Call it priorities.

This came from the ESA (European Space Agency) budget and has nothing to do with Japan. Are you honestly suggesting that a decade ago the EU should have put this money aside knowing that they should just give it to Japan 8 years in the future to help clean up a nuclear disaster that hadn't happened yet? Is that honestly the priority you are implying should have taken precedence?

I'm less impressed with the fact people were and still are starving from hunger

So by your logic of being mad other countries are spending money on things you think would be better spent on fighting hunger in other countries you should be selling your laptop/computer you are typing this comment on to feed some people. Again, by your logic, "while I'm impressed you can type ignorant comments from a computer and post them online, I'm less impressed with the fact people were and still are starving from hunger, dirty drinkingwater, poor nutrition etc, even as far back as 2004." How much money and how much time did you donate to fighting those issues over the last 10 years? Or is this one of those things where you just sit back in your arm chair and gripe that OTHER people aren't doing things you care about? You know what I did earlier this year? I pledged a financial contribution to purchase 100 Life Straws that were sent to Africa. Not a huge contribution, but I'd bet my house it's more than you've ever done. I'm also one of the biggest space exploration supporters you'll ever meet. We can do both.

Also, you know the US and the EU send BILLIONS to Africa every year, right? You know we have the DoD over their setting up Ebola treatment facilities right? You know that even though we throw billions at the issue that sometimes bad things still happen, right?

But hey, who cares? We landed on a comet. Yay!

But hey, who cares I have a computer and laptop and and can post comments from my ivory tower online while doing nothing myself. Yay!