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BY DENNIS BROOKS, P.ENG.,
P.GEOPH.
Education Foundation Columnist
By the time you receive this issue of The PEGG, memorials
and tributes for the heroes and victims of September 11 will
be the highlight of news broadcasts. Our American neighbours,
and all compassionate people around the world, will grieve
the loss of life and the destruction of the terrorist attack
on the World Trade Centre. I am sure there will be much soul-searching
about whether the right things are being done to protect us
all. In a year of elections in the U.S., politicians will
appeal to the needs, and, I'm afraid, play on the fears of
the American voters.
I remember the difficulty I had writing a suitable Foundation
column a year ago. But I remember even more strongly an interview
on CBC radio, just after the event. A CBC reporter was interviewing
someone who was either the author or knew the author's work
well, of a study done on the effects of violence and deprivation
on youth in the Middle East. The author was a woman who was
an academic who went to the Middle East to do this study.
She interviewed many youths there and came to the conclusion
that children growing up in this kind of chaos have their
social development brought to a stop. Some never do learn
now to function in society.
What I remember most clearly is that one of the persons she
interviewed was later a terrorist who flew into the World
Trade Centre.
Our professions have played important role in making the world
a more secure place. In July/August PEGG, we read of the structural
engineer from the National Research Council who has been one
member of a small, select committee studying the effect of
the impact, explosion and fire on the Twin Towers. I have
heard of others, including APEGGA members, who have done reviews
on building codes and fire regulations. I'm sure there are
many others involved in security design, detection devices,
safe structures, and security information systems.
Education has a role as well. We need bright, young people
to enter our professions to do continuing work -- people who
will get good technical training but also an introduction
to social issues. Our Foundation scholarships help draw the
young people needed.
Our practicing professionals are continually rounding out
their education in humanities topics, and some are participating
in the political process. With these skills hopefully we can
help remove the conditions that breed terrorists.
Campaign Progress
Voluntary donations for the year to the end of July total
$22,872. An estimate for the year using a simple straight-line
projection is almost $40,000. This is nicely ahead of last
year's $31,800 -- but is still short of our goal. So, currently
we have enough to increase each scholarship by about $417,
after allowance for campaign expense.
It's a nice start but we have further to go to get to the
$2,000 increase!
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