8
Going to school on Afghans' problems
Greg Mortenson
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TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Kai Ryssdal: This recession has been global. Lost jobs and lower incomes all over the world. Bad as it's been in modern economies, though, it's been worse in developing countries and war zones -- where people were in need even before the economy collapsed. That's made the work of charities and their donors more critical than ever.
Our philanthropy series today has us looking overseas. To a place the president was talking about just last night. In Afghanistan, millions of people are hungry and homeless and jobless. Steve Henn told us at the top of the broadcast, along with those 30,000 troops, the U.S. will be sending more aid to the region as well. To push back against the Taliban and make things more stable.
Author Greg Mortenson -- the best-seller "Three Cups of Tea" was his first book -- has been in and out of Afghanistan for almost 20 years. He says the solution to Afghanistan's problems should start with education.
GREG MORTENSON: I grew up in Tanzania for 14 years and there I learned a proverb that says, "If you educate a boy, we can educate an individual; and if we educate a girl, we can educate a community."
The organization Mortenson founded, the Central Asia Institute, has built more than 130 schools, mostly for girls, in the most remote parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. His approach to delivering the aid, and how he decides where to put the schools, puts him apart from most other aid groups.
MORTENSON: I learned both from my father and a wise old village chief ... let the people make the decisions. And that's the basis of all our efforts. We provide skilled labor, materials, teacher training, but the community has to provide free land, free resources, free sweat equity, meaning 2 to 5,000 days of free manual labor. But they also make the decisions.
Ryssdal: So that they have skin in the game, right?
MORTENSON: Yeah.
Ryssdal: Where does your group, the Central Asia Institute, get its money? Where do you get your resources?
MORTENSON: We're a private nonprofit. Ninety-four percent of our money is private. From day one we've never taken a dime of federal money. It frees us up so we're not perceived as an instrument of the U.S. government. So we can freely talk with the U.S. military commanders or the Taliban or anybody that we want to.
Ryssdal: But here you are in the midst of a horrible recession, and globally at that, and you have to convince people to give you money, how do you do that? What's your sales pitch?
MORTENSON: We basically don't have any sales pitch. I've gone to marketing schools, and they say how can you go out without asking for money. We do write about what we do. But I think the key, at least for us, is -- although it might sound fairly insignificant -- is children. We have a program called Pennies for Peace, and that's a program where children learn about philanthropy. They're also encouraged to do things on their own. And last year we raised $1.4 million just from Pennies.
Ryssdal: Quantify that for me. What can $1 million do for your institute?
MORTENSON: You could build 40 to 50 schools. And over the term of maybe 20-30 years educate about 100,000 children.
Ryssdal: Make the connection for me between education and peace.
MORTENSON: I really think the key to peace in the world is education. But what it is, is it's really about ignorance and hatred. And to overcome that what we need is education, we need tolerance.
Ryssdal: As a guy who has spent years and years and years in Afghanistan, and given the level of political attention that that country is getting here today, what is your perception of how Afghanistan is doing?
MORTENSON: Well, there's still reason to be optimistic, and there's still hope. One of the most exciting things to me has been to see the huge learning curve in the U.S. military. I was actually fairly critical. I'm a veteran but I was fairly critical of the military in my first book "Three Cups of Tea." I called the soldiers laptop warriors because there was no boots on the ground. They were running around with their high-tech gear and really not understanding any cultural nuances.
But I can say now, having been on the ground and met with thousands of servicemen, I really think that they really get it. The reason for that is a lot of the strategy now is based on first empowering the elders -- these are the shura, these are the tribal leaders -- the ability to listen more, and number three, basically having more tea, building relationships with the elders.
Ryssdal: Greg Mortenson is the founder of the Central Asia Institute. His first book was called "Three Cups of Tea." His new book is called "Stones into Schools." Greg, thanks a lot.
MORTENSON: Thanks, Kai.
It was education--the religious schools created by Pakistan's ISI--that created the Taliban, or "students". So why not educate "in the other direction"?
Indeed, educate the future mothers, and they will regulate child birth plus educate their children. It has always been said, to predict the future of a society, look closely at what its children are doing.
We are reading 3 Cups of Tea (young readers' version) in our middle school class at Summit Academy. We had this very discussion Wednesday morning after President's speech! What a great connection for them. We will play this interview in class soon. We also are starting a Pennies For Peace program right after the holidays!
Mr. Mortensen is an amazing man and so inspirational. He sees that education is much more powerful than guns and war. If only more people could understand this simple concept. Books cost a lot less than amunition and they spread knowledge, not blood shed.
I love what Sara just said.
But there has to be a dialgue - a no agression agreement from both sides. How is it that people who are very different from one another can have a dialog about their differences, and then others are going at it ? The U.S. has been too militaristic, and too passive in doling out the foreign aid and then the dictators do what they want. Better to elect leaders, pay taxes, and have more say.
Greg Mortenson and CAI are doing what I feel is needed to counteract extremism and help the citizens of Afghanistan and Pakistan to build their countries: Help communities to conduct people-centered development that will improve lives for the long term. Let communities decide what they need, then provide the skilled craftsmen, specialized materials etc. to make it happen. Make it the community's project. As the community becomes involved, and as quality of life inproves as a result, extremism will become less and less attractive.
This is what we need much more of!
Thanks Kai!
Today, while musing about President Obama's announcement to send more troops to Afghanistan, I thought two things:1.) I don't like it; having seen footage of the Russian /Afghanistan conflict, my heart and stomach turned. 2.) What would Greg Mortenson say about this addition of US Military?
Of all the guys in the world I would want the perspective of, it is his...
It has now been years since the Russians retreated, and years of Greg Mortenson's devoted relationship to the people of Afghanistan - if he feels that we might effect change for the good, I'm more hopeful than I was at the start of today.
I agree that education should be a large part of what we're doing, along with similar reconstruction. I do not agree with the previous commenter that education might be able to convert the Taliban or al Qaeda into allies. The point of education and other reconstruction is not to convert our enemies; rather, it is to convert our enemies' least enthusiastic supporters and those who would otherwise be the next generation of our enemies. Our enemies are our enemies because of who we are, not because we invaded them. We must not believe their propaganda.
Wonderful to have this man's opinion, thank you. Sounds like he has many years of experience in Afghanistan and he says something that I believe in and have not been able to put into words as well. "Educate a woman and you educate a village." Or almost those words is what he said. My feelings today were that the way we announced we were going into Afghanistan was bound to stimulate aggression. I wish we would say it so much better. That we are not sending troops there to exterminate human beings but that we would like to hear what their doctrine is and to enlighten them about a more democratic doctrine that would work for their society better. Namely to give equal democracy to the females in their society rather than continuing on to mistreat, rape and dehumanize them. Taliban and Al Queda alike would benefit from a more democratic doctrine. And we could mirror what Hillary Clinton has said, which is that we should not assume Taliban or Al Queda. And then even that Al Queda may not be set in their doctrine. Just desperate for a supporting network. We could give support rather than frighten them into more aggression and I would bet that we would cut down on our casualties as well as their. Not everyone is Osama Bin Laden and I am sure there are Al Queda members who are just lost.
Education and equality of women should be our emphasis as well as to ask what they want and to make suggestions that do NOT include suicide bombing or aggression.
