Python Load Time Is Slow

I'm very fond of CGI, the main reason is that if a CGI crashes - it's only this process for this user. Not the whole system.

However, Python is *slow* starting up - a problem in CGI world. I still use it but wish it'll load faster.

Here are some number for comparison (all programs just print "Hello there" and exit):

hw          real: 0.001 user: 0.001 sys: 0.000 
hwcc        real: 0.002 user: 0.001 sys: 0.001 
hw.lua      real: 0.004 user: 0.001 sys: 0.004 
hw.pl       real: 0.004 user: 0.002 sys: 0.001 
hw.rb       real: 0.006 user: 0.004 sys: 0.002 
hw.php      real: 0.017 user: 0.013 sys: 0.005 
hw.py       real: 0.019 user: 0.011 sys: 0.008 
hw.lsp      real: 0.023 user: 0.011 sys: 0.011 
hw.scm      real: 0.027 user: 0.019 sys: 0.008 
hwcs.exe    real: 0.036 user: 0.029 sys: 0.007 
HT.class    real: 0.084 user: 0.027 sys: 0.01 

See the makefile below for which is each program.
As you can see Python is somewhere in the middle, not as bad as Java and C#, but about 5 times slower than Perl.

Makefile:

SCRIPTS = hw.py hw.rb hw.pl hw.lsp hw.scm hw.lua hw.php
GENERATED = hw hwcc hwcs.exe
JAVA = HT.class
PROGRAMS = $(SCRIPTS) $(GENERATED) $(JAVA)

all: $(PROGRAMS) times
@echo DONE

hw: hw.c
gcc -o $@ -O3 $<

hwcc: hw.cc
g++ -o $@ -O3 $<

HT.class: hw.java
javac $<

and timeit is:

#!/bin/bash

TIMEFORMAT='real: %3R user: %3U sys: %3S'
SPACES="                               "
MAXLEN=10


for program in $*;
do
name=${program/.class/}
if [ ${program/.exe/} != $program ]; then
    timestr=`(time mono $program > /dev/null) 2>&1`
elif [ $name == $program ]; then
    timestr=`(time ./$program > /dev/null) 2>&1`
else
    timestr=`(time java -client $name > /dev/null) 2>&1`
fi
padlen=$(($MAXLEN - ${#program}))
echo "${program}${SPACES:0:$padlen}${timestr}"
done