I am sure that many people around here are familiar with Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea, a book about building schools in the remote areas of Pakistan. Mr. Mortenson's organization, The Central Asia Institute continues to do great work in areas that desperately need it, and Stones Into Schools is the new book chronicling their heroic efforts in poor and remote areas, and areas devastated by war and natural disasters like the earthquake that decimated much of Kashmir in October of 2005.
Instead of doing a book review, I'm going to share some of my impressions, and then highlight a couple things I found surprising in the book. I'll finish with how we can support his efforts.
Impressions
In general, I found this book more engaging than Three Cups of Tea. He's already established his organization and now you get to learn about what he's found that works. I am awestruck by the humility, the courage and the love for humanity that Greg Mortenson displays. He treats everyone with respect and there's no condescending in him. As a result he has built a staff of Afghanis and Pakistanis who work like the devil to make their part of the world better and beat the Taliban the only way they really can be beaten--with love, courage and giving people a better option. They are all in danger frequently, but delivering education to the children, boys and particularly girls, is their mission.
The maps in the front of this book are invaluable. While reading if you keep referring back to them you have a much better feel for the region and what is going on in the news reports that you hear. They are worth the price of the book alone.
What Was Surprising?
In the second half of the book Greg had many good things to say about the US military and their counterinsurgency work (COIN), particularly Colonel Kolenda in the Northern Kunar region. This area is right on the AfPak border north of the Khyber pass, and it was/is Taliban country. Col. Kolenda, however, took Three Cups of Tea to heart and invited Greg in to build some schools in his area. The CAI builds their schools with complete buy-in from the locals. Col. Kolenda already knew all the local leaders and they met with Greg's organization to get their schools built. Since their schools have been built they have withstood Taliban threats and attempts at intimidation. Education, after Soviet Occupation and decades of war is the most important thing to them. They will not back down about having all their children educated.
In the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir, the devastation was overwhelming. Greg's CAI did manage to get some people in there to provide relief and eventually get an earthquake proof school built, but the radicals were in there recruiting before anyone else. When they talk about hearts and minds, the disasters are fertile ground for recruiting. If we really want to win over there we have to do better with those kinds of efforts. Relief efforts, however, need to be disciplined and work with the populations being relieved. As Greg points out so well in this section the local population knows best how to solve their problems--they need materials and assistance, not sanctimonious NGOs telling them what to do. This is CAI and Greg's greatest strength--they listen to people, and this is much harder than most people realize.
What Can You Do To Help?
As listed in the back of the book:
Go to www.stonesintoschools.com
Go to www.penniesfor peace.org and get your local school involved.
Buy the book, suggest it for your book club, buy it for friends and family; donate one to your local library. If you buy through Amazon or Ingram up to 7% of your purchase goes to CAI.
Write about it on book review websites. Get you local paper or radio station to review the book.
Tax-deductable contributions can go to:
Central Asia Institute
PO Box 7209
Bozeman, MT 59771
(406) 585-7841
If there's a way forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan that has a chance of working--this is it.