A young Bangladeshi Calgarian engineer shares her story of optimism and hope despite the pandemic

May is Asian Heritage Month and to celebrate, CBC Calgary is featuring Calgarians and what it means to be Asian-Canadian in 2021. This First Person piece was written by Adrita Haque, a Bangladeshi Calgarian and project engineer EIT at Equinox Engineering and an advocacy co-lead at Calgary Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

What I will remember the most from this year is how quickly we were able to come together at the global scale with the optimism and belief that if we work together, we can create rapid change and a better future for all. As a result, we have seen a new kind of leadership and collaboration emerge across multiple disciplines such as health care, government, academia, tech and various companies committed to working together to push forward new solutions and innovation. In the local context, it is amazing to see the way people come together to show up for their communities and support their local businesses. This also happened previously during the 2013 flood and the Fort McMurray fire, where people immediately rose to the occasion to support their community members. 

When you target one person, it goes beyond that — you're targeting the entire community. When you speak up for an injustice, you're building up an entire community.- Adrita Haque

What gives me hope is that people aren't just hoping, they're taking action. The way young people have joined forces to combine their creativity, compassion, and their social media platforms to hold people accountable and questioning our worldview. We're seeing science and engineering being combined with the arts to form more creative solutions. We are creating new pathways, shaping new policies, and inspiring new innovation leading to an increasingly connected world where more people have access to information and opportunities than we ever had before. For me, another moment of hope was restored when the United States elected their first Black, South Asian, female vice-president and we witnessed history being made. Especially because this was in the midst of when our whole world was turned upside down simultaneously navigating multiple crises with the pandemic. 

The pandemic has really put a magnifying glass on the issues in our society. Although COVID has affected everyone to some degree, it has become much more apparent how disproportionately different communities have been impacted. This isn't random, and unfortunately, we'll see the same results when the next natural disaster strikes because of the systemic issues that enabled it to happen. In these vulnerable communities, the main demographic are people of colour, who face the greatest challenges, yet have the least representation at the decision-making table. 

A few of my close friends have had these experiences of race-based harassment as well as others in my network, which makes it clear that this is an issue that needs to be addressed and corrected. There are also a lot of smaller incidents that victims brush off because it's seen as normal and expected — but none of this should be silently tolerated because it sends the message that it's acceptable. When you target one person, it goes beyond that — you're targeting the entire community. When you speak up for an injustice, you're building up an entire community. What we need is to have more conversations where we listen and share with the intent of wanting to understand, because that's how we build our knowledge base and familiarity. It is also important to have these conversations at home and especially with young children.  

I have lived in Canada since I was seven but I still find it very confusing navigating two different cultures. By trying to fit into two very different cultures, sometimes I just feel completely left out of both. This rings particularly true on holidays because Bangladeshi holidays aren't celebrated as vibrantly here and I didn't grow up celebrating the Canadian holidays either, but I'm lucky to have made some very thoughtful friends who invite me along to celebrate holidays with them. 

This story makes me laugh when I think about it now. When we first moved to Canada, my parents were eager to build up my English vocabulary so I read a lot and became really good at spelling and using fancy words (for a third grader), but I noticed my white friend had terrible spelling, so I started to intentionally make a whole bunch of spelling mistakes because I wanted to be normal like her and fit in…. I think I have come a long way from there now!

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