Sep 22 2007
Ten bright writers respond to our diversity challenge
Langley RCMP Operations Inspector Amrik Virk said the creation of an inclusive society does not necessarily evolve naturally over time.
By KEN HERAR
The results are in.We have 10 writers who submitted their responses for the Abbotsford News Diversity Challenge.Going through the various submissions, I was absolutely impressed with the caliber of thought that went into these responses.The question was how can we build an inclusive, diverse community?It’s a question that requires creativity, sensitivity and a passionate vision.Participants came from various backgrounds and brought their own personal experiences into their submissions.Attracting 10 writers was more than I ever imagined, and it creates a discussion to an important question.This challenge is about quality, not quantity, and getting people involved, and shaping our future.There are no winners or losers, and all participants will be receiving a gift from the Abbotsford News for their efforts.In the near future all the submissions will be featured in the paper, and a group of four judges from the community will be picking the top three finalist.Here are some of the bright young people you will be hearing from: Harleen Dhaliwal, Dalvir Bhangu, Jasneet Brar, Mark Barnfield, Kelly Wong, Bal Bhatti, Nimret Grewal, Manpreet Bansal, Nathan Dhaliwal and Jaspreet Lidder.These individuals have captured the imagination, talking about how to create an inclusive, diverse community in about 300 words.The majority of our writers are young Indo-Canadians, who all want to be part of building an inclusive, diverse community.Writer Jaspreet Lidder said, “One of the reasons, I submitted my submission for this challenge was I believe it is important to come together as a community to solve some of the issues, and everyone should be involved.”After reading these responses you will be amazed at the vision of tolerance and inclusion these young community leaders display.Speaking to various people around town many echoed their positive thoughts on our Diversity Challenge. Coming out of the tennis club a few days ago a lady stopped and said, “Ken, I appreciate your efforts on diversity.”It’s nice to receive complementary comments, but this kind of work needs to be done.Langley RCMP Operations Inspector Amrik Virk said, “I find it quite refreshing that there are those who realize we must look at ways to be inclusive in a diverse community.“The naive and unfortunately much prescribed view, is that given time, diverse members of communities will be properly included into all levels of society. This may be true in some rare circumstances but ‘market forces’ do not always work. We can learn from International organizations such as Microsoft and AT&T who have very proactive workforce inclusion policies that have plans in place to promote and integrate diversity and inclusion into every level of their organizations.“We can only learn from these best practices. I end my comments with the fact that the face of Canadian society is not changing, it changed long ago.”As a community we need to keep publicly brainstorming the idea of creating an inclusive, diverse community. Taking this on the road and promoting diversity is something I will continue to do. I personally have enjoyed interacting with all the people who believe in diversity, making it a memorable experience. We all have engraved in a discussion of diversity for others to follow.
KenHerar@gmail.com
© Copyright 2007 Abbotsford News
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