As a young child I really wanted to become an astronaut.
Mainly this was a by-product of watching television during the era of Apollo moon missions. The rest of the time, my imagination only stretched as far as being a footballer or ice-cream seller.
Over 50 years have passed since the last man left the moon. While the internet age uses many more satellites, these are mostly confined to close Earth orbits. As are today’s space tourists spending millions of dollars for precious moments of weightlessness. Or rather wasting to be more accurate; less costly thrills and longer lasting cosmic experiences are available.
Noel Gallagher, a songwriter whose talent did see all his dreams come true, ruefully lamented whilst still a 20-something that "while we’re living, the dreams we had as children fade away…"
Earthrise, the iconic 1968 photograph of our planet taken from lunar orbit, speaks for itself in highlighting humanity’s only habitat in the universe. It was immediately adopted by many of the major western environmental organizations which burgeoned during this period.
That zeitgeist was well served by performers of the time. The Beatles donated a track to the World Wildlife Fund in 1969, Marvin Gaye sang about "fish full of mercury," and Led Zeppelin took a break from lyrics about hobbits, groupies, and Vikings to sing of "all the fish that lay in dirty water dying," in the same era that Neil Young urged listeners to “Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s.”
Most brutally and humorously, Joni Michell, when singing about paving over paradise to build a parking lot in Big Yellow Taxi, remarks on how "they took all the trees put 'em in a tree museum."
In some ways the Malthusian fears that underpinned much of the environmentalism of the late 60s period were unfounded. Food production and technological improvements, especially in communications have helped improve living standards the world over in ways that are likely to ensure the world’s population peaks and plateaus within the next half century.
By the time this happens however, there will be three times as many people on Earth as the three and a half billion alive when Armstrong walked on the Moon. This can only increase the potential for more resource conflicts and scarcity just as the climate crisis makes it an imperative for the world to seek cleaner, more abundant energy to meet the needs of its people.
The challenge for humanity is not its scientific capability or potential, but whether it can find and implement practical, truly sustainable solutions in a timely manner. Failure to do so can only increase the possibility of fundamental systems (water, food, energy) breaking down. To avert the risk of large-scale losses of life, humanity needs be able to overcome the many obstacles thrown up by its dysfunctional economic, social, and political systems.
If these continue to skew investments to the short term wishes of the uber-wealthy -- such as Silicon Valley types who avoid taxes or bait each other on social media -- then the concept of civilizational collapse moves from being the ramblings of fictional Bond villains to a real and present danger. Even without the latter, many in some wealthy nations already fret that future generations will inherit a lower standard of living.
It is not supposed to be this way. The old are meant to envy the young.
Bangladesh, as a youthful nation which has made great strides in improving economic opportunities and life expectancy during the past five decades, ought to be a beacon of hope. But is it really?
A nation where so many, both rich and poor alike, see their futures overseas, has much still left to overcome if it is to live up to its true potential and make best use of its demographic dividend.
If the children of the better off share in some first world problems, an arms race of being ferried around to tutors and leisure opportunities increasingly confined to the online world, for most of the population everyday life is much worse.
Millions of children in Bangladesh are still held back by poor nutrition, stunting and insufficient education. Huge numbers are ignored as they are condemned to drop out of school early. While people were rightly outraged around the nation when some teenage girls were violently attacked for playing football in Khulna recently, the reality is that most people most of the time turn a blind eye to children enduring abuse, misogyny, poverty, and neglect.
Long after discussion of the impending election recedes to memory, these are the realities the country’s people must face.
If, as some believe, the world’s problems are only growing, the country must be prepared to face up to these by itself. The rest of the world might just be content to see Bangladesh as a source of cheap labour. If that also involves exporting their own pollution, well that’s a double bonus. The lower that quality of life remains in Bangladesh, the easier it remains to siphon off talent.
Don’t get me wrong, Bangladesh is making valuable progress which is plain to see to anyone who travels around and remembers the past. It also remains a source of economic growth, however unequally its fruits are distributed. If it can improve mindsets, it can hope to become a land where the dreams of the young can flourish at home and not be crushed.
One ingredient must be ensuring a decent quality of life accessible for everyone. For too long, the nation has neglected the most fundamental of necessities, clean air and water, decent parks, and pavements. It should ensure that it makes the right sort of progress.
In an album released the year before Bangladesh became an independent sovereign nation, a 22-year-old Cat Stevens kicked off Tea for the Tillerman, a hippie era album replete with much pastoral imagery, with a verse looking at the big picture, (Well, I think it's fine. Building jumbo planes….) before moving into the song’s thoughtful title chorus:
“I know we've come a long way
We're changing day to day
But tell me, where do the children play?”
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Niaz Alam is London Bureau Chief of the Dhaka Tribune.
