Recession Proof Job

'Son, what you want to be when you grow up? '

'I want to be an angkasawan!'

'Wow, thats great......you can carry out research and who knows, my son might be the one who find the cure for all sickness!!

"Research??? I dont want to be angkasawan to do research!"

"Huh? then why ......."

" Dad, i want to be angkasawan so that i can tour the space, be on the moon, take photos, write blogs.....you know, stuff that tourist does!"

"....but ....but....."

"Dont worry about the cost Dad, my teacher said we just hope that our government will buy something really expensive from Russia, America ....or China in the future, then we will get free ride to the moon!"

"When i come back to earth, i will conduct seminars, talks and what not ...im sure i will make millions like my teacher said"

"Besides that, Dad, do you know that it is recession- proof occupation......even when the whole world suffers from job loss, pay cut, retrenchment.......our government still give pay rise to angkasawan!..Isn't it good to be angkasawan! "

"......but it wouldn't be fair to the Rakyat who paid for your trip to the moon and later still pay for your pay rise during recession, dont you think?"

"No dad, the trip is going to be free.....its like when you bought a toothpaste and then you got the free toy car for me....remember?'

"I indirectly paid extra for the toy car you know?!"

"Nolah dad ......my teacher said its freeleh.....as for the pay rise, i earn itleh, you think its easy to sit in the space ship and doing nothing for so long...????...its going to be very boring....then when i come back i have to smile all the time , go here go there...penat tau"

"....besides, im sure the government got so much money to spend, thats why they give a pay rise to angkasawan even during recession.....my teacher said our government has a lot of money you know...."

"........mmmmmmmmm.......... "

"Dad, are you ok?"

" NO, im not OK.....tomorrow we are going to see your teacher and talk about all thing angkasawan thing......!

[Space Duo To enjoy better pay] - thestar 6/2/09

This is absurd! While the whole world is suffering from recession and thousands losing their job in our country by the day, the government decided that we need to give a better pay to 2 persons! I am not sure how low is the duo's salary but im sure they are better off than many of us, at least one was allowed to keep what he earned from seminars and talks.

The Minister in charge should crack his head to think of a way to tap all the knowledge the duo learned (if any) and channel back to the young ones more effectively so that we can really benefit from the space project. Currently, the only thing we heard was how handsome our Angkasawan is!!!

Can the Minister tell us what has been done specifically & what benefit has the Angkasawan project brought to our students and Malaysian public ???? Students are so eager to be Angkasawan now so that they can be famous, rich and see the the earth from outer space! i dont think we need to spend millions to tell our students that!!!!

So Mr Minister, we dont want to know what you can do to the DUO but we want to know what you can do to the RAKYAT!!!!