Chemical Technology February 2015

Comment

Overtaken by time: The time for change was yesterday

I have, for many years, harboured some inexplicable faith in time. I have always known that it is an ingredient in almost every change, be it positive or negative. However, in this 'Comment', I want to share something rather more remote from the obvious. To some extent I have lamented about the issue I seek to raise, albeit in a softer tone. I have decided to adopt a harder tone this time round. Who knows, it might just strike the right chord. This world has changed drastically in the last 20 years. Issues on scarcity of resources have never been more pronounced. Water, energy and even food have taken the centre stage as threatened resources. As it is, South Africa is going through what I would appropri- ately call the dark phase, due to lack of reli- able electricity supply. A plethora of possible solutions to this situation have been proposed, ranging from independent power suppliers or producers, to embracing nuclear energy as a sizeable part of our energy mix. There have also been suggestions of pos- sible shale gas explorations, so called hydraulic fracturing, even at government level. If my memory serves me well, it was only about six years ago when we experienced the same frequency of blackouts. Whatever the rea- sons provided, the reality is that the supply is outstripping demand. But why would any living nation suffer the same consequences from the same fate, particularly where every other serious nation has found sustainable solutions? Isn’t this characteristic of a nation blind to change? Water has clearly proven that its abundance is nothing less than an illusion. Many places in this country are suffering droughts such as have never been experienced in recent times. Extreme levels of poverty are also disconcerting. What all this means is that the world is a dynamic place and South Africa is no excep-

tion. The difference, though, is that elsewhere around the world this dynamism is understood and people adjust and adapt accordingly. In South Africa, on the other hand, it is the direct opposite. Having said so, it would be utterly naïve to expect that every person in this country should have solutions to our current problems. How- ever, our engineers, regardless of discipline, should. The progress or regress of any nation is characteristic of the calibre of its engineers. Is this not the time we should be asking ourselves if our engineers still have the capacity to pro- vide solutions? The answer to this question is very obvious, but so unpalatable that I choose not to mention it. We could go a bit further and ask another question: are the institutions that are meant to be producing these engineers still relevant to the world we find ourselves in? Again, I would rather not answer this question. As I write this ‘Comment’, I am visiting a few universities in the USA, which have recently completed a government-funded project to review engineer- ing curricula across all disciplines in order to render them relevant to the needs of today. The results have been remarkable, with almost all disciplines undergoing serious revamp. This exercise should be natural in any en- vironment where people understand that the world is changing. We should also remember that any university is only relevant insofar as it continues to produce graduates that serve to advance the lives of the communities they are meant to serve. This is even more so in engi- neering. Any deviation from this fundamental fact, suggests otherwise about the university. I have a feeling that, before we know it, we will be producing engineers who are fit for extinction. Our university programmes should be relevant to the real problems of today and tomorrow. The time for change was yesterday!

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Chemical Technology • February 2015