Bambi would like to thank her friend for sharing this VERY thoughtful interview.
Many thanks to Mr. Anthony Furey for interviewing Dr. Patanjali (or Pat) Kambhampati for the National Post (https://nationalpost.com/opinion/the-professor-fighting-to-stop-woke-warriors-from-destroying-science-full-comment-with-anthony-furey) about the threat to science in our country.
PLEASE, listen to his story with his two denied federal grants carefully.
Please take the time to think about all this.
He is publicly and courageously talking and sharing. How many have gone though the same experience in silence?
Is this Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) the way to move forward our scientific research enterprise in Canada?
Will this keep Canada competitive at the domestic and international levels?
Is this a good use of taxpayers’ money? Yours, his, the journalist’s, and Bambi’s.
Will this be fair to our new university students and future scientists?
Will we regret all this obsession with EDI in 10, 15, and 25 years from now?
Bambi has always wondered who came up with this EDI slogan/bureaucracy and why are we doing it? She was happy to hear Dr. Kambhampati talk about this. What an eloquent thinker! What an inspiring scientist!
Why can’t we question this invented EDI, as Dr. Kambhampati explained so well!?
Why this totalitarianism, Canada, that is preventing us from questioning EDI and questioning many other related concepts or ideas?
Why this overwhelming political correctness that is making some of us say what we do not believe in just to conform… or out of fear?
Why are some censored (or cancelled or punished) for questioning?
In Bambi’s mind, things are simple and crystal clear: if diversity does not include intellectual diversity, what is the use of it?
If equity is no longer about fairness, is it worth it?
If inclusion means exclusion of some, is it still worth being called so?
If science is no longer about science first, will we still have something called science in 10, 25, or 100 years?
Are we truly serving our new young trainees in science and medicine? Or are we being unfair to some while giving a message to others that you are not capable of doing it on your own?
This top-bottom forces of racial-based authoritarianism (coming from the top of governance or bureaucracy) scares Bambi, as she worries about Canada’s short-term future (next 5-10 or more years?)… and what is next?
To come back to the interview in question, Dr. Kambhampati said something very interesting about safe spaces in universities: Safe for some… but not for others. Indeed, double standards, sadly once again (some talk, others not. Some safe. Others not). Despite the noble stated intentions of such ideologies, their practice on the ground can only be unrealistic or even too absurd… and ironically unfair (again, to some more than others).
Look at the irony of the lost opportunities of future talented students who would have wanted to work with Dr. Kambhampati on his proposed projects. Perhaps your children are or will be among them? Perhaps our politicians’ own kids when they grow up?
Luckily for him, Dr. Kambhampati was awarded an international prestigious grant for his work… Isn’t it this also sad for Canada? The world (at least part of it) is still looking at scientific merit. Canada is putting ideologies before excellence… Again, how can we remain competitive at the international level?
Related to all those trendy ideologies, Bambi salutes Québec for considering (even if it is sad to have to interfere in university affairs) a bill to protect academic freedom as “there is no safe spaces in the classroom” to use the own words of a Commission on the topic, as per an older post shown further below.
If EDI does not guarantee scientific merit (or excellence), what is its point? Why should we use it… or risk abusing it or being abused by it?
Are our politicians in Ottawa (and elsewhere too) listening? Are our bureaucrats listening? Are taxpayers OK with all this? What about parents of our future scientists? What about all of us, including our minorities that we pretend to speak in their names?
Today it is Dr. Kambhampati who is in this situation. Yesterday, it may have been you. Tomorrow, it will still be you… and others (if we do not say enough!).
MANY thanks Dr. Pat Kambhampati for speaking up as you have been courageously doing. Bambi was HONOURED to interview you on November 24, 2021!
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Earlier posts can be found below. The interview above is also available on Bambi’s personal website:
I think what people have a problem with is that diversity is forced upon them in a rather mechanistic way. Most are probably open to diversity if it happens organically.