The illustration above speaks for itself. This is the twenty first year (in a total of thirty eight years) of the writer's journey through space-time continuum of human livelihood conditions (mainly based on interaction in the various dilapidated villages in India). As student of Mechanical Engineering (1966 – 1971), a large part of the "brain-time" had been directed to "learn" the fundamentals of all the sciences/ techniques/ technologies that had been developed from the period of Industrial revolution through the twentieth century. As life progressed through societal and other connected interactions, the realities of the distance between the lip and the cup became more visible. And, all throughout, somethings pricked the conscience: What is engineering? Why did we learn engineering? Is engineering just talking and developing "marketable" high-tech? Are we (engineers) merely supposed to obey and do what is asked of us, and get paid for that? Should we be mute spectators when resources are plundered and "wrongly" used? Are we the real culprits creating Global Warming, or are we mere tools in some one else's hands? If we are involved in creating Technology and resultant development, why are there more poor people (about 75% of population) than people living in better conditions? Why is Africa the poorest, although the continent has nearly half the world's resources? Why do we allow alien agricultural species in such regions as Africa, Asia and Oceania, merely to "export" to the "developed" world, knowing fully well that this would destroy local species? Why should Coffee/ Tea/ Vanilla/ Rubber and the like be grown in India, Malaysia, and other nations, knowing full well that all these are alien species? (note: all such alien "things" were forced on these regions, using local people as "slave labor", and the produces cheaply exported back to the "developed world"... some thing that happened for more than 400 years from the Victorian/ Vasco da Gamma eras)
It is felt that, at a time the world leaders and all business groups vie with one another in one-upmanship to "sell" ideas and gadgets in the name of Green technology/ products, engineers would have to own at least some part of the moral responsibility on having been part of the system that created the "problems" resulting in Global Warming. Is selling LED lamps or PV based solar systems in the dilapidated villages of India and Africa the answer to the world's problems of Global Warming and Poverty? How could we contribute toward rectifying these wrongs? Or is to too much of negative and skeptical cynicism to think/ act on mitigating such effects? Could we be happy and simply accept that the UN's MDG (Millennium Development Goals) and other Global Warming and Poverty alleviation programs are appropriate enough, and we engineers can do nothing about these? What does an average engineer think/ feel about these?
It is felt that there is a dire need now, to debate on the various interactions of Technical, Societal, Environmental and Economics impacts involved in human development activities – from an engineer's vantage view-point.
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Development Debate – An Engineer's Perspective
Re: DEVELOPMENT DEBATE – An Engineer's Perspective
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