HIST 100: Engineering The Past

Define Engineering

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To me engineering is a way to make something do what you want or need it to do, it is a problem-solving discipline. This has become even more apparent as we have learned about different things throughout this semester. From the first Thanksgiving where they had to settle in a new land and survive, to great temples and figuring out how to live while using the stars for guidance and now how to build large civilization while utilizing mother nature.

I believe when most people hear the word Engineer they think of someone who builds tangible items that someone else has come up with. It seems to me that an Engineer is someone who is extremely creative and comes up with these ideas on his or her own to solve a problem that is being faced. This required them to take into account the past, present and future and become familiar with all sorts of other disciplines.

Natives and Water Rights

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I do not think that the Tohono O’odham have been adequately compensated for their losses. I think the main question you pose of “what is fair” is the key to this question. When you take someone’s land and force them to adapt to a new way of life and take advantage of their struggles as a society, this is not fair. I guess this goes more towards an ethical standpoint because “legally” everything that happened was permitted. I think you have to look at who created these laws though to fully understand how unfair it really is to the Native American people who were on that land long before we came. We created laws that were friendly to expansion and enforced our laws and rules without taking into account their laws and rules. We just always assume ours are right and just.

I do feel that we have tried to make up for some of the mistreatment that has happened by giving back land to them and the formation of reservations. Again someone came in behind and tried to take advantage of water rights and telling them that they have rights but know that they do not have the funds to fully take advantage or use these rights. Now we are acting like we are helping by signing a water right agreement, which says we will help you out, by giving you water but in return you have to waive all future water rights and claims and related damages. Again taking advantage of a situation, in the end, we are the ones who come out ahead in that deal.

Middle Eastern Water Woes

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If I were able to rewind time I would travel back and advise most of the Middle Eastern countries as they all have different social and economic conditions and amounts or access to natural resources- water. Countries would include Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. All of these countries would need to define their goals and objectives and then translate them into policies, as this is an observation seen in countries that have success in efficient use of their water. I would then tell them information about canals, wells, water pipelines, ways to use rainwater and recycling of water. I am guessing if I am traveling back I would have gone to school to be a water resource engineer and have the knowledge to teach them individually how to construct a good system that will stand the test of time and take into account there specific constraints and advantages. I would do my best to give them as much information as possible on water resource management.

From the bit that I was able to gather from reading these article and some miscellaneous research I have done to gain a better understanding of this topic, it doesn’t seem that there is a whole lot that any of these countries are doing correctly that I would want to keep the same. I would recommend that they involve the citizens of these countries to come up with principals that the majority can agree on, come to terms with surrounding countries to keep the peace and promote education and innovation.

I think that the leaders would view my recommendations as worth implementing because I would try and make changes that would produce short-term benefits. This would allow everyone to see some small benefits, which would get the people excited to see the bigger long-term benefits. I am not going to kid myself and think that it would not be a tough challenge to get started and to know that initially there would be a lot of resistance; as most people do not like change and there are many factors to consider that could make it seem impossible. I would present them with as much data and information as possible to show them that if we do not make a drastic change now, they will inevitably cease to exist.

Three pieces of information I would need about the past:

  • Detailed information about water management practices
  • Social and economic conditions
  • Information on the climate and natural resources

I would think that this information would be available from the library and Internet research. I would want to make sure that I get as much primary information as I can but secondary information will also be helpful. As with anything else if I were to use the Internet for research purposes I would have to be careful and make sure the information is accurate.