Dear IW page #2,
You know the feeling when a gazillion ideas are bubbling in your head but no matter how hard you try you just can’t put them under one umbrella? That’s exactly what’s going on in my head right now. So here we go:
Things that bother me:
1) Books used to keep doors open:
After three years in UW, I have realized that students, faculty, janitors and custodians and even the squirrels know that engineering students do come to the campus to work on their homework over weekends. Even then most of the doors to the engineering buildings are locked over the weekends. I have often seen chairs used to keep the doors open but today for the first time I saw a Physical Chemistry book. Yes, I am conservative and one of those people who think books, and any form of writing that contains a wealth of knowledge are sacred and should not be rolled in dirt. Having made it to university are we already above all knowledge that we find it fair to use books to keep our doors open for us?
2) Commercialization:
In one of my first classes of the semester, a professor spent two hours telling us how the future of hydrocarbons is bleak and we have only 70 years before the world runs out of oil and gas to meet our energy needs. In the next class another professor presented fancy numbers and made us do a calculation to show that oil reserves in Canada alone are enough to provide enough energy resources for the entire world for the next 1369 years! I understand that money is needed to do anything imaginable today and that professors like anyone else need to show the government or whoever is providing them with funding for research that their area of research has applicability in the real world and is worthwhile investing in, but does that warrant presenting this kind of information to students? I am a big proponent of the argument that universities are academic institutions, and should encourage acquisition of knowledge and growth of ideas; I do not appreciate such biased presentation of information which aims to deliberately divert students’ focus to or away from any subject.
I saw the Olympic Torch in Toronto amidst a huge crowd of people gathered at the Nathan Phillips Square. As we waited for the torch to arrive, there were concerts and performances to keep the audience entertained. The torch was taking longer than expected so naturally the hosts were trying to keep everyone engaged. So they divided the audience into two groups and had them shout “RBC”. And I thought Olympics were about being proud of being Canadian and welcoming athletes from all over the world to engage in sports and promote healthy relations. What surprised me even more was that the audience did actually shout “RBC”. Are we, the people, so thoughtless these days that we just follow the instructions like a herd of sheep and don’t think about our actions. Or does competition make us go wild and we will do anything to win, however ridiculous the contest is? Did we and thousands of people like us who gathered at various venues across the country did so to see the Torch and celebrate the Olympic spirit and thank the sponsors for bearing part of the financial costs or to cheer for the sponsors for giving us a chance to scream at the top of our lungs? The next thing we know is that our frosh week programming on the fly lesson teaches us to cheer for RIM!
3) Head scarf or veil is a sign of oppression:
To start, I don’t and have never worn a head scarf or veil my entire life and I don’t plan to either. But I highly respect women who choose to do so; from my perspective it’s a huge commitment to fulfil. A very common conception I have seen among people is that women covering their heads are oppressed by their family or cultural constraints. If we exercise our right to dress as we please by wearing capris or sleeveless tops, why can’t we extend the same mentality and accept women who wear head scarves and veils are just using their right to cover or/reveal as much of their body as they want to. Why do we automatically equate oppression with people covering their skin? If someone is brought up in an environment where covering one’s head is a norm and they keep doing so, their attitude is born out of being raised with certain cultural values, and it eventually becomes a part of their identity. I have even heard some people say that they won’t be comfortable hiring or working with such women. How does covering one’s head make someone incompetent in the professional world? This is probably one of the most stereotyped groups and it’s time that we think about it with an open mind and accept that people might have different preferences than us and should not be judged excessively.
4) Students who choose Engineering by elimination:
Have you ever met students who say they chose engineering because science has way too many labs, med school takes too long, math is too boring etc, or those who chose mechanical because there was too much coding in computer and electrical and they don’t like chemistry? And the decision to take Engineering over any other program in the first place was due to the fact that engineers get a job right after obtaining a Bachelors degree. Such attitudes not only boil my blood, but in my opinion they are unhealthy. This mentality or other similar mentalities such as medicine and law are ideal because they are so well paid, etc, give birth to a generation of professionals who count hours till the close of business as soon as they reach their workplace. Their work is an obligation and not something that they look forward to. A job that is done half-heartedly cannot yield good results so we have a mediocre job done by someone who wasn’t too happy about doing it in the first place. That is why in high school one of the things that teachers and counsellors emphasize the most is choose a program that you like and that you will enjoy practising for the rest of your life. A profession that you choose because it was the smartest decision to be made at the time will not benefit anyone.
5) Respect for NON-multicultural individuals
We live in Canada, and go to University of Waterloo, one of the most ethnically rich universities in Canada. I hear different languages while having lunch, walking in the hallway or studying in the library. And that’s all cool as long as people who are conversing around me recognize my presence and don’t speak in a language that I don’t understand. It’s rude, and insulting, makes me feel excluded and wonder if the people are talking about me. Everyone’s always talking about how we should celebrate and respect cultural differences. Part of ‘respecting’ also means that these differences, such as language barriers should not be brought out if they exclude certain individuals. We should not use cultural differences as an excuse to alienate others. This is what eventually leads to hostile feelings between different ethnicities and racial discrimination.
Another two weeks passed by and another issue, the fourth issue of the term is here. Midterms are mostly over, I hope, and now it’s up to the projects and presentations to give us nightmares. We celebrated IW 30th anniversary last week by having a showcase. Some people took a lot of interest reading how events that we still run used to happen in the olden days. I thank everyone who came out and took the time to appreciate our efforts. As you can see, following the pattern of the last issue, I decided to talk about the content at the end (so you actually read my editorial…hehe). We only have 12 pages of content this time because surprisingly some students, particularly the frosh are still having midterms (which I thought were over two weeks ago). Nonetheless we do have really good articles for you. Continuing from the first page is an awesome interview with CECS, something that all of us are concerned with. We have articles on International Women’s Day, ESSCO celebration of the National Engineering Month by having the engineering schools build a Rube Goldberg machine, and an article from an Engineers Without Borders co-op student in Malawi. We have two pieces on the Winter Olympics and you’ll see Jon eating his words (literally!)We still have our regular columns: Health and fitness, Review Based on the Trailer, the Fashion Files, Gaming, and articles by Dangerman and the Brew Man Group. There is a special EngSoc Election insert that you all should definitely read and think about. You will probably hear this from other sources too but EngSoc is having elections for the A-Soc Executive; voting is online from March 13th to March 16th. EngSoc organizes all the cool events that give you the break you need from studying 24/7 and driving yourself crazy. And if you don’t care too much about these events, you definitely care about PDEng so be aware that people heading EngSoc are your official voice to the faculty and administration on those issues too, so it’s your responsibility to make sure that the right people are representing you.
Before ending, a friend just messaged me to ask about Oscars and I didn’t even know they were happening today. Oh the joys of writing an editorial for Iron Warrior! (which is actually finished before Sunday midnight this time)
Smile C:
Amrita Yasin
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