They will not destroy the civil dream of India!

At least 195 people died and 295 were wounded in attacks in Mumbai, according to the Times of India online. After New York, London, Madrid, we are once again forced to count dead and injured due to terrorist attacks.

The first comment, from a humanistic viewpoint, is unequivocal: no Cause, even if it were acceptable in itself, justifies the killing of innocent people. The mass extermination, in recent history, belongs to the dictatorial regimes of XX century, which will be remembered forever, as horrible examples of anti-humanism: Nazism, Stalinism, in the first place, and other unfortunately contemporary cases. The second, political, comment is clear as well. If today's terrorists aspire to a place in the Pantheon of horror, however, they are succeeding, in this entirely insane goal. What do they hope to achieve by spreading death? That someone might begin to appreciate their ideology? They can only earn an increasing rejection and condemnation.

Any society which in some way supports terrorism, are following a strategy of total failure if they think they can achieve social growth and improvement of their living conditions with these methods, or punish the supposed immorality of the western world (certainly these elements are found in the rhetoric used by fundamentalist ideologues). It is not by murder, terror and sacrificing their youth, that they could promote their advancement! Only with the commitment, with the honest study, sharing their culture, seeking friendship with the sharing of knowledge and technology, and developing joint initiatives and fair and open competitions, without sectarian blinkers of any ideological, religious or Ethnic nature, could advancement be achieved.

Among the different interpretations given by several representatives, we believe the most reliable has been given by Amartya Sen. According to the Indian Nobel Laureate for Economics, when at his home in Boston, obscurantist forces aim to damage the hope of progress represented at this historic moment by India.
India is experiencing an extraordinary stage of technological and democratic progress, where millions of people, for the first time in a world previously dominated by a rigidly structure of social castes, dare to hope for some well-being for themselves and for their children.

In its first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, India has taken the first step that will lead soon to full membership of the astronautical club, demonstrating the great importance the country attaches to space, as a resource for human development. The perception of extraterrestrial space as a concrete alternative development, compared to the misery of our ever smaller planet, is a common feature of countries experiencing a large population growth and recent industrial development. China in recent years has had an economic growth higher than that of India and, inter alia, has become the third country capable of independently sending humans into space, after the United States and Russia. However, the growth is much more important and significant, because the Indian republic is a democratic state since the day of its founding in 1947. It is a democracy in which even the most vulnerable take part in political activity both in institutional sense, voting, and promoting popular movements in defense of their interests and their rights. The lesser growth rate of India is not a sign of inferiority to China, but is due precisely to the correct compensatory mechanisms that a democratic nation must apply, if it is to keep on being democratic.

Obscurantist forces, an obscure interlacement of fundamentalism and economic interests both Eastern and Western, evidently see the misery of the closed world as a premium for their lust of power founded on terror, and aim to ruin just that hope of progress, the philosophy of the open world, the model of growth, not only economic, but civil and democratic of India, and the role of cultural bridge that it can play between West and East. It is therefore necessary to renew efforts to ensure that the dream of modern India, which is also our dream, comes true.

We offer all our solidarity and friendship in this terrible hour, to the families of victims, both Indian and Western, and the people of India for the terrible injuries inflicted to their national community.

Then we renew the call for the creation of a large forum to be held one week before the next G20, to clearly indicates the road to space as an alternative path for peaceful development, to any ideology of terror and death!

It takes far more courage to live and work for a Cause than to kill and die for one - which any fool can do!

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For Technologies of the Frontier
Adriano Autino
Alberto Cavallo
Michael Martin-Smith