• Question: Does your job have the potential to develop, effect and help tthe lives of those seen in the pictures on your profile?

    Asked by dparsons to Ken, Jed on 14 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by lilypop, katypopiscool.
    • Photo: Ken Gibbs

      Ken Gibbs answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      Yes it does. In fact, these Hezara people were getting water for both irrigation and for drinking/cooking/washing. They had had a very hard time earlier when the Taleban targetted them for not being good Muslims and many had had to flee into the mountains. For me, the great sadness was that UNICEF was unable to do more to help them because of the highly volatile situation at the time. This leads me to suggest that too often, aid/development workers are placed in highly dangerous places because politicians are unable or unwilling to do what is necessary. If the political situation can be settled, then it is relatively easy to help development take place. But spare a thought for the people in this situation. Aid workers can usually be removed from danger – what about the Hezara ? They have nowhere else to go.

    • Photo: Jed Ramsay

      Jed Ramsay answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      Yes definitely – and really that’s what engineering is all about: making the world a better place for people. Well and also better for wildlife sometimes!

      In the end it’s making things better that makes engineering a satisfying job to do – it’s not just about say making money, or just working for a company – in engineering you get to work on something that will improve things. Whether that is by bringing water to people in a village in Nepal, or building a huge ship, or making sewerage treatment better… or in my case making rivers better!

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