable, elected government, and why are these countries poor if their minerals are so valuable?

@s1m0n4 @Reinald @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00

And the countries that you listed are ~70% of the EU's GDP, and ~65% of the EU's population.

So the whole "At least EU is not a brutal dictatorship!" only holds if you don't see Africans as whole, actualized, human beings, but rather as cattle to be milked, mutilated, and eaten by real human beings.

@mekkaokereke @s1m0n4 @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00 Neither China nor Russia nor US nor Europe is dealing with African countries on eye level. And, as shameful as the History is for Europe, we are not doing that much better now. Still.

Nevertheless I am not that sure, if the deals with China are a beneficial deal in the long run, or will create a different dependency and exploitation?

@Reinald @s1m0n4 @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00

You're a European, who has never lived in Africa, telling an African whose family members were killed in pointless wars started by Europeans, and whose family members now live peacefully in a country that trades with China, what you think is best for Africa.

You're talking about "will these deals be good for Africa in the long run?" And I'm talking about many times more people killed than in the Jewish Holocaust, with 10 million Africans killed in just one country.

The level of arrogance and not listening is stunning.

China is dealing with African countries more fairly than any superpower to set foot on the continent. You just don't want to accept that because it breaks your worldview of US, Russia, and China bad, EU good.

You can't accept that for an African country, China is the best, then a gap, then Russia, then after a huge gap, the US and EU are tied for the worst, most violent, most evil.

You're not willing to genuinely consider the evidence that the EU was and is more brutal and inhumane to Africans than China.

@Reinald @s1m0n4 @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00

You're a European, who has never lived in Africa, telling an African whose family members were killed in pointless wars started by Europeans, and whose family members now live peacefully in a country that trades with China, what you think is best for Africa.

You're talking about "will these deals be good for Africa in the long run?" And I'm talking about many times more people killed than in the Jewish Holocaust, with 10 million Africans killed in just one country.

The level of arrogance and not listening is stunning.

China is dealing with African countries more fairly than any superpower to set foot on the continent. You just don't want to accept that because it breaks your worldview of US, Russia, and China bad, EU good.

You can't accept that for an African country, China is the best, then a gap, then Russia, then after a huge gap, the US and EU are tied for the worst, most violent, most evil.

You're not willing to genuinely consider the evidence that the EU was and is more brutal and inhumane to Africans than China.

@mekkaokereke @Reinald @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00 if you want to put words in my mouth I didn't say, please go on.
Is labeling me as a white supremacist making you feel better?
Haven't I recognised that the countries I listed are responsible of horrible crimes?
And aren't your views a little unfair to Polish, Swedish, Greeks and all the other EU countries who had nothing to do with African colonization?

If I haven't set foot in Africa, you don't know what my family

/1

@mekkaokereke @Reinald @RunRichRun @cyberlyra @davidnjoku @piquant00 if you want to put words in my mouth I didn't say, please go on.
Is labeling me as a white supremacist making you feel better?
Haven't I recognised that the countries I listed are responsible of horrible crimes?
And aren't your views a little unfair to Polish, Swedish, Greeks and all the other EU countries who had nothing to do with African colonization?

If I haven't set foot in Africa, you don't know what my family

/1