Canadian professionals help build the developing world
Engineer without borders speaks about the multidisciplinary approach to development
Kyle Lamothe, Staff
Recently, George Roter, the co-founder of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) visited the university to speak about his organization, its vision for the future and Canada’s role in international development. Created in 2000, EWB has grown from operating on a budget of $2,000 to one of more than a million dollars, with chapters all across Canada, including the one at U of M.
The existence of EWB has provided a connection that did not exist before between students in a professional program like engineering and international development issues. It acts as a charitable non-profit organization that helps impoverished countries access technology that can improve their lives. Over 150 Canadian students have been sent overseas in the past five years to work in various development projects.
Roter has been featured as one of Canada’s next generation of social leaders by TIME Magazine and named one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 in the Globe and Mail in May, 2005.
Roter stopped by the Manitoban office recently to talk about inspiration, the media and the importance of dealing with development and education from a multidisciplinary approach.
Manitoban: I have to say that when you talk to a group you can see this twinkle in your eye that’s inspiring. What drives you? What makes you get up everyday and want to do this with your organization?
George Rotel: It’s going to sound kind of cheesy, but what drives me is this opportunity I see to actually create change. There are situations out there that I see and that I feel are unacceptable. There are a lot of people involved with EWB that also find it unacceptable, and there seems to be this tremendous opportunity now in particular: we have the knowledge and the resources that we’ve never had before to really make a difference.
U of M is typically seen as an apathetic university. We are known for being a “commuter campus” where students come, go to classes, then get out of here. What can you do on a university level to bring people into organizations like EWB?
When you look at major changes in history like the civil rights movement in the states and even back to the French Revolution, it all happened because of students getting pissed off. They were on the leading edge of all those changes.
I think what we’re seeing now just starting on campuses in Canada — and I don’t know why the University of Manitoba would be any different — is that young people are getting pissed off. They’re seeing the entire election being decided on the issue of health care, and they’re looking around and saying, “Hey, there’s other issues that really mean a lot to me.” I think that maybe that’s the key, start getting in people’s faces and saying, “You should be pissed off too!” I think that there will be that sentiment and it will sort of start to take root. And then even the most apathetic will be affected.
Manitoban: I’m an Arts student — I study politics — so I talk about development issues in day-to-day life. What I loved about seeing you do a presentation is that I’m sitting in a room with engineers, people in professional schools and talking about the same things that I talk about in Arts. The EWB is branching out to have more than just engineers. Do you think that it’s important to have a multidisciplinary approach? Do you think that that’s a problem in universities?
Rotel: I think it’s important. I mean academia is definitely becoming “siloed” — everybody has their little domain. If you look at the successful companies and successful organizations, they go across disciplines. Say, Apple computers realizes that they have everything to do with music, and that’s why they created the iPod, and that’s why it’s such a successful product.
Certainly one of the things that we did with this organization is that we created a vehicle for engineers to get involved in social action, or social unrest, whatever you want to call it, that probably didn’t exist before this organization. So certainly there’s an important element to giving engineers that vehicle. If we get too “siloed” then I think you’re right, there’s going to be challenges.
But if you look at engineering education . . . you can literally go through a four- to five-year degree and take one — one — engineering elective. I mean, that’s ridiculous. . . . You can go through all of university and all you come out with is one course that’s not engineering, like first-year Spanish. I can say “hola” and that’s it. It’s unacceptable.
So . . . when I did my undergrad, I basically said “screw the system” and took a whole bunch of electives. But I don’t think that most people have that opportunity.
“When you look at major changes in history like the civil rights movement in the states and even back to the French Revolution, it all happened because of students getting pissed off.”
One thing that EWB is pushing for is curriculum changes in the engineering program. We have five schools that are on board. The U of M is actually just working on it and will hopefully go into force for next year’s first-year engineering students, which is exciting. They will be studying some of the same concepts that you are probably studying day-to-day in your political studies classes or in economics.
Manitoban: EWB typically works at a lower level, such as providing tools for farmers in countries like Zambia to irrigate their farms. On higher levels, with technology such as genetically modified organisms, for example, there is a lot of political controversy. Does work on a more grassroots level also have political aspects?
Rotel: Countries are generally welcoming, but it depends on how you define politics. I think of it as understanding power relationships: who has power and how that individual allows those around him or her to make choices and live their lives. If we’re talking about power then it is very relevant.
If you’re doing a water installation in a community of say 100, they generally have one standpipe (basically a pump). Where do you put that pump? You go into a community and you have to decide whether to put it in the middle of the town so that everyone has equal access, or closer to the mayor’s house so that they take responsibility over it and ensure that it’s functioning all the time. But then what’s the impact of that on the poorest person in the community? Has this power relationship between the mayor and the poor person been secured by the introduction of this new technology?
When you get on the ground and you start thinking about the actual issues of implementation it really does come down to power. I think that we can’t avoid the social context in which the technology is implemented. In fact, we really avoid it at our peril.
Manitoban: After Live 8, which EWB was involved with, there was a lot of criticism in the media. Is the media doing their job to promote awareness of the issues?
Rotel: That’s really interesting, and we could probably have a nice philosophical debate about the role of the media. Some people may think that their role is to turn people’s perceptions around, when actually the role of the media is to sell newspapers, TV shows and advertising. They will report what the public wants to hear or what they perceive the public wants to hear.
I feel absolutely that the media could be doing a much better job. I feel that they could be covering the issues with much greater depth: Canada, a country of 30 million people has one correspondent in Africa out of all of the media. It’s absolutely ridiculous. It just goes to show that this country really doesn’t have any investment in those resources.
When I go to a political science class and I chat with them about what newspaper they read, they aren’t reading the Globe and Mail or the National Post, they’re reading the Financial Times and the Economist. And I think that’s showing that our smartest and our most interested in the issues are not tapping into our own media sources. So what does that tell us? Is our media shooting for the lowest common denominator? I think that criticism is fine but that they should be providing more coverage.
