I recalled an incident during my postgraduate study that made me reflect deeply about how proposed solutions are shaped by one’s experiences. We were doing project work that required us to propose solutions to climate risks issues. The team comprised people from different nationalities. People from a mixture of developed and developing countries.

Half an hour into the discussion and I started to notice about the differences in ideas. Some talked about taxation. Tax the rich and transfer the money to the vulnerable segment. Others went further and articulated about how they would establish cash system, engineering methods, communication strategy, etc and combine them to solve some of the most pressing challenges that exist in rural communities, .

I grew up in Singapore, within the region of Southeast Asia therefore, we are stuck in this unique position whereby we understand about the challenges rising from living in a place with no natural resources. Education, attraction of foreign investments, developing novel solutions to overcome seemingly impossible to solve challenges, etc. Apart from this, we are also keenly aware of what’s happening in Southeast Asia, even beyond what’s happening in the capital cities, built environment and the well-to-do places.

The rural places. Yes, the run down villages that are located in the far-flung remote areas where no one will think it matters because its so far from where they are living. No choice, we are situated in Southeast Asia which is why we have our fingers on the pulse of this region.

Yet, these rural communities are intricately linked to us and it will be even more pronounce when climate change accelerates, giving rise to a whole range of climate risks.

I was very drawn to the group that focused on churning out solutions to the real world challenges. Even though I was drawn to this group, I valued equally the ideas of those who focused on taxation strategy because in real-life, work domains do not exist in isolation and they must integrate well to make things work. Even so, I cannot help but noticed how they were eventually sidelined by the rest. It was a natural process, I guess.

Firstly, because of their social-economic and career backgrounds, they were naturally wedged within an environment that devoid them of any experience beyond their built environment. Secondly, even if they do travel to places beyond their living habitat, they still wouldn’t be able to see the “real” pictures, i.e. the challenges that are besieging these rural communities, much less understand the relationships between these rural places and the capital cities, because they are not entrench in these places, working with these communities. Just travelling through, like a tourist. As such, they’re just being treated as a tourist and nothing more. All these compounded onto the third point; as the discussion drew on, the latter’s contributions truly shone because of the depth and richness of their discussions, ideas and strategies that I believed, stemmed from their real-life experiences. In the face of these experts, the former naturally became more quiet but they try to contribute in their own little ways too.

Strangely, due to the small size of our country, many of us were often encouraged to travel beyond our geographical limitation for work. See, many of us were brought to many places to carry out the most extraordinary projects. For example, to very rural parts of India, China, etc. For me, I was very lucky to undertake projects in so many places, South Asia, Middle East, Southeast Asia, etc.

When we discuss about India, people think of places like Bangalore, Tamilnadu, Delhi, Mumbai, Vanarasi, you know, those cities that are bustling with life and fully connected to the rest of the world. But do you know that there are rural places in India that are so disconnected that even some of my Indian friends are not even aware of these people’s cultures, unless they are posted there to take up some government or law enforcement positions. The others learn of it through movies, televisions, news articles and occasionally through some sort of interactions in their higher education institutes.

One interesting and common note that my Indian friends and I often shared among ourselves when we meet is that, when dealing with such communities, always throw away the idea that you are “helping” them. That’s almost always the deal-breaker. Why? From my interactions with some of these people who are living in the rural areas, I understood that they take a lot of pride in their association with their living environment and how their ancestors were part of that environment for hundreds of years or maybe even more.

Some of my best engineering solutions were developed and adapted through my interactions with these rural communities, through their keen understanding of their terrain and how they as a community has dealt with the environmental issues for the past hundred of years. Some of these knowledge were passed down within their communities, through traditional folktales, songs, etc. Its almost like rejuvenation of ancient knowledge through modern science and engineering.

Their mindset is that they are living well and have done so for many years and they are proud of it, so who are you to tell them how to live? If anyone wants to change their lifestyle, a well-designed communication strategy is essential. It’s not just talking about having compassion and empathy. What’s needed is a real plan that strategises phased approach with project timeline. A plan that truly is accountable and uplifts everyone.

The same goes for engineering ideas as well. Always adopt an adaptable approach to the hard engineering solutions. Sometimes its not always just science and engineering. We may have to take into consideration the cultures, traditions, beliefs and so on. For example, in many cultures, there are persisting ideas about placement of certain features on an environmental terrain. How rivers should flow. How trees should be positioned and so on. How the rooms within a house should be arranged.

Some of these ideas have been passed down within their communities for hundreds of years. An engineering solution that totally tears them away from these traditions, wouldn’t go down well with anyone of them. Actually, upon careful study of some of these traditions, there’s some common sense and practicality to them therefore, the question is, how do we integrate these ideas into hard engineering solutions. With this, we might be able to discover new things and create a plan thats acceptable to most.

Remembering that project, made me once again aware of how important it is to seek out more real-life experiences and that could enable us to adopt an adaptable and well-grounded approach to creating effective and maybe even novel solutions to real-world challenges.

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