Christian Science Monitor    September 12, 2006 http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0912/p17s01-bogn.html

A gift for an entire village.  A failed mountaineer becomes a philanthropist after a village without a school saves his life.

By Marilyn Gardner

Thirteen years ago this month, Greg Mortenson, a towering American with a passion for mountaineering, found himself lost and alone in the glacial expanses of Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya. After failing to reach the summit of K2, the world's second-highest peak, he wandered for weeks, emaciated and exhausted, finally staggering into the impoverished village of Korphe.  Residents had never seen a foreigner, but they took him in, sharing their meager provisions and nurturing him back to health.   As he recuperated, Mr. Mortenson was appalled to find children practicing multiplication tables by scratching numbers on the frosty ground with a stick. They had no paper or pencils, and the village could not afford $1 a day for a teacher.

"I'm going to build you a school," Mortenson told them. "I promise." That rash pledge marks the beginning of an extraordinary transformation from climbing bum to humanitarian, richly recounted in Three Cups of Tea.  Returning to Berkeley, Calif., Mortenson lives in monkish frugality in his burgundy gas-guzzling Buick, nicknamed "La Bamba."

 To raise money, he works as an emergency-room nurse. He also mails 580 letters to politicians and celebrities, appealing for funds. That yields only one reply, a $100 check from Tom Brokaw, with a note wishing him well. Finally a $12,000 check from a wealthy scientist, Dr. Jean Hoerni, gives Mortenson hope to realize his dream.   If raising money is hard, transporting building materials to the remote site brings other challenges. For three days, Mortenson rides atop a rented truck precariously loaded with lumber, hammers, saws, and tin roofing. As the driver snakes along tortuous roads, Mortenson knows that any miscalculation could send the vehicle tumbling over cliffs.

 Although Mortenson is a nurse, the Balti villagers in Korphe affectionately call him Dr. Greg. Yet even a beloved humanitarian has flaws. Mortenson's dogged determination to finish the school before winter hardly suits the gentle rhythms of village life. "These mountains have been here a long time," one irritated resident tells him. "And so have we. Sit down and shut your mouth. You're making everyone crazy."

 When the butter-colored school with crimson trim finally takes its place among Korphe's stone and mud huts, Mortenson refuses to stop there. As the newly appointed executive director of the Central Asia Institute, a foundation Dr. Hoerni established to fund more schools, he moves on to other Pakistani villages.  He places particular emphasis on educating girls. For all students, his neutral curriculum offers an alternative to the teachings prevalent in the breeding grounds of the Taliban.   As coauthor David Oliver Relin explains, "He goes to war with the root causes of terror every time he offers a student a chance to receive a balanced education, rather than attend an extremist madrassa."

 Mortenson's humanitarian instincts began early.    Growing up in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro as the son of Lutheran missionaries, he watched his father found Tanzania's first teaching hospital and his mother established an international school.  But even those impressive accomplishments cannot compare with the hardships and danger he encounters in Pakistan. He survives fatwas issued by angry mullahs. He spends eight days in an airless room after being kidnapped by the Taliban. And he receives death threats in the United States after Sept. 11.

 Mortenson takes adventure to new levels as well. When a monsoon keeps the school's concrete foundation from drying, delaying construction, he spends seven days hunting alpine ibex with village men, walking for hours over brittle ice in running shoes lined with hay for warmth.

 He derives the book's title from a Baltistan proverb. "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger," a villager tells him. "The second time, you are an honored guest. The third time you become family." No wonder Mortenson's picture appears over hearths and on Jeep dashboards throughout northern Pakistan.  Today, 13 years after Mortenson's failure as a mountaineer on K2, his success as a humanitarian continues to grow. By the end of the book, he has made 27 trips to Pakistan, commuting halfway around the world with the casual air of a business traveler shuttling between Boston and New York. He has built 55 schools.

 Laced with drama, danger, romance, and good deeds, Mortenson's story serves as a reminder of the power of a good idea and the strength inherent in one person's passionate determination to persevere against enormous obstacles.  Praising a Pakistani religious leader for his "compassion in action," Mortenson says, "He believes in rolling up his sleeves and making the world a better place."  Those words apply equally to the former climber himself, moving mountains, one summit at a time, as he turns stones into schools and gives thousands of children a chance for a better life.

 The world needs many more Greg Mortensons

Philadelphia Inquirer   Sunday, January 13, 2008

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/20080113_Worldview__The_lesson_jihadis_fear.html

Worldview: The lesson jihadis fear most                                         

In the remote reaches of Pakistan, former mountain climber Greg Mortenson is besting extremists by building schools.

By Trudy Rubin

 Pakistan has made news lately as the world's most dangerous country: a nuclear-armed state that has become a base for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other fanatic Islamists.   But on my trip there last month, I saw an antidote to this nightmare, a route out of this trap - if Pakistan's government and the West would only seize it. I traveled to mountain villages with Greg Mortenson, a former mountain climber who has built 55 schools in Pakistan and eight in Afghanistan.

 Mortenson got lost 15 years ago descending from K-2, and promised to build a school for the villagers who rescued and nursed him. His formula for countering extremism is summed up in the title of his best-selling book: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time.

 After building his first school, Mortenson set up the Central Asia Institute (www.ikat.org) to build schools in Pakistan's most remote areas, where the government fails to provide education.  This vacuum is often filled by Islamic schools, or madrassas, some of which have become notorious training grounds for jihadis. In 2002, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf introduced a program to broaden the curriculum for about 10,000 madrassas with their 1.7 million students. Religious parties protested, and the program was shelved.

 My trip with Mortenson made clear that schools can be built for a pittance, with community involvement, and the madrassa problem addressed, if the will exists to finesse political and bureaucratic hurdles. That will is clearly lacking in Pakistan's government; U.S. and other international aid has failed to overcome the roadblocks.   Yet I saw how a dedicated nongovernmental institute with Pakistani staff can succeed despite governmental failures. "I see education as the thing least invested in, that can bring the most change," Mortenson told me in the United States. Indeed.

 Our trip took us up the narrow, crowded mountain road to Muzaffarabad, capital of Azad Kashmir, the Pakistan-controlled part of contested Kashmir, set against lofty peaks, where for years Pakistani and foreign jihadis trained to cross the dividing line with India to fight Indian troops.   Muzaffarabad, a one- main-road town in a deep valley, still bears the scars of the terrible 2005 earthquake that galvanized world attention and a massive U.S. relief effort. Whole mountainsides above the valley are sheared off, where villages simply fell down and disappeared.

 We drove an hour farther down a bumpy dirt road into the Neelam Valley to the small town of Patika. There, in October 2005, the earthquake collapsed the Gundi Piran higher secondary school for girls, killing 104 students. Many survived for two days but could not be rescued because there was no earthmoving equipment.   The dedicated headmistress, Saeeda Shabir, recalled emotionally how, months later, despite international media attention, not a single Pakistani government official had visited or offered to help the school rebuild.

 Then in September 2006, Sarfraz Khan, the Central Asia Institute's operations director, arrived, having first hiked the Neelam Valley by foot with Mortenson to survey the need. Khan mobilized Chinese seismic engineers and building matériel, trucked in across the 16,000-foot Khunjarab Pass on the fabled Kerkoram Highway linking China to Pakistan.

 And - in the key to Mortenson's method - Patika townspeople were enlisted to contribute labor, haul water, mix mortar; the school was finished in one month. Mortenson says that any school project is assessed on how much villagers are willing to contribute to its success.

 Today, neat one-story basic classrooms with blue trim surround a courtyard; on one side is an open shelter where young students, too traumatized by the earthquake to study inside, take their lessons. In the middle of the shelter is a small, fenced-in site with seven graves of girls whose bodies were never claimed; no doubt their entire families died.   Most important, Mortenson rebuilt the Patika school and two others in nearby villages, for a total of $54,000. He has now built seven schools in the Neelam Valley.

 "We can build an eight-room school for $25,000, so 40 schools can be built for $1 million," he told me in Patika. "One Tomahawk Missile costs $840,000." Mortenson's institute also provides funds to train and pay teachers (until the government can take over their salaries), and pays for books and uniforms. He is hoping to build science and computer labs at the Neelam Valley schools this year. By contrast, the boys' secondary school in Patika is still in several tents and tin shelters. The Pakistani government, which spends only 2.5 percent of its budget on education, seems unable to construct schools. Schools that do get built often lack teachers and are known as "ghost schools."

 Religious organizations fill the vacuum. In the earthquake's aftermath, Mortenson says, Islamic charities, some with terrorist ties, rushed to Muzaffarabad, setting up clinics - and madrassas, which offer food to students.   "In some families, they are attracted to madrassas by food because the government provides no services," says Shawkat Ali, a former teacher at the Patika girls school. Ali is pressing for more schools in the valley. "If poor families don't go to madrassas, where will they go?"

 The United States invested $256 million from 2002-07 in education reform in Pakistan, but there is little sign the programs have broken through Pakistan's bureaucratic blockage.  Yet nothing could be more important in the long-term struggle to redirect alienated youngsters away from jihad and into productive lives. Mortenson has shown how it can be done for a pittance, involving communities to boot.

As we rattled back down the mountainside, Mortenson spoke of another educational passion: He has focused on building girls' schools because girls' education lifts the whole community. Male literacy is supposedly 63 percent in Pakistan (and is probably lower) but female literacy is a dismal 36 percent and in some areas almost zero.   "If you really want society to improve, you educate the women," he told me intensely.  "We can drop bombs, hand out condoms, put in electricity, but you won't see change without girls' education. I have seen profound change in the villages when girls learn to read and write."

 Mortenson has persuaded religious leaders to endorse girls' education and believes it is also a key to undercutting religious militancy among boys. His words made me recall the passionate outburst of a young teacher, Fawzia Naseer, at a school rebuilt by the institute in Balseri village just beyond Patika.   "Every woman here is fond of education," Naseer told me eagerly; she herself is struggling to get a law degree, commuting to Muzaffarabad. "   Women can improve, they can teach the children, they can handle domestic problems better, they can make a business or work with an organization."   This from a woman who is still living in a post-earthquake tent and studying by candlelight.

 As Mortenson said, the cost of one Tomahawk Missile could pay for almost 40 schools - if the United States could only press the Pakistani government to build and staff them. In the meantime, Mortenson, by building schools one at a time, shows how the battle against militancy might be won.

The Bloomsbury Review  Vol 26 / Issue 5.   Sept/Oct 2006

One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations … One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin

REVIEWER:  Jeff Biggers is a contributing editor to TBR.  His most recent book is The United States of Appalachia (Trinity University, 2006).

 Believe it or not, Greg Mortenson’s life story actually stands up to the over-the-top title of this memoir.  Even more so, in an age when every politician and talking head has little but rhetoric to offer for the seemingly irreconcilable mess of warfare and cultural conflicts aflame in the Middle East and Islamic countries in Central Asia, his book is a stunningly simple story of how to make peace in one of the most beautiful places in the world:  Build schools for girls in the poorest villages and snow-lined highlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

 It’s not often that a sense of beauty and humanity creep into chronicles about so-called war zones like Afghanistan.  Perhaps this is the real beauty of Three Cups of Tea:  Mortenson’s mission is a relentlessly positive one, and his ability to reveal the beauty and refuse to accept the brutal reality around him is an inspiring, heroic, and at times even crazy pursuit for the positive to become the norm in places that have taken their fair share of neglect.  More importantly, Mortenson doesn’t diminish the beauty and humanity already present in these Muslim villages that most Westerners would quickly judge for their poverty and conservative ways;  to the contrary, Mortenson’s success as a school and bridge builder is precisely his ability to appreciate and value the local villagers and their traditions, and to view his own work as part of their ways.  In this sense, Mortenson’s story is incredibly rare, and far from being a statement of his saintliness, it is a parable of how an ordinary American has simply taken the time to be part of another world as a positive force for change.

 Here’s the dramatic setting:  In tribute to his sister’s death, Mortenson (raised in Tanzania by teacher parents, a military veteran, and a medic) joins a party that plans to scale K2, the world’s “deadliest” mountain in the Himalayas as the publicity is quick to note.  After failing a bewildered Mortenson ends up in a remote mountain village in Pakistan, where he is nursed back to health, and in departing, promises to return to build a school for the school-less village.  Living out of his car in Berkeley, Mortenson keeps his word, scrounges up the dough, and returns to build his first school.  Braving kidnapping, car accidents, wars, and fatwas, he goes on to build 100 schools in 10 years, including some in the hostile zones of Afghanistan (as American bombs are landing).

 Stripped of any drama, Mortenson’s story is amazing enough;  coauthored by journalist Relin, who occasionally goes overboard in his attempt to make the story even more of a page-turner and the characters colorful, Three Cups of Tea is an even better story of Mortenson’s tedious and indefatigable struggle to learn the local ways, languages, and most importantly, listen to and understand an Islamic way of life as it is lived in the Himalayas and remote areas of Afghanistan.  According to the tradition of the mountain region:

The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger.  The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest.  The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die.

 Mortenson’s virtue is that he has not returned to the Himalayas in the mode of charity-driven Mother Teresa or the all-knowing technicians of international development organizations;  he has returned to repay a debt and to respond to the requests of a village.

 In truth, Mortenson’s first school takes three years to build, and necessitates first building a bridge for the village.  He has to learn how to navigate the corruption and local mafia.  In the process, his good works are eventually recognized and bankrolled by the world mountaineering community, who have been committed to assisting these remote villages for years.  At one gathering, Mortenson is inspired by the legendary Sir Edmund Hillary, who announces that despite his triumphant climb of Mt. Everest, the

most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics.  That has given me more satisfaction than a footprint on a mountain.

But raising money and putting up four walls and a roof are the least of Mortenson’s concerns.  Throwing his Western judgments, mores, and schedules to the wind, the clearly energetic Mortenson learns to adapt to the rhythm of the village, and finds he accomplishes even more when he follows the suggestions of the local leaders.  He refuses to implant outside or Western ideas;  he allows the villagers to operate the schools as they see fit.  When called to appear before a Supreme Council of Islamic clerics, fearing the worst, Mortenson stands in astonishment as they read their verdict of his work:

Dear Compassionate of the Poor.  Our Holy Koran tells us all children should receive education, including our daughters and sisters. Your noble work follows the highest principles of Islam, to tend to the poor and sick.  In the Holy Koran there is no law to prohibit an infidel from providing assistance to our Muslim brothers and sisters.  Therefore, we direct all clerics in Pakistan to not interfere with your noble intentions.  You have our permission, blessings and prayers.

 The timing of Mortenson’s book, which has become a bestseller, could not be better;  while bombs fell indiscriminately over Afghanistan in 2003, he headed out to some of the most neglected villages in the tribal areas and learned how little the world community had kept their promises to rebuild and assist that country.  Abandonment, he notes, is as cruel as war itself, fueling an even stronger resentment.

 One of the book’s most poignant moments takes place in the United States.  Appearing before a congressional committee in Washington, DC, having just returned from the chaos of Afghanistan, Mortenson refuses to hold back his anger at the politicians’ lack of vision, including those who question the importance of education as part of national security:

“I don’t do what I’m doing to fight terror,” Mortenson said, measuring his words, trying not to get himself kicked out of the Capitol.  “I do it because I care about kids.  Fighting terror is maybe seventh or eighth on my list of priorities.  But working over there, I’ve learned a few things.  I’ve learned that terror doesn’t happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us.  It happens because children aren’t being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death.”

 Whether or not the U.S. Congress, our president, and the American public have listened to Mortenson’s extraordinary story remains to be seen.  In the meantime, he has returned to Central Asia to build even more schools.

TIME MAGAZINE – Asia Edition

Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006

http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501061225-1570746,00.html

Best Asian Books of 2006

 Looking for holiday diversions? Our writers bring you this highly eclectic selection of their favorite Asian books of the past year—from a French Buddhist monk's insights into happiness to the finest studies of contemporary China to a 900-page novel about cops and gangsters in Bombay.

Lost and delirious after a failed 1993 attempt on the world's second tallest peak, K2, the American mountaineer Greg Mortenson was rescued by residents of Korphe, a remote village high in the Pakistani Himalayas. Grateful for their assistance, Mortenson vowed to build the villagers a school. He returned home to San Francisco, sold everything he owned (including his precious climbing gear), and then embarked on the most arduous quest of his career.

Three Cups of Tea, co-written by journalist David Oliver Relin, is the account of Mortenson's extraordinary effort to give a school to Korphe and many other villages in the Taliban heartland. After 13 years in which he has brought 58 schools to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Mortenson remains convinced that terrorism should be fought with books, not bombs. "[Terrorism] happens because children aren't being offered a bright enough future," Mortenson told a gathering of U.S. Congress members not long after 9/11. Though awkwardly written in parts, Three Cups of Tea is an astonishing tale of compassion—and of a promise kept.              —By Aryn Baker

Author Interviews

Video Interview:  

Greg Mortenson talks about Three Cups of Tea for Borders

Transcript of PBS Interview,  Greg Mortenson on Building Schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan,

March 2, 2007:

HINOJOSA: Welcome to our podcast. This week we're talking to Greg Mortenson, co-author of the New York Times best-selling book, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time (PH). The book is about Greg's incredible efforts to educate young people in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Welcome to Now on the News.

MORTENSON: Good morning, Maria.

HINOJOSA: It's great to have you on the show, Greg. You know you have so many fans across the country, across the world, who think that your notion of building one school at a time in countries that are not necessarily welcoming to Americans—many people read your book and think it's life-changing. Did you ever think that you would have that kind of an impact on Americans?

MORTENSON: No, I—I just started out—I was a (UNINTEL) climber on K2 and stumbled into a village in '93. And I made a rash promise that I would help build a school. And this kinda led from there. And I—I think part of it has to do with what I call, thinking from your heart or your intuition. But I never could envision this. And I—I never realized that—(LAUGHTER) where we'd get to.

HINOJOSA: And I'm sure you never thought you would end up building more than one school over there. I wanna start Greg, by asking you the question that is—is really on the news—your response to this report that Pakistan has arrested a Taliban chief, Mullah Obi Ai Dullah (PH). He is considered a—a—a very high level of the Taliban to be arrested. When you see this kind of news about an important member of the Taliban being arrested, what goes on for you?

MORTENSON: Well Maria, I think it's great. And you know, given all the resources and money and everything we—we spend into capturing or killing terrorists or al-Qaeda or the Taliban, that—you know it's—you know, it shows that there's some progress. Unfortunately, against the—the backdrop of that is the fact that the international community, the Pakistan Afghan government, and—and the U.S., we've really failed to—to go to the—I—I'd say the next level, and that is to provide education and—and help for the children—with—with formal or secular education and give them opportunities. And—and it's—Taliban use large swaths of rural society to recruit—foot soldiers.

For example, after 9/11 the Taliban were about 20,000 strong. And then they had about 80,000 you'd say, semi-adherents, who a lot of them deserted right after 9/11. They had trouble getting soldiers to fight the eminent intervention by the U.S. and coalition. So they went in at gunpoint to many areas, and—and they had trouble actually getting recruits from areas where there was more education, wh—as women were refusing to allow their sons to join the Taliban.

And what—what is not really known about in the West very much is the fact that under Islam, when a young man goes on jihad—you know, we think of jihad as holy war, but it—it can also be a noble quest like—going on with your education or spiritual endeavor, or it could mean also joining—joining the Taliban. So a young man has to get permission and blessings from his mother. And if he doesn't do that, it's very shameful or disgraceful.

And also under we say, real Islam, suicide is—is perhaps the ultimate sin or—or atrocity a person can commit in the killing of civilians. So if a young—young man doesn't get that permission and—and he—he becomes a shahid (PH) or martyr, it's very disgraceful or—or he—he's not gonna go to heaven as he may—might think he does. But I've been criticized for saying that. But—even if you look at the 9/11 hijackers, certainly they were educated. Some of them even had university degrees. But—nobody really went and checked their mothers, who are nearly all illiterate.

And now that's a very strong deterrent—that we had the same thing you know, here—we do in the inner cities, where you have single mothers you know, who are impoverished and less education. Their son wants to get into drugs or gangs or violence, but if she has an education, she more likely—not—you know, condone her son to go into violence. And she'll encourage him to get a job or go on with his school.

HINOJOSA: And I wanna talk to you a little bit more about how strongly you feel about educating girls and women. But before that, I'm sure that many of our listeners kind of approach this and think, "You know, my sense," they might say to themselves, "is that if we go to Pakistan, if we go to Afghanistan, any American is considered an infidel, an outsider, someone who is hated and despised." Are we wrong when we have these images? Because you go out there, and you've done this—these projects of building schools solo.

MORTENSON: Maria, I started in '93. So I'm—I'm going on 14 years. Now I have very close relationships with many people over there. And I find that by—you know, in the great majority of communities—and I'm talking about rural and impoverished communities—they definitely support education. And it's the few extremists or radicals (UNINTEL) hijacked their religion and—their faith, and are trying to you know, propagate a very violent—ideology.

And it is—it is kind of frightening—the fact that 1980, there were about 300 extremist madrasahs (PH) in Pakistan and Afghanistan. By—by—2000—there were approximately 25,000 of these madrasahs with the (UNINTEL PHRASE) of four million children. And a madras, it's—it's also important to clarify—there's a madras, which is a—a place where children learn about Islam and the Koran in every single hamlet and village in the Islamic world.

And you know, 99 percent of madrasahs are very similar to confirmation or catechism or the bar mitzvah. But there are these other extremist madrasahs, mostly funded by Wahhabi (PH) adherents. And Wahhabi is one of the—the most extreme of the four Sunni sub-sects that propagate very violent type of ideology.

And these have flourished. They take the brightest young boys from the madrasahs. They send them to Yemen and Saudi Arabia for about a decade, indoctrinate 'em into the very you know, violent, militant type of Islam, send 'em back to the village, make him the richest man. And he has—he's—required to have four wives and have a lotta children.

So if you look at that—the Wahhabi plan or—or the extremist plan, it is to—it's over about 100 year plan. And we're trying to tackle this with billions of dollars and bipartisan bickering. And we—really—really need to look at education, I think, as an alternative. Even if we could invest one percent of the money that we put to the war on terror in education, it could have profound implications.

HINOJOSA: But you know, Greg, some people might say—especially when they hear your—your—the answer that you just gave, where you now have students who are being educated in this you know, k—as you say, violent form of—of Islam, what can one school here and there actually do against a hundred year plan to confront the infidels of the West?

MORTENSON: The way I approach this—you know, I'm actually an optimist, and you know it's easy to get pessimistic or—or—what I say is you know, if you fight terror, terrorism, it's based in fear. But if you wanna promote peace, it's based in hope. And—and what we're trying to do is look at the most extreme areas—either physical isolation, areas of conflict and war, or the third is—religious extremism. And we're able to, over several years, put flourishing, thriving communities-based schools, including for the girls, in those areas.

We have 58 schools, which doesn't sound like a lot. But—if you look at where those schools are, I think it's a tremendous credit to the communities that they value education. Including in—in Taliban strongholds, we have schools that—have girls coming to school.

HINOJOSA: Which is something that's really wonderful in the beginning of your book. When you have failed to—to scale the second highest peak in—in—in the world, and you're really devastated, and you get saved essentially and brought back to life by these people in this small village up in the mountains. And—and you realize that these kids have no school. And you write about their fierceness to learn. That's not necessarily how a lot of people may perceive these young kids, that there's a fierceness to be educated.

MORTENSON: Yeah, on fierceness, they don't have the distractions—no Nintendo, T.V. So these kids, they have to work quite a bit. They do manual labor in the fields and—and the household. But education for them is—is kind of like their greatest—joy in life. And—and you find there's a incredible learning curve.

They're riveted to their lessons. They take 'em home. They—they work with their parents, so we get these great results. And it's not all—Maria, it's not all perfect. Last year, two of our female teachers in Wolander Village (PH) and Charsea Valley (PH), which is the home of Hickmanteur (PH), who's also one of the most wanted Taliban. And—and he formally was a mujahideen (PH) and freedom fighter again the Soviet Union. And now he's become a—the U.S.'s most sought-out person.

Anyhow, in his—his village, two of our teachers resigned last fall. They're female. So I went to their houses. I talked to them. They said, "We'll only go back if the Commandant Doud (PH)," who you might say is the warlord of the local co—commander, "will order us back." So we went to his compound. He has daughters in school. He—he became furious. And now he's posted six of his militia at the school and said that if anybody even looks you know, cross-eyed at those two teachers, or—or says anything to them, that—that their orders are to shoot them. So that's not n—normally how we operate. But—(LAUGHTER)

HINOJOSA: But you know, the interesting thing, Greg, is that you talk so much about a sense of hope and positivity (PH) and trying to find these human connections. The reality is that many of these people call you an infidel. You've had fatwas (PH) put out against you. It's not as if there is a sense of open arms to what you're doing.

MORTENSON: What the fatwa was and the—the hate is coming from a few of the despot mullahs. And these are in rural illiterate society. And they control that society with their l—they're often the only literate person. Or they have some education. And they do not want education in their areas because it'll empower the people.

And furthermore, they're even more antagonistic towards girls going to school because they do know that if—if the girls have an education, when they become a mother, then they've pretty much lost their—(UNINTEL) of their power. And often it's about—more about money (UNINTEL) Islam. In many areas, for each young boy that goes to a madras, the local mullah gets say, $50 to $80 per year, which—which is a lotta money. It's probably you know, like $5000 here in the States.

And when you put in a school, often many of the kids—including the boys and girls—will go to the school. And an example, that is in Pakistan in January 2004, there were eight girls' schools bombed in Tangir Valley (PH), which is a very tribal, isolated area. And it was in response to Musharraf (PH) putting in several new schools in the Valley the year before.

But what really happened was the fact that the madras enrollment dropped from about 500 down to about 80 students in one year. Most of the boys started going to school. And so the mullahs paid some Taliban to go and—and destroy those schools.

HINOJOSA: So you have clearly faced resistance, even violence, in the projects that you're doing in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But after 9/11, you also received death threats from your fellow Americans who said, "How dare you go and try to educate Muslim children?"

MORTENSON: I was in Pakistan and Afghanistan from August until October 2001. And I decided to stay. The U.S.—other than journalists and—and some—a few humanitarian aides—most of the people left the country. And everywhere I went—you know like a—widow named Hawah (PH) brought me five eggs to bring to widows in New York. And I was really touched by what I saw.

And when I came back to States, it was Halloween—Day, 2001. Went to my—my little office in the basement. I start opening up my mail. And I start getting hate mail. And subsequently I start getting death threats. And even now with the book out, I've—we've been getting—very threatening e-mails and some phone calls.

HINOJOSA: What is the greatest misconception that we Americans have gotten because of the reporting? What is the reporting missing that we need to know?

MORTENSON: The good facts. In Afghanistan today—and I've been in about 60 cities, Maria, in the last year, talking to—you know, thousands of people. And I ask the same question. "How many of you know that in Afghanistan today there are 4.2 million children going to school, and during the Taliban time there were 800,000 kids going to school?" And—and so far, you know I'm probably talking maybe 30,000 people, not one hand has come up.

You know, that America's not aware of that. And you know, that may be what you say is a counter to those four million children in madrasahs. And—and obviously, it—it's only a drop in a bucket. But that is, to me, very positive news. And it's probably the most hopeful news that I could try to convey to the American public.

HINOJOSA: Greg, are you hopeful at this point? Do you see a light at the end of the tunnel?

MORTENSON: I do. And it's—but it's a tunnel. And Maria, it's—I—I unfortunately think it's gonna get worse before it gets better. But I do think that you know, those four million children now in Afghanistan and—and in Pakistan, and that's where the real hope is. And—and that's another decade or two down the road. And I'm hopeful, because you know, I have two children. And when I look into the eyes of my children, I see the children of Afghanistan and Pakistan. And—and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to you know, live—leave them a legacy of peace. And—

HINOJOSA: Thank you so much for joining us on Now on the News.

MORTENSON: Thank you, Maria.

HINOJOSA: Greg Mortenson is co-author of the New York Times best-seller, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time. For more information about Greg's work, you can visit our website at www.pbs.org/now. Thanks again for speaking with us, Greg.

MORTENSON: Thanks, Maria.

 

Read Alikes

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms (Fiction)

From Publishers Weekly
In her ambitious sixth novel (Dreaming Water; The Samurai's Garden), Tsukiyama tackles life in Japan before, during and after WWII. The story follows brothers Hiroshi and Kenji Matsumoto through the devastation of war and the hardships of postwar reconstruction. Orphaned when their parents were killed in a boating accident, the boys are raised by their grandparents in Tokyo. In 1939, Hiroshi is 11 and dreams of becoming a sumo champion, and soon Kenji will discover his own passion, to become a master maker of Noh masks. Their grandparents, Yoshio and Fumiko Wada, are vividly rendered; the war years and early postwar years, centered in their home on the street of the novel's title, are powerfully portrayed. Hiroshi and Kenji reach pinnacles of success in their chosen fields as well as in love, and while Tsukiyama's close attention to historical and geographical detail enriches the narrative, she isn't as successful when describing Hiroshi's wrestling career; the matches all begin to blur together. The lingering effects of war, on the other hand, are clear, and these, combined with a nation's search for pride and hope after surrender comprise the novel's oversized heart.

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children by John Wood

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. It's a rare business book that not only provides savvy insights for better business practices but transcends the category altogether, to rank as an infectiously inspiring read. Wood takes the reader on an engaging journey from his life as a rather ordinary marketing director at Microsoft through the transformative decision to launch the nonprofit organization Room to Read (www.roomtoread.org), which has created more than 2,000 schools and libraries for children across Asia. From his first trip to Nepal, where he was struck by the country's 70% illiteracy rate, through his courageous decision to leave Microsoft, to the logistics of growing and expanding the Room to Read initiative, Wood endears himself to the reader with his introspection and honesty. Crediting his former employer with giving him the business skills and drive to aim high, he outlines the concrete steps he took to make his vision a reality. Marked by sincerity and savvy, this is the kind of book that business colleagues will discuss with their acquaintances, spouses and friends.

Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11 by Thomas L. Friedman

From Publishers Weekly
"History just took a right turn into a blind alley," comments the New York Times columnist in his latest book, "and something very dear has just been taken away from us." Tackling this observation from many different angles, this lucid book, consisting of Friedman's exceptionally frank and convincing columns and an insightful post-September 11 diary, prods at the questions surrounding that day and offers an invaluable reporter's perspective on the world from outside U.S. borders. The columns, which are the bulk of the book, represent a comprehensive album of the past two years ranging from the usefulness of building a missile shield to analyzing the structure of Arab societies yet they rarely stray from the central theme of promoting thoughtful and measured consideration of the U.S.' role in the world. However, the previously unpublished diary offers the most insight to the state of the world after September 11. Stranded in Israel during the attacks, Friedman ended up traveling throughout the Middle East, discovering how the terrorist attacks affected the region and uncovering many of the roots of anti-American sentiment, which he aptly describes alongside his reflections on watching his daughter's multicultural middle-school chorus sing "God Bless America."   by Gail Tsukiyama

The Sewing Circles of Herat : A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan by Christina Lamb

From Booklist
As a journalist covering Afghanistan during the end of the war with the Soviet Union, Lamb has a unique perspective. Observing that country after the fall of the Taliban, Lamb looks back on her days reporting on the war and is deeply unsettled to learn that the rebellious "mullahs on motorbikes" who took her to the warfront became the cruel and unbending Taliban soldiers who repressed the people of Afghanistan by perverting the ideals of Islam. "Nowhere does it say men must have beards or women can not be educated," one Afghani friend of Lamb laments, "in fact on the contrary the Koran says people must seek education." Lamb speaks to the head of the most prestigious Taliban school, a princess in exile, and women who risked everything to hold classes in their houses. She also receives letters from Marri, a young woman who barely dares to hope that the Americans will liberate the Afghan people. The scope of Lamb's book sets it apart from similar works; readers will find it both comprehensive and absorbing

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books  by Azar Nafisi

From Publishers Weekly
This book transcends categorization as memoir, literary criticism or social history, though it is superb as all three. Literature professor Nafisi returned to her native Iran after a long education abroad, remained there for some 18 years, and left in 1997 for the United States, where she now teaches at Johns Hopkins. Woven through her story are the books she has taught along the way, among them works by Nabokov, Fitzgerald, James and Austen. She casts each author in a new light, showing, for instance, how to interpret The Great Gatsby against the turbulence of the Iranian revolution and how her students see Daisy Miller as Iraqi bombs fall on Tehran Daisy is evil and deserves to die, one student blurts out. Lolita becomes a brilliant metaphor for life in the Islamic republic. The desperate truth of Lolita's story is... the confiscation of one individual's life by another, Nafisi writes. The parallel to women's lives is clear: we had become the figment of someone else's dreams. A stern ayatollah, a self-proclaimed philosopher-king, had come to rule our land.... And he now wanted to re-create us. Nafisi's Iran, with its omnipresent slogans, morality squads and one central character struggling to stay sane, recalls literary totalitarian worlds from George Orwell's 1984 to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Nafisi has produced an original work on the relationship between life and literature.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Trespassing: A Novel by Uzma Aslam Khan

From Booklist
This sweeping novel of 1990s Pakistan, Khan's first to be published in the U.S., begins with a murder. Dia's father is killed, leaving her mother to run the family's profitable silk farm and textile factories. Most unlikely of all, Dia's mother wants Dia to marry not for social status but for love. Dia's story is interwoven with that of her cook's family, who moved from a coastal village to Karachi in search of work and now lives among wealth but without it. And when middle-class but American-educated Daanish returns to Karachi to bury his father, he and Dia become enmeshed in a love affair that cannot thrive in its setting. Sections of the novel are told from points of view within each of the three families, giving readers insights from a variety of political, religious, and class perspectives. Khan tackles political and religious themes as adroitly as she handles the haunting love story, and what emerges is a brilliant, lush portrait of Karachi, a metropolis teeming with corruption, violence, and social tension.

Suggested Further Reading 

Abbas, Hassan.  Pakistan's Drift into Extremism:  Allah, the Army and America's War on Terror M.E. Sharpe, 2005         Sherborn Library call number: 320.945 AB   Afghanistan: A Country Study. Claitor's Pub. Div., 2001.   Afghanistan: Lifting the Veil. Prentice Hall, 2002.   Ansary, Tamim. West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.    Sherborn Library call number: 973.04927 AN   Armstrong, Sally. Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan. Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002. Sherborn Library call number: 305.4209 AR   Benard, Cheryl. Veiled Courage : Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance. Broadway Books, 2002.   305.4209 BE   Brooks, Geraldine. Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. Doubleday, 1995.  Sherborn Library call number: 305.4869 BR Burke, Jason. On the Road to Kandahar: Travels Through Conflict in the Islamic World. St. Martin's Press, 2007. Burroughs, Jim. Blood on the Lens: A Filmmaker's Quest for Truth in Afghanistan. Potomac Books, 2007. City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore. Penguin Books, 2005.  Cohen, Stephen P. The Idea of Pakistan. Brookings Institution, 2006. Elliot, Jason. An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan. Picador USA, 2001. Fair, C. Christine. Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of U.S. Internal Security Assistance. United States Institute of Peace Press, 2006   Goodwin, William.  Pakistan  Lucent Books, 2003           Sherborn Library call number: 954.91 GO Haroon, Sana. Frontier of Faith: Islam in the Indo-Afghan Borderland. Columbia University Press, 2007. Houston, Charles S. K2, the Savage Mountain. Lyons Press, 2000. Jamie, Kathleen. Among Muslims: Everyday Life on the Frontiers of Pakistan. Seal Press, 2002.   Jones, Owen Bennett. Pakistan: Eye of the Storm. Yale University Press, 2002.  Jordan, Jennifer. Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World's Most Feared Mountain. William Morrow, 2005. Lacedelli, Lino. K2: The Price of Conquest Mountaineers Books, 2006 Latifa. My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman's Story. Talk Miramax/Hyperion, 2001. Levy, Adrian. Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons. Walker & Company, 2007 Mai, Mukhtar. In the Name of Honor: A Memoir. Atria Books, 2006. Marsden, Peter. The Taliban: War, Religion and the New Order in Afghanistan. Oxford University Press, 2002. Matinuddin, Kamal. The Taliban Phenomenon: Afghanistan 1994-1997. Oxford University Press, 1999. Mills, Nick. Karzai: The Failing American Intervention and the Struggle for Afghanistan. John Wiley, 2007. Moorhouse, Geoffrey. To the Frontier. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1985. Newby, Eric. Short Walk: A Preposterous Adventure. Doubleday, 1958. Nojumi, Neamatollah. The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War, and the Future of the Region. Palgrave, 2002. Norton, Michael. 365 Ways to Change the World: How to Make a Difference - One Day at a Time. Free Press, 2007.         Sherborn Library call number: 303.484 NO Pazira, Nelofer. A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan. Free Press, 2005. Ridgeway, Rick. The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2. Mountaineers, 1999. Rodriguez, Deborah. Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil. Random House, 2007.                                                                                                                                        Schultheis, Rob. Night Letters: Inside Wartime Afghanistan. Lyons Press, 2001. Stark, Freya. The Minaret of Djam: An Excursion in Afghanistan. J. Murray, 1970. Stewart, Rory. The Places in Between. Harcourt, 2006. Tortajada, Anna. The Silenced Cry: One Woman's Diary of a Journey to Afghanistan. Thomas Dunne Books, 2004. Weaver, Mary Anne. Pakistan: In the Shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.      Sherborn Library call number:  954.91 WE Yousaf, Mohammad. The Battle for Afghanistan: The Soviets Versus the Mujahideen During the 1980s.  Pen & Sword Military, 2007.   Zoya. Zoya's Story: An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom. William Morrow, 2002.

                                                   Discussion Guide
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/three_cups_of_tea.html

1. There is a telling passage about Mortenson’s change of direction at the start of the book: “One evening, he went to bed by a yak dung fire a mountaineer who’d lost his way, and one morning, by the time he’d shared a pot of butter tea with his hosts and laced up his boots, he’d become a humanitarian who’d found a meaningful path to follow for the rest of his life.” What made Mortenson particularly ripe for such a transformation? Has anything similar happened in your own life?
2. Relin gives a “warts and all” portrait of Mortenson, showing him as a hero but also as a flawed human being with some exasperating traits. Talk about how Relin chose to write about Mortenson’s character—his choice of details, his perspective, the way he constructs scenes. Is Mortenson someone you’d like to get to know, work with, or have as a neighbor or friend?
3. At the heart of the book is a powerful but simple political message: we each as individuals have the power to change the world, one cup of tea at a time. Yet the book powerfully dramatizes the obstacles in the way of this philosophy: bloody wars waged by huge armies, prejudice, religious extremism, cultural barriers. What do you think of the “one cup of tea at a time” philosophy? Do you think Mortenson’s vision can work for lasting and meaningful change?
4. Have you ever known anyone like Mortenson? Have you ever had the experience of making a difference yourself through acts of generosity, aid, or leadership?
5. The Balti people are fierce yet extremely hospitable, kind yet rigid, determined to better themselves yet stuck in the past. Discuss your reactions to them and the other groups that Mortenson tries to help.
6. After Haji Ali’s family saves Greg’s life, he reflects that he could never “imagine discharging the debt he felt to his hosts in Korphe.” Discuss this sense of indebtedness as key to Mortenson’s character. Why was Mortenson compelled to return to the region again and again? In your opinion, does he repay his debt by the end of the book?
7. References to paradise run throughout the book—Mortenson’s childhood home in Tanzania, the mountain scenery, even Berkeley, California, are all referred to as “paradise.” Discuss the concept of paradise, lost and regained, and how it influences Mortenson’s mission.
8. Mortenson’s transition from climbing bum to humanitarian hero seems very abrupt. However, looking back, it’s clear that his sense of mission is rooted in his childhood, the values of his parents, and his relationship with his sister Christa. Discuss the various facets of Mortenson’s character—the freewheeling mountain climber, the ER nurse, the devoted son and brother, and the leader of a humanitarian cause. Do you view him as continuing the work his father began?
9. “I expected something like this from an ignorant village mullah, but to get those kinds of letters from my fellow Americans made me wonder whether I should just give up,” Mortenson remarked after he started getting hate mail in the wake of September 11. What was your reaction to the letters Mortenson received?
10. Mortenson hits many bumps in the road—he’s broke, his girlfriend dumps him, he is forced to build a bridge before he can build the school, his health suffers, and he drives his family crazy. Discuss his repeated brushes with failure and how they influenced your opinion of Mortenson and his efforts.
11. The authors write that “the Balti held the key to a kind of uncomplicated happiness that was disappearing in the developing world.” This peaceful simplicity of life seems to be part of what attracts Mortenson to the villagers. Discuss the pros and cons of bringing “civilization” to the mountain community.
12. Much of the book is a meditation on what it means to be a foreigner assimilating with another culture. Discuss your own experiences with foreign cultures—things that you have learned, mistakes you have made, misunderstandings you have endured.
13. Did the book change your views toward Islam or Muslims? Consider the cleric Syed Abbas, and also the cleric who called a fatwa on Mortenson. Syed Abbas implores Americans to “look into our hearts and see that the great majority of us are not terrorists, but good and simple people.” Discuss this statement. Has the book inspired you to learn more about the region?

Donna Bryant, Webmaster. Please direct questions or comments about this website to referencelibrarian@comcast.net Last updated: July 17, 2008 http://library.sherbornma.org/