I HAD a somewhat unusual upbringing in post-war 1950s Edinburgh with my Church of Scotland mother and my Indian, Muslim father. My mother and Granny were the grounded ones, but my father was considered a dreamer who believed in the reunification of the island of Ireland (our only ever “foreign holiday” before going to Pakistan was to Dublin). He also had the strong belief that Scotland would one day regain its independence and oh yes, the existence of life on other planets.

I was raised on The Eagle, Dan Dare and his dastardly little green adversary, Mekon. I remember my father sitting me in front of the “wireless” and making me listen to certain beeps being relayed, the noise of the first Sputnik in 1957 (OK, I had to look that year date up). My mother was insistent no good would come of it, and her foreboding that the weather was bound to be adversely affected.

Fast forward to Daccam East Pakistan 1969 where I met Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin on a stop-over as part of their world tour, post moon voyage. My father was decidedly jealous. And now 2021 over those two generations, I’ve gone from reading comic book space travel to seeing the start of space tourism, the latter due to two very rich men and their dreams.

It’s only natural that I would prefer to see so much of the money used to get them there and back spent on say, world wide children’s education, furthering the fight against everyday killers, the likes of cholera and malaria; ensuring toilets are everyday everywhere accessible, clean water; the removal of food poverty, climate change, but where would we be without dreamers?

I’ve just listened to a programme detailing some of the spin-offs and subsequent benefits from the work on the early Apollo missions, from the likes of the pioneering use of memory foam and vacuum packed foods. Think just two: your mattress, no lumps, bumps and softer theatre cinema seats, yes please. Then vacuum packed, freeze dried, convenience food.

Well,I know demerits and downsides. There always are. But can you have those without the initiation? Can we overcome the negatives with positives?

Subsequent developments include items such as silvery, heat inducing, emergency blankets vital in emergencies: the camera in my mobile phone, weather satellites, and GPS. I admit there is possibly the lost art of compass using and map reading. But in the main the benefits of satellites include enabling the collection of data in relation to climate change, greenhouse gases, melting glaciers and polar ice, deforestation, ocean pollution.

Mike Small (Sunday 18) and George Kerevan (July 19) both eloquently lay out challenges and threats around technology, greed, super powers, super rich, vying for dominance. What then of Scotland hosting COP26, a time concentrated waste of persons and resources or the required rededication for us all to act and not just dream?

We can possibly adhere to the depressing “it’s too late”. But in a simplistic way, I do believe it’s all inter-related. We have all got to start somewhere, and once started, keep at it. Buy local, shop local. Grow and eat seasonal. Recycle, reuse, less of a throw away society. It’s been reported that councils in the Glasgow area have pledged to plant a whopping 18 million trees as part of their host city contribution. That’s equivalent of 10 trees for every resident.

It’s a start. I can’t always blame others: governments, big business, exploitative capitalists, can I, without contributing positively myself? Better still, with others building up partnerships, enhancing skills, consolidating our existing assets. There’s no point in remembering my childhood flights of fancy to other worlds if I can’t help look after this one, is there?

Selma Rahman
Edinburgh