A space programme for Bangladesh…

I know where I was on starry evening in late July 42 years ago. The weather was hot, even for July, and I was wearing short pajamas and a very light shirt. I had a very early bedtime, but I was always able to force myself to stay awake. Even as a six-year-old, I could always force myself to stay awake, and I so wanted to witness the event that would change everything.

Just as the Lewis and Clark expedition was to open the US West for exploration and development, the Apollo missions, we all assumed, were going to open the moon to the same pioneering spirit. Just as the 19th century mantra had been "Go West, young man!" The late 20th century mantra was supposed to be, "Go up, young man!"

That night in 1969, the father of one of my classmates was watching the TV broadcast by special satellite from Vietnam. War suddenly seemed anachronistic in the light of our national achievements. With space travel, the necessity for people's dads to go off to war would soon pass into history.

Best of all, when I was grown, we'd have flying cars, and I could visit my best friend, who'd moved to California, anytime I wanted to.

Almost 40 years later, I saw my first ancient wonder, the Coliseum in Rome. I was in awe. Somewhere in the distant past, mankind had fashioned a society so complex that it was able to create this marvel, which even by modern standards would be a wonderful place to see a ballgame, with a seating capacity of 50,000, just 7000 seats short of the home of my favourite baseball team, the New York Mets, who, in 1969, stunned the baseball world, by ascending from last-place laughingstock, to winning the championship game. I had reached Rome by way of a commercial flight. No flying car had taken me to my destination.

As I surveyed the ruins of that once mighty civilisation, I wondered about the point at which a great civilisation quietly slips into the sea-level soup of mediocrity. I thought about the monuments my own culture would leave behind. I wondered if the Romans contemplated their own decline.

I believe our greatest, monuments, the wonders of American culture, are difficult to see. They are small, and some of them are in motion.

Voyager 1 and 2 are now passing beyond the "Heliosphere", the last region of space that is influenced by our own sun, and the boundary of interstellar space. The human effort required to realise this endeavour may have been roughly equivalent to that required to build the Coliseum. Perhaps, millennia from now, space travellers will visit Voyager as a tourist destination. I hope so.

Spirit, the Mars Rover, has not communicated with Earth in about a year. It was frozen in a dust storm, and unable to use its solar panels. Last month, researchers abandoned the effort to recover it.

Even Shea Stadium, home of the Mets "Miracle" of 1969, has been razed and is now a parking lot. And the bright promise of a nation, which has no need for war, is belied by new rows of military graves, recent neighbours to the tombstone for my friend's father, who went to Vietnam and never returned.

I am fighting a losing battle with my formerly 20/20 vision. I really don't want to wear glasses, but I fear that by the time I reach 50, I will finally succumb. It is the first sign of aging, both of an individual's body, and of a culture, when either begins to lose its vision.

This week, NASA launched the last space shuttle mission. The news was lost amid the scandals, sport highlights and court report stories that the people seem to favour these days. Very few people seemed to notice, or to ask the important questions about where the Space Programme would go from here. Our vision of the future had become blurry indeed.

What we do know, is that our war machine is still intact, and technologically, we are far ahead of anything Science Fiction could have imagined for computers and weaponry. No flying car in my driveway, but I bang out this article on a flat-screen computer at my parent's house on Long Island (a two and a half hour drive from my home in NJ under the best traffic conditions). The moment I hit the "send" button, it will be transferred to Bangladesh, instantly.

In Bangladesh, the "wonder" of your civilisation may rest in an article I read last Monday. By 2050, the population of Bangladesh will exceed that of the United States, in a country that is listed as "slightly smaller than Iowa".

The population pressures will be mitigated, to some extent, by development, and by new technologies, but increasingly, either Bangladesh will have to find some way to export its population, or it will have to expand its borders, otherwise the population density will exacerbate already difficult environmental conditions. You will have a space problem, and will need a space programme to solve it.

Luckily, and I say this not as a form of flattery, but as one of admiration and discovery, Bangladesh has a culture worth exporting. Recent debates concerning secularising the Constitution notwithstanding, it would seem to me that the best strategy for an expanding population would be to look to make the Bangladeshi workforce better prepared to find work abroad, especially within the world of Islam, while maintaining its individual moral standards, thoughtful aesthetic, and cultural identity.

As a forward-looking American, I see Bangladesh as a force for decency and good in a political structure in which the atheistic and dictatorial star of China continues to rise. We would be naïve to deny the influence that Islam has played in this equation. As population pressures increase and the "Arab Spring" brings rebirth to that corner of the world, a forward-looking Bangladesh would do well to introduce Arabic to its public elementary education, secular or not. Coupled with this instruction, if I were in charge, I would create a curriculum that helps facilitate a culture of Diaspora, with an eye on the Muslim world, which, unless Bangladesh happens to somehow expand its borders, is very likely to expand. Above all political issues, the "Space Programme" of Bangladesh must be the launching of "terranauts", hard-working, educated people willing to contribute to the workforces of many nations, while continuing to support the mother country.

From the earliest age, Bangladeshis could be schooled to become a "nation of ambassadors", and with the missionary zeal of a young Mormon, could be trained to carry their values into the world at large, and then return to teach the lessons they learn to their people at home. If such is the vision, then universal quality education must become the priority, no matter the source of that education, whether secular or private. The key factor is that Bangladesh culture take precedence, that it grows and that the arts, technology and science flourish and that the personal standards of human decency and the zeal by which you all engage in intelligent political discussions, continues unabated.

I very much enjoyed asking you questions last week and having you answer them.

I know, as an outsider, what I admire that I attribute to "Bangladeshi values". You are, to me, an extremely literate culture, religious, yet objective, more willing to see the other side than any culture I've experienced. You have strong faith, but are tolerant of others. It is possible to engage you in debate without falling into the traps of labelling and name-calling, like people do here. You seem to leave that to your politicians. You are literate. Here's an example: My American articles aren't usually allowed to exceed 900 words. That's in English, our native language. People lose interest at around word 850. My editor in Bangladesh asks for 1500 words, and you read and share these articles, in American English (corrected for spelling by my wonderful, long-suffering editor), and share them on facebook.

The news of the world matters to you. You are super family-oriented, God-loving, and yet you seem to throw wild parties. Pictures of the people on your streets show that you are a people who appreciate colour and beauty. You are a people who can get carried away, but are also very forgiving, from my personal experience with Bangladeshis I have met, I would say that you are more forgiving than most Christians I know.

So here's my question of the week for you all: What, for you, are "Bangladeshi values?" Do you recognize those values I have expressed here? For you who live outside Bangladesh, which of these values do you seek to inculcate in your children? In short, what makes a Bangladeshi Bangladeshi?

I look at a passage of the Christian bible which is echoed in both testaments, and may be especially apropos as China builds its space program and plans to put people on the moon by 2025, and our own wonders continue to drift into space. In Psalms, it says, "The meek will inherit the land and will enjoy a great peace". In Matthew, it says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

So, I looked up the word "meek". Most definitions include the concept of being patient, but not surrendering rights, or acting cowardly. It is the relinquishing of grudges, and the assigning of personal suffering to the intellect, where it can be used to create art and poetry, not to be used for vengeance. It is not an insult, by any means to call a person "meek". Many of the Bangladeshis I have met have the courage to be meek. Unfortunately, I have met very few politicians who fit the description, either here or abroad.

But if it is true that the culture of the meek shall inherit the earth, then I imagine with the proper shepherding of the coming generations of your population boom, and the wise and gentle ministrations of a culture grounded in steadfast values and a tolerant attitude, each of your children may be like Voyager, travelling beyond the bounds of mediocrity, into the rarefied ether of undiscovered possibility. You all, may indeed, inherit the earth.

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As I lamented the passing of the Space Programme, I happened to notice that just this Friday the Federal Aviation Administration and the US Department of Transit has approved the first vehicle that passes both highway safety and Aircraft Safety standards. In December of 2011, an airplane that is capable of parking in a one-car driveway, and driving on a public road to an airport, unfolding its wings and taking off, is now going to go on sale (It gets great gas mileage 38 mpg on the ground, 25 in the air). It was invented and developed by entrepreneurs in Massachusetts. Perhaps I counted out good ol' Yankee ingenuity a little too soon. Maybe, by 2050, those wonderful grandkids of yours could go to work in Riyadh and be home in time for dinner.

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Frank Domenico Cipriani writes a weekly column in the Riverside Signal called "You Think What You Think And I'll Think What I Know." He is also the founder and CEO of The Gatherer Institute — a not-for-profit public charity dedicated to promoting respect for the environment and empowering individuals to become self-taught and self-sufficient. His most recent book, "Learning Little Hawk's Way of Storytelling", is scheduled to be released by Findhorn Press in May of 2011.