Did your TU studies prepare you for emergency aid work? Olaf Pots (28) is a Civil Engineering graduate who works as a logistician for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).
He has worked in Sri Lanka, India, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and has recently returned from working with refugees on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.
My TU education was broad, so I gained specialist and general knowledge of electricity, construction, safety, security, risk analysis, environmental concerns. Great, because the more you know, the more you can do for people in the field.
What attracted you to aid work?
Relief work is multi-disciplinary, with clear, short-term goals, and I’m result-orientated. It’s also often tremendously exciting work: If I’ve got to build a bunker capable of withstanding artillery shells, one mistake can mean the difference between life and death.
And the money?
It’s poorly paid work, unless you work for the UN. But what’s most difficult is not having social roots. While my friends in Holland buy houses, cars, join clubs, I’m living a nomadic life.
Could or should the TU do more to help developing lands?
Certainly the TU, with its wealth of knowledge and expertise, should do more, especially in water/sanitation engineering, which is badly needed in developing countries.
What causes you anxiety?
Feeling like a pawn in an absurd game. Lust for power, money, weapons% and our organization clearing away the body parts so the game can continue. We often need local armed guards to protect us in areas where some natives don’t want help from ‘white faces’. And sometimes our guards kill people so that we can help people. I’m uneasy with that.
Do you wish your TU study was in English?
To get to the top internationally, in business, relief work, or academics, English is certainly a pre-requisite. Language however can be improved along the way. More important is learning to deal with cultural differences.
How so?
Our relief teams, for instance, are comprised of people from different cultures with different national characteristics. Germans, Spanish, British, Dutch%are all different types who must get along to work together effectively. Cultural clashes among our staff members cause more problems than those between us and the natives we’re helping.
What do you miss most about Holland?
Working in tropical Sri Lanka, I missed Holland’s light, crisp air, and the low skies, filled with big beautiful Dutch clouds that seem to reach down and touch the ground.
Presuming he’s captured, what will happen to Bin Laden?
He won’t be captured. The US will kill him, but they’ll say Bin Laden’s own followers killed him. Thus, a neat Hollywood-style ending for the ‘bad guy’ and seemingly no Bin Laden blood on US hands to anger Muslims.
What’s Mankind’s greatest challenge in the 21st century?
To lose our fear of uncertainty, the fear that you don’t have enough. No amount of planning and technology can guarantee future prosperity.
Which developing country is developing well?
Butan. It’s conservatively opening up to the West according to a collective, socially comprehensive plan, moderating how much Western products, ideas, values they let in. Tourism is also being moderated, preventing negative ecological and social effects.
What book has influenced your life?
Narciss and Goldmund by Herman Hesse, a tale of two men, Narciss, the devout conservative who lives in one place all his life, and Goldmund, the romantic wanderer, relentlessly seeking sensual pleasures, new experiences. To be content or to continue searching? It’s an eternal question for me.
Olaf Pots (28) is a Civil Engineering graduate who works as a logistician for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). He has worked in Sri Lanka, India, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and has recently returned from working with refugees on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.
My TU education was broad, so I gained specialist and general knowledge of electricity, construction, safety, security, risk analysis, environmental concerns. Great, because the more you know, the more you can do for people in the field.
What attracted you to aid work?
Relief work is multi-disciplinary, with clear, short-term goals, and I’m result-orientated. It’s also often tremendously exciting work: If I’ve got to build a bunker capable of withstanding artillery shells, one mistake can mean the difference between life and death.
And the money?
It’s poorly paid work, unless you work for the UN. But what’s most difficult is not having social roots. While my friends in Holland buy houses, cars, join clubs, I’m living a nomadic life.
Could or should the TU do more to help developing lands?
Certainly the TU, with its wealth of knowledge and expertise, should do more, especially in water/sanitation engineering, which is badly needed in developing countries.
What causes you anxiety?
Feeling like a pawn in an absurd game. Lust for power, money, weapons% and our organization clearing away the body parts so the game can continue. We often need local armed guards to protect us in areas where some natives don’t want help from ‘white faces’. And sometimes our guards kill people so that we can help people. I’m uneasy with that.
Do you wish your TU study was in English?
To get to the top internationally, in business, relief work, or academics, English is certainly a pre-requisite. Language however can be improved along the way. More important is learning to deal with cultural differences.
How so?
Our relief teams, for instance, are comprised of people from different cultures with different national characteristics. Germans, Spanish, British, Dutch%are all different types who must get along to work together effectively. Cultural clashes among our staff members cause more problems than those between us and the natives we’re helping.
What do you miss most about Holland?
Working in tropical Sri Lanka, I missed Holland’s light, crisp air, and the low skies, filled with big beautiful Dutch clouds that seem to reach down and touch the ground.
Presuming he’s captured, what will happen to Bin Laden?
He won’t be captured. The US will kill him, but they’ll say Bin Laden’s own followers killed him. Thus, a neat Hollywood-style ending for the ‘bad guy’ and seemingly no Bin Laden blood on US hands to anger Muslims.
What’s Mankind’s greatest challenge in the 21st century?
To lose our fear of uncertainty, the fear that you don’t have enough. No amount of planning and technology can guarantee future prosperity.
Which developing country is developing well?
Butan. It’s conservatively opening up to the West according to a collective, socially comprehensive plan, moderating how much Western products, ideas, values they let in. Tourism is also being moderated, preventing negative ecological and social effects.
What book has influenced your life?
Narciss and Goldmund by Herman Hesse, a tale of two men, Narciss, the devout conservative who lives in one place all his life, and Goldmund, the romantic wanderer, relentlessly seeking sensual pleasures, new experiences. To be content or to continue searching? It’s an eternal question for me.
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