Why look for life in mars yet we are losing it on earth?

Have you been watching the Sochi Olympic games? Despite seeing some of the games for the first time and not being able to pronounce others, my my favourite include figure skating, speed skating, the luge and half pipe. If you don’t have any idea of what I’m talking about, try to look them up. I didn’t see any African flag. My cheeky friend, Moses, left me in stitches when he asked what I was up to following winter sports. “Some things are just not meant for the African audience,” he said. He thinks we should stick to football, netball and boxing which can be played in our backyards. “Snow does not fall here and I don’t know any average family that can afford to pay for their child to train on some snow slope in Europe,” he added. He’s right. First things first: Clean water, education, affordable housing and then maybe in 50 years, we will send a Curling or Ice Hockey team to the Olympics. That wasn’t the only talking point though. Like everybody, we were baffled by the $51 billion price tag, which is what Russia apparently spent to organise the games. That’s the combined GDP of Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi! It’s not prudent to spend that much on an event lasting just over two weeks. I’m sure there are orphans, unemployed and homeless people in Russia and they can’t be pleased with Putin right now. It’s sad that we have turned sport into a stage for financial prowess. Kind of like those parents who were more interested in showing off their cars and outfits than their children’s grades during PTA meetings. Everyone wants to outdo the previous host and that’s why we are seeing multi-million dollar opening and closing ceremonies. We understand that some money has to be spent to build the required facilities and support infrastructure but let’s not go overboard, especially when there are more pressing needs. After all, most of the facilities will not be reused in the near future. China, Britain and Russia will not be playing host in the next 20 or so years, so what happens to those hotels, parks and stadia? If you watched the African Nations Championships held recently in South Africa, you saw the empty seats. People are struggling to put food on the table and very few are willing to pay to watch random matches. Even where free tickets are handed out, people still can’t afford transport. Now I know where the protesters in Brazil are coming from. At first, I thought these were good-or-nothing-youth hungry for attention, but they have legitimate concerns. Each stadium will hold a maximum of four matches. It doesn’t make sense for a country struggling to provide social services to spend money they don’t even have. And Fifa is surprised they are not ready just over three months before the World Cup is scheduled to start! This reminds me of how far some poor people go to impress rich folks. They’ll prepare the best meal and give up their bed for the guest who already has a mansion and dines in the most expensive hotels. And what happens when the poor man visits the rich guy? He sleeps in the servants’ quarters. I think we should leave bidding for and hosting international games to the Qatars and Saudi Arabias of this world who have plenty of oil money. I feel the same way about the obsession with space missions. People want to know if there’s life on Mars when lives are being lost right here on earth. I think we should spend more to preserve our planet and resources than probing places where we are probably never going to be able to live in. To be continued...