Posted on 08/14/2006 8:47:41 AM PDT by Valin
As he ate a late lunch in the dining room of the Brown Palace Hotel, Greg Mortenson radiated all the qualities newspaper articles have attributed to him: unassuming, gentle, spiritual. One would never guess Mortenson is an anti-terrorism warrior in the Islamic strongholds of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that his main weapon is schools. "Americans are now learning that we can't fight the war on terrorism with bombs, but with books," said Mortenson, 48, founder of a movement that has built 55 schools in those two countries in the past 13 years. "The Mullah (Islamic extremist movement) is not afraid of the bullet, but (it is afraid of) the pen and its power."
One evening this month, an audience of more than 300 turned out at the REI flagship store in Denver, where Mortenson gave a slide show and signed copies of his new book, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations, co-written by David Oliver Relin. He spoke about the events that transformed him from a mountaineer into a humanitarian.
In September 1993, the 6-foot-4 military veteran from Montana attempted to summit Pakistan's K-2, the world's second- highest mountain. His goal was to leave an amber necklace that had belonged to his late sister as a tribute. But after 78 days and only 600 meters short of his goal, an illness forced the climbing party to turn back. Of the 12 climbers, five eventually died. On the way down, he lost his way in the treacherous Baltoro glaciers, and, sick and emaciated, he stumbled into Korpe, a remote village in northern Pakistan. While being nurtured back to health, he learned the village had no school. He recalled the sight of 79 boys and five girls doing their best to simulate a classroom, using twigs to scratch in the sand by the mountainsides. The lone teacher was mostly absent because he had to split his time between two villages; Korpe residents could not afford to pay his salary, the equivalent of $1 a day.
"Now I know why I came here," the then-35-year-old American told himself, "not to climb the mountain, but to help the children in their education." After he recovered, Mortenson left the village with a promise to return and build schools. It was hard going at first. He sold everything he had and tried to raise funds, but after three years, he had only $2,000, including $623 in pennies, donated by elementary students in his mother's school in Wisconsin, and a $100 check from NBC's Tom Brokaw. (Of 580 celebrities and wealthy people he appealed to, Brokaw was the only one to respond).
His big break came when a Swiss-American scientist, Jean Hoerni, left him $1 million in his will in 1997 and another boost when he appeared on the cover of Parade Magazine. In the past decade, 24,000 children have enrolled in 55 schools because of Mortenson's efforts.
But he's had to contend with two fatwahs issued against him, and once in Pakistan he was kidnapped for eight days. Hate mail from fellow Americans questioned his motive for educating the children of U.S. "enemies." But he is undaunted.
Mortenson, founder of the nonprofit Central Asian Institute and Evergreen-based Pennies for Peace, is particularly interested in raising girls' literacy rates. Studies show that educating girls reduces infant mortality and improves health and quality of life. "If you educate a boy, you educate an individual, but if you educate a girl, you educate a community," said the ex-climber, echoing an African proverb. Mortenson spent most of his teenage years in Tanzania, where his parents were Lutheran missionaries and teachers.
Today, Mortenson enjoys great support from the Central Asian countries where he spends four months each year, away from his wife and two daughters, ages 9 and 6, in Montana. He illustrates this affinity with a comment by Hajj Ali, the Korpe village head who helped nourish his dream several years ago: "The first time you share a tea with a Balti, you are a stranger; the second time you take the tea, you are an honored guest; the third time, you become part of the family, and we protect you with our last blood."
In Colorado, one of Mortenson's biggest fans is Christiane Leitinger, who runs Pennies for Peace in Evergreen. Pennies for Peace raises money from U.S. schoolchildren to help Mortenson build his schools. "When they do the penny drive, they learn about their abilities as philanthropists," said Leitinger. Her organization tours Colorado and schools in other parts of the country, raising funds and teaching students about life in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Mortenson, in the meantime, is enjoying rave book reviews. Wrote Brokaw: "Mortenson's dangerous and difficult quest to build schools in the wildest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan is not only a thrilling read, it's proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world."
Oh, really? Good God.
?
Why does it have to be either or? Why not both and?
I am currently reading "Three Cups of Tea." Great book, well worth the read.
Ok. What does this have to do with the work of the Central Asia Institute?
Building schools in Pakistan is not going to ensure peace.
Besides, the experts say that these schools are part of the problem. They teach hate.
I hope it has nothing to do with their work. But after learning how UNICEF puts to work the pennies we give them and now learning in the past few days about how humanitarian aid was put to use against us, from Pakistan no less, pardon me if I'm a little skeptical about how these pennies were used. I should have ended my first post with a /sarc tag but now that I think about it, I really do wonder what controls the CAI set in place.
The schools they are building are NOT part of the madrassas. In fact you could think of them as the anti-madrassas.
How do they ensure that the cirriculum will be what they claim, though? Are we going to build the schools, and control the cirriculum?
I read about this guy a couple of years ago. He is pretty hands on...not only building schools, but providing textbooks, and sending local students away to college so they can return as teachers. His school system has grown slowly as he learned what worked. I look at him as I look at the US military medical teams that went to Pakistan after the quake...both provide a positive look at Americans that counters the hatred the terrorists spout.
The war on terror, like the Cold War, will be fought on many fronts, in many ways, over many decades. This guy is fighting his way and is having a lot more impact than most of the rest of us...
These schools are not the Saudi-funded madrassas you refer to.
The schools that CAI builds gives the poor local communities an alternative to the madrassas for educating their children. The communities use CAI-provided building materials and books to build the schools with their own labor and arrange for their children's instruction.
While instruction on Islam is a part of their curricula, many of the communities are Shia, so these schools are most emphatically not Wahabbi indoctrination centers.
I agree. But for this clown to say "...we can't fight the war on terrorism with bombs..." is just liberal pap.
Books are not going to deter or defeat these Islamofacists. They will help steer people away from following that path, and we should follow the approach of education and rebuilding as we are currently doing.
Now, if he had reworded it to say "...we can't fight the war on terrorism ONLY with bombs..." then I would be in agreement with him.
is just liberal pap.
Well he is a man of the left, and this sort of drivel is to be expected.
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