The engineering challenge of local culture. Paper from Session III: Engineering in other countries, PDF
Preview The engineering challenge of local culture. Paper from Session III: Engineering in other countries,
Mr V ASCE/ICE TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE October 1996 Session HI: Engineering in other countries. "The Engineering Challenge of Local Culture." Gordon Millington OBE, FICE,FIEI,FIHT,ASCE. Vice President, ICE. The title was given to me ,it is interesting - what does it imply? - what does it mean? My home country is Ireland, the British part of Ireland - to me what is other countries may not be your idea of what is other countries. Clearly the USA is another country to me but so is England and so is the Republic of Ireland. Even within a state there are other countries, a Scot believes he lives in a country distinct from England and I am sure a farmer of Illinois feel he is distinct from a Kentucky horse breeder. England has laws which are virtually identical to those of Northern Ireland but England has a different culture. The Republic of Ireland has different laws from Northern Ireland but a culture close to mine. There is of course another major consideration - the state of economic and social development. When I talk about these attributes of a country their relatively is of primary importance. Most of us 4 would feel at home in Europe or the USA, we live in societies which are the result of an amalgam of different peoples; the vast majority of whom have origins in European culture. However, when we move further it is the relative differences which have the greatest impact - many of those differences reinforced by religious beliefs. Religious beliefs are vital for a code of conduct for humanity but tend to act as a straight jacket, a clarion call to bring people together, people of their own ethnic group, but in so doing restrict there understanding of, and sorry to say, frequently, respect for other ethnic groups. In our own countries we have developed customs and practices to suit our culture and to suit our economics. Those customs and practices while changing, change slowly and change to suit our needs and our perceived faults. We do not gladly welcome outsiders telling us we are wrong, telling us to change. Even when we know we have faults and request help from outsiders we are suspicious of the advice and the motives of the advisors. I make no apologies for starting this discourse at an engineering conference by discussing cultural matters as I believe consideration of them is vital to understanding other people needs and aspirations and gaining there respect. By so doing we can avoid compromising our own culture. But equally importantly we can tailor our engineering solutions to be in harmony with the strengths of the recipients culture. From now on I will refer to the common culture and heritage of Europe and the U S A or more particularly the English speaking peoples of the two continents as our culture, our knowledge, our competence.. There is a further important change developing in other countries; that of equal or greater engineering competence than our own. For some centuries now the worlds most advanced knowledge and economies have been in Europe and North America - it is no coincidence that the worlds first major Engineering Institutions were established in Britain, Ireland and America over 150 years ago i.e. the Institution of Civil Engineers (1817), The Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland (1835) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (1852). But this lead in knowledge and competence is not now so clear cut; and that is as it should be. As we have expanded our markets over the centuries we have transferred our knowledge and expertise. That transfer of knowledge and know-how is a moral duty and in that aspect we are achieving some success. So what differences do we have now that marks us out from so many other countries. Are they not, (1) Long term experience of running our complex infrastructure. (2) Surplus of highly trained professional Engineers. (3) Surplus capital. (4) Highly developed ethical standards. It is against those criteria that we must develop a strategy to rise to the challenge of the opportunities of working in other countries. Expanding on each of these four points. Long term experience of running complex infrastructure My personal experience of overseas work has been in West Africa and in Sri Lanka, each, in my experience, suffered from an inability to make us of an infrastructure already in place, but each in a different way. One had no means of developing management with any pride in the infrastructure or any desire to maintain its viability and yet had the wish for greater development and the ability to organise its construction. ^ The other had an enormous level of pride, a middle management to maintain the existing infrastructure but no ability at more senior levels to develop its output or the vision of development to improve economic power. Both of these countries do have a small number of highly competent Engineers and many technicians. I believe we have difficulty recognising how to develop the ability of those Engineers asked to manage and operate infrastructure. Our own ability is developed mainly from job experience it is not normally built into the training of a Civil Engineer and certainly not normally recognised as a formal module of qualification. Have we missed a vital element that is to the detriment of the furtherance of the status of the Chartered Engineer? More importantly - is this leading to the under utilisation of much of the worlds infrastructure with the consequent reluctance for further development. Surplus of highly trained professional Engineers. In Great Britain and Ireland there is no doubt that many Chartered Engineers are being used by employers to do work well within the capability of technicians. I believe the same situation exists in the USA. This represents a vast pool of competence, a vast investment by the developed world, an investment showing inadequate returns. I suspect the majority of this under utilised competence is not available to the developing world in much the same way as the vast capability to produce surplus food in the USA and Europe is not available to the third world and the developing countries. Unfortunately I have no ideas for a dramatic improvement in this situation but I will give some examples at the low technology level where use has been made of our capabilities. One is the transfer of my own staff through REDR - to the Red Cross for restoration of water supply in Mostar and Sarajevo, this was largely a management and motivation task achieved by a quiet unassuming 30 year old as the technical ability existed on site. The second is the secondment of another member of my own staff to a church funded charity to manage the construction of simple housing in Kenya he was even using the techniques of the natives, unknown to him before his arrival ;yet again the task was one of management and motivation.. The third was very young British Army Officer tasked to help the third world countries, he trekked for 10 days from the nearest road then designed and constructed a water system for three villages, that design was the least difficult task - the problems presented were largely local politics how to get the village head man to support the scheme, where should the public taps be placed, who should be charged with maintenance, who should control which gang of labours. He got satisfaction at
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