Environment in Bangladesh

Working on environmental issues in Qatar presented its own set of new challenges to a North American sustainability advocate- different government system, low awareness, hydrocarbon economy, developing infrastructure, little economic incentives, low regulation and simply my own lack of knowledge about the country's environment, politics and culture. Bangladesh is a whole different set of challenges.

Low awareness comes into play again but it's compounded by non or low-literacy and education of the general public. The huge population, small and poorly-developed infrastructure, along with few monetary resources contribute to Bangladesh's environmental woes: pollution, litter and poor air and water quality. Social norms and expectations also play a part, as a recent Science Daily article pointed out. If one sees others around them acting a certain way, they follow. In Qatar, it can be a mixed message; while expats, schools and corporations struggle to recycle, I'd have a Qatari male student confess to simply tossing his half-eaten shwarma out the car window- wrapper and all. Cultural norms of having servants/maids clean up after you in Qatar led many students to simply leave their lunch and snack trash throughout the cafeteria. The professors would be agog but that's what simply what these students have known and experienced. 

Given the homogenous population in Bangladesh, individuals receive fairly consistent cultural and environmental action cues- especially regarding trash disposal. I had prepared myself for the garbage and waste situation during my visit to India last April but the issue continues to strike me here in Bangladesh. Many Bangladeshis, young and old, educated and non, think nothing of tossing their wrapper, paper napkin, cigarette package or bag on the street, in the gutter, on the floor or in the water (always a 'public' location).  The trash sometimes collects in an area (removed? by whom?) and occasionally it's burned. 

I though at first this was an education issue- but then I saw a teenage female student toss her napkin out a shop door. My University-educated coworker once dropped his gum wrapper and cigarette package and I had to pick them up. He stopped, startled and commented that he had never thought about it. During the village visit, I'd carry my empty Sprite bottle for kilometers, looking for some designated trash spot, even making a point to ask the UNO (local government official) where I could toss my garbage. Only then did my colleague begin to notice the gobs of bottles, bags and wrappers strewn in the village woods and waterways. He had never noticed before. 

After the visit, this coworker realized that the Village Information Profile (VIP) of the GramWeb project did not have any environmental indicators and asked that I develop some for the next version of the document. I've included indicators asking about waste disposal (organic, inorganic and hazardous), fertilizer/pesticide use, cancer rates, birth defects, irrigation stress, distance to nearest moving water source and other details. By simply getting villagers to consider these topics is a huge step toward greater awareness and action.

Learn more more about the Environmental Performance Index ranking of Bangladesh (Qatar is not ranked for some reason. Perhaps data collection is not done or readily available/freely shared). 

Some Feedback on the Sustainability Mini

Yes- I need to update (especially about India and Jordan!) and I'm thankful that Blogger now incorporates the ability to schedule future posts. That will be especially helpful while traveling.

I'm sorting through the piles of '51-276 Examining Sustainability in the Gulf Region' self-evaluations I requested of the students. I originally did not plan to request these self-evaluations but I was curious how they would rate themselves (and I was also unsure how to grade the students).

In going through the evaluations- I noticed a few interesting observations:

1) One student commented and wondered if anyone would honestly give themselves lower than an 'A' ? Actually, yes- some did. And interestingly enough, they were all non-Arab students.
2) One student (Palestinian) informed me that 'doing such evaluations is very hard for us. Our culture is more of community based rather than individualistic, so we tend to underestimate our work to favor community.' I'm going to email the student and hopefully get more of an explanation about this statement.

(On a related note- I've heard that it's hard to student groups to have true club elections- for students won't run against each other for fear of shaming the other person by beating them. I've also heard it's been hard to have a debate club on campus- for students don't want to shame the other person by pointing out the faults or errors in the other's arguments. Interesting.)

[Breaking News Alert- freak rain shower in progress here at 3 pm in May!]

Regarding the course, I received some positive feedback.
"I enjoyed this course very much. I learned about many solutions and systems that I have never heard about before. ...I would like to thank you for every thing you have done for us. Your feedbacks were very helpful and valuable to me. I hope to see you the next semesters."

"Thanks for the course again :) was fun thinking about the environment and not code design. If the same amount of smartness and work is put by students into environmental sustainability, there surely can be a change."

"I hope this course will continue and more students take it as its very interesting and fun learning at the same time. I found out very fascinating facts from the book we read and from class discussions."

"I really enjoyed the class and enjoyed doing the project"

"Thank you for the course , it was really [sic] benefical. "

"Thanks for a great mini course!!"

"I’d like to add that I really enjoyed the content and idea of this course, and wish it would have been a full semester course as that would have given us plenty more time to work on the final project. Thanks a lot for this course!"

I'll give my own assessment of the course when I have a little more time to think about it- but overall I think I achieved the original goal of having the students begin to recognize the importance and prevalence of systems in our everyday world.

Updates 1: Sustainability

Spring Break started today- so that of course meant students were scrambling this week to get things done. And if there was a class to miss, unfortunately my courses were often the courses to skip. I don't take it personally; I recognize the situation.

For the students that did show up Wednesday (the afternoon before the big 'Professional Day' and the day before the huge 'regression' exam), I gave them a bit of a break. I had planned to show "The Story of Stuff" and then make concept maps of the systems mentioned in the video. However, with half of the first section missing, I didn't very well want to re-teach the material later, so instead I slashed my lesson in half, created a new assignment (1 page response paper to the video) and allowed the students present to orally give their responses rather than having to write them. (As many of the students are non-native English speakers/writers, they tend to abhor writing assignments. Their oral presentation skills tend to be much better than their writing skills). We actually had some good discussions, as it was nice to see a glimmer of comprehension and emotional response in even the quietest and more distant students.

Also on the sustainability front, I recently submitted a proposal to CMU-Q Dean Chuck Thorpe for the creation of a 'Sustainability Coordinator' position and to consider me for the job. Yep- that means I'm thinking of another year (or two. or...) The following excerpt is from my proposal:

"Sustainability Coordinator:
This individual would be responsible for spearheading new sustainability initiatives in operations and academics, support and monitor current environmental enterprises, and coordinate efforts both internal and external to the campus community. The SC’s duties and influence would break down into four main categories; academics, operations, outreach, and visioning. "

I go on to list possible duties, such as teaching a few course, advising the student environmental group LiveGreen, act as liaison to Pittsburgh, work with faculty to incorporate and foster environmental learning in other courses, and generally coordinate all the environmental activity of CMU-Q.

Hopefully I'll have some sort of response waiting for me after Spring Break.

What are the issues?

Before I began my two sections of 51-276: 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf' last week, I gave the students a questionnaire, asking basic details about their background, expectations, and whatnot. However I also asked them to list what they perceive as the top 3 issues/problems/challenges facing 1) the world? 2) the region (or their home county)? 3) Qatar? 4) themselves? It was enlightening to see the answers and gives me hope that their interest will be sustained in the course.

What are the 3 biggest issues/problems/challenges facing...
the world?
peace; poverty; illness; hunger; global warming; terrorism; animal extinction; pollution; energy; World War III; America; self-interests & self-disputes; pharmaceutical companies; democracy; modern economic framework; world politics & corruption; inequity of wealth distribution; starvation in Southern African countries

the region? (or your home country?)
education; oil/petrol; America; labor rights; wars in Iraq/Palestine; population increase; unemployment; politics; money allocation; poverty; ethnic/social integration; goods smuggling; global warming; pollution; inflation; dust; traffic; illiteracy; development; economy; civil war; international intervention; high cost of living; religious intolerance; corruption; immigrants; ignorance

Qatar?
environment; education; labor rights; expats; roads/traffic; public transit; obesity; uncivilized behavior; global warming; pollution; population; cost of living; planning & development; liquid natural gas production; developing the economy; immigrants; health care; Qatarization; oil; ignorance; inflation

you?
programming; time management; laziness; pressure to study; lack of sleep; surviving CMU; shyness; desire to succeed; future career; Dean's List; low self-confidence; family pressure; finding like-minded people; losing weight; high grades; speaking problems; procrastination;

My Brother's Visit to Qatar- the abridged version

Feb. 29- Lunch with Dan Boyarski at the City Center Mall. My brother Henry arrives that evening in Doha. We unsuccessfully try to find a BBQ at Qatar Foundation Housing and then pass out.

Mar. 1- Bill Brown Memorial Ride early AM. I bike 46 km in total from Doha Golf Club to Simaisma Bridge. My brother- on the small loaner bike, rides 26 km to Lusail. See some pics from the event. Henry passes out and then goes to see 'Vantage Point' at the City Center Mall. I help LiveGreen (CMU-Q's student environmental group) prepare for the next day. I stay up too late preparing for my own speech.

Mar. 2- I give a ~20 minute presentation ('The Opportunities of Sustainability") 2 times at Qatar University's " Go Green. Change Our Future" كن صديقاً للبيئة. غير مستقبلنا Conference (Women only). I'm in at least 2 English papers and apparently some Arabic papers the next day (See The Gulf Times & The Peninsula). My brother heads back to City Center Mall with a student of mine, only to accidentally have my car keys in his pocket. We sort it out, do some food shopping, cook a veggie dinner and call it another early night.

Mar. 3- I give my presentation twice again (Males Only), teach my communication design class, teach my first section of 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf', add another section of it, discover CMU-Q accidentally sent my textbooks back and we've now ordered them to arrive with the Pittsburgh students this Saturday. Henry and I play volleyball with the students, faculty, & staff. We then head to the souqs, Henry purchases souvenirs, and we have Iraqi food.

Mar. 4- I go to Arabic class, do some work at school, & swap my sedan with Darbi/Greg's SUV so my brother and I can go find the 'Singing Dunes'. I tell Henry I'm on my way home (we communicated via email, 2 American cell phones, 1 Qatari cell phone with mixed results). I leave Education City and pull into traffic too soon, getting slammed in the back, smashing up a little blue car driven by two Egyptians that don't speak English. We wait ~3 hours for the police to come to file a report. One tank of gas, one traffic department, 2 reports, 12 riyals, and 1.5 hours later and I'm finally back home to my stranded (and ill-informed) brother. In the fading light we attempt to find the Singing Dunes but no luck. Henry and I go with Greg and his visiting girlfriend Sophie to pick up Turkey Central. We eat at Greg's and then they watch movies at Greg's place. I work.

Mar. 5- We plan to get my brother to the Qatar National Museum for the morning and have him join me in the afternoon (after my classes). We have conflicting reports of whether the museum is open, closed, partially-open and can't confirm any details. We find the place deserted and later learn it won't be open to the public until November. After some phone calls- we learn the Weapons Museum is now open to the public and will be open until noon. We call, confirm, and then unsuccessfully try to find the place. Back at campus, we're given exact directions of how to get there- we head back out again and Henry books a cab for the ride back. We arrive- it looks nice- clean- legit. I bid Henry farewell and then he runs back, saying it's closed. I throw my hands up. At this point Henry begins to truly realize what it means to live in Doha and that while a decent place to live, Doha is not primed for tourists yet. I teach 3 classes (my sustainability course now has 20 students in two sections)- Henry relaxes. I secure a GPS from Justin & Marjorie and in the fading light Henry and I set out for the Singing Dunes again. 45 km from the city, we find the dunes and by flashlight we hike towards them on foot (as I have my sedan again and it would have not been happy on the rocks). It was eerie to make the dunes hum and vibrate at our footsteps and even eerier that we only had a flash-light at this point. We did see some fantastic stars.

Mar. 6- I skip out on Arabic class and Henry and I do tourist shopping. We purchase a photo book for Grammy and Henry picks up some foodstuffs at the Carrefour (as well as some helpful new sandals). We head back to City Center and pick up some carmel and stuffed dates at Bateel. We find time running short and Henry cheerfully suggests trying the 'McArabian' chicken pita-sandwich at McDonald's. I agreed because yes- technically it's a cultural experience. Like many McDonald's products- while initially tasty, the meal leaves us feeling disgusting. I'm done with McDonald's in Qatar. We're signed up with 5 others for an 8-hour desert cruise with QIA. Two others not from CMU-Q would also join us. We set up the night before for them to pick the CMU-Q folks up a little later due to other's time conflicts. The driver calls us up 45 minutes early demanding to know where we were. After some semi-heated phone calls and calls to the company, we clear it up and the 2 other tourists don't appear mad at us. We drive off, ride camels (20QAR each), bash dunes, feel like we're about to tip the car (it was our driver's first time- greeeeeeeeeaaat), collect sea shells, attempt to sand board (sounds like a better idea than it actually is) , hear a helicopter air-lifting someone who flipped their quad-bike on the dunes, have a BBQ on the beach, and then drive back in the dark.

Mar. 7- We got Henry to the airport (almost the wrong airport- Qatar is building a new airport and they already have signs up for it. Thanks Qatar.) by 6:30 am. I see him checked in, bid him farewell, drive home, and sleep for another couple hours. I think I plan to use this weekend to recover from his vacation.

Lessons learned:
-Very few of the students have environmental exposure.
-Give your expat host more than a week to plan.
-The tourist experience here leaves something to be desired.
-GPS in the desert is good.
-Wear sunscreen.
-Avoid McDonald's (my stomach still isn't very happy).
-Call. Confirm. But don't be surprised if things change.
-Always check your pockets.
-If you have to teach a difficult/boring/unpopular subject, offer it as a 4th quarter mini course so that students who fail other courses, drop those classes and then desperately need units pack your course.

Oh- did I mention?

...that Dan Boyarski (Head of the Carnegie Mellon-Pittsburgh School of Design) arrives in Doha tonight to participate in VCU-Q's 'Tasmeem' Design Conference next week? And he'll be siting in/TAing 2-3 of my Communication Design classes?

...that my 19-year old brother arrives tomorrow night to spend his first collegiate spring break in a dry-Middle Eastern country with his big sister? It will also be his first time in the Middle East.

...that I've been biking on Friday afternoons with a group of cyclists, through heat, sun, wind, and sand, riding on the loaner bike, which turns out to be the old bike of the renowned and sadly departed Bill Brown (CMU-Pgh and CMU-Q Bio Professor who died last July)? Or that I am signed up to bike 68 km (48 mi) from Doha to Al-Kohr in the
Bill Brown Memorial Bike Ride on his old bike this Saturday morning?

...that I've been taking two Arabic classes in the mornings, each 1 hour, each twice a week- with one class focusing on learning the alphabet (which I already learned at a class last fall in Washington DC) and the other on writing and reading sentences? (It's a little advanced and I would be entirely lost if I hadn't been working on Rosetta Stone)

...that I've been taking Spanish Level 2 classes here at CMU-Q? (The term 'taking' is used loosely here- the class meets 4 times a week and I often show up 2-3 times a week- although I only went once this week... :/ )

...that I'm giving a half hour presentation 4 times this Sunday and Monday at Qatar University's " Go Green. Change Our Future" كن صديقاً للبيئة. غير مستقبلنا Conference, presenting to a minimum total of 2,100 people?

...that the 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf' mini course starts this Monday, and that I've had numerous inquiries into the course and received enthusiastic interest? I just received an email stating that "Me and my friends want to joing this mini course so badly, but unfortunately the timing is bad since others and I have a class that starts at 2:30". I responded that if the demand was high enough, I'd consider requesting to create another section of the course... Imagine that!

So- yeah. I didn't mention any of that? Sorry- I've been meaning to blog on that for a while now... :)

Course Updates

I now have a week and half of school under my belt. I still mentally prep for my classes and make a rough outline of notes, jot down to phrases I'd like to use, etc. It helps to have a freeze-up back-up. That being said, I find that I probably have about 5-10 minutes worth of content beyond my time limit. One hour and twenty minutes is not a long time for a design studio/lecture course. Especially when you have ~20 students. Did I mention that? I had 18 students on my roster today, 3 didn't show, 2 additional students showed and 1 more asked to join the class just this afternoon. I don't even recall what the cut-off limit if for the class, but it will have to be 20. Any more and we won't be able to cover everyone during our critique classes. We have only 3 boys in the class (reminds me of Carnegie Mellon design- especially communication design. Side story- CMU designers visited Chicago one winter and the offices of SkinnyCorp, the folks behind Threadless. A SkinnyCorp guy saw all these females waltzing in and asked in complete seriousness, 'Is Carnegie Mellon an all-girl school?' Gotta love Midwest ignorance of the school). Thus far the students are willing to speak up and I hope to keep that enthusiasm and participation going throughout the semester. Critiques can quickly become quiet as the semester wears on.

Originally I was signed up to teach 2 courses here at Carnegie Mellon's Qatar Campus- the second one was titled 'Designing Sustainable Systems' (although they goofed up the name in the registrar). Problem is- no one signed up for it and only 2 students approached me about it in the days before class started. It later hit me like a ton of bricks why: they thought it was an Information Systems or Computer Science course. Every other course offered at CM-Q with the word 'systems' in the title is a CS course. CM-Q students certainly don't want to do programming in an elective course. The description was also somewhat vague- partially because I was still figuring out course details when they needed the description. In the context of a design curriculum, the description might have made more sense. However, here- with no other design exposure or smack-dab in the middle of Biz/CS courses, it sounded technical. Chalk that one up as a learning experience.... I also think the topic might have been a little advanced even for the Pittsburgh campus.

The plan now is to rework the class and offer it as mini-course for the second half of the semester, essentially seeking to answer the question, 'What does sustainability mean in the Middle East?' One can't simply plunk down sustainable concepts from the US (ex. increase access to public transit) and expect it to work here (non-laboring natives and expats wouldn't use it). I also made some contacts yesterday and today regarding environmental initiatives and opportunities here. More on those later-