Extremely large telescopes and the developing nations

The extremely large telescopes (ELTs) are built at huge financial cost and usually involve partnership among several bodies/nations. Consequently and naturally, telescope time allocations in many, if not most, of such telescopes are based either directly or indirectly on the monetary contributions of the partners. This paper examines the economy, sociology, science and politics of the ELTs and their implications for the astronomers and/or astronomy in poorer developing nations.