Tucson, AZ, 1999 •• Feb. 28, 2000 •• SolarQuest® iNet News Service ••
This report is long overdue. The worn-out excuse is that I had a lot of work to do. I had finals and projects due the minute I got back from the Conference and work to do during the winter break. Hey, I am a Chemical Engineering --I was going above and beyond a workload that I can handle. Justification for the worn-out excuse comes easily now… I have had practice over the past four years. My mantra is: “I have so much work that I can not possibly think of anything else.” I have not even taken the time to ask why? Why pursue engineering? Why burn the midnight oil scratching my head over a Thermodynamics book instead of shaking my “groove thang” at the club? Sure the question has popped up but I maintain, I never thought about it. Such pondering soon passed once replaced by an image of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. In the pot, some Enzos, a Bose system, lavish apartment, wine-colored Acura, a summer home in Jamaica…and money to spare to send home to Mom and Dad. An engineer’s salary is not bad motivation. After all, we all go to college in order to make money –- right? Why not pick a field that guarantees a decent salary? Is there another purpose for learning complex science? I never delved any deeper. Never wondered why a company that needs diversity training to cope with the shock of black professionals bombarding their workplace also welcomes me with open arms? Why prove myself bright and talented to a group of people that can’t tell me apart from the other black girl in the office anyway? The answer is shockingly simple. Economics. Just as our African mothers and fathers fueled the American economy making white folks rich off of free labor, black engineers provide the skills to keep it running. Tobacco is no longer the ticket to making a country rich, technology is. The US-Africa Energy Ministers Conference made clear to me how essential a technical workforce is to a nation. Consider Africa. Plans are in place for utilizing the continents resources, building an infrastructure for power, energy and technology but missing from the picture is capital and a technical workforce capable of implementing these plans. So, countries are left without adequate electricity, and dependent on foreign businesses that continue the exploitation of Africa that has built European empires over the last few centuries. The question becomes: if your skills are valuable enough to make an independent Africa the world force she can be, why cash that in for… taking up golf and driving a nice car? I value what I can do as an engineer to support the nation of which I am a descendant much more than what I can do as an American company token. I do not suggest biting the hand that can feed you but rather do not become satisfied with the table scraps. You are worth more. Do not sell yourself short. You are of a small percentage of Americans that can design a power plant, write code, build a bridge and distill crude oil. You of all people should use your talent and have a purpose. It is easy to get caught up in the American dream but don’t sleep.
Interested in what is going on in Africa and what’s new in technology?
These reports are coming soon to the website you are reading:
- THE US - AFRICA ENERGY MINISTERS CONFERENCE In a nutshell
- IS AFRICA POWERLESS? The State of African Technology
- SOLAR POWER: UNISOLAR Makes it Happen
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