e see one man who didn't waste time asking those questions. Instead, he saw a need, and was determined to provide for it.
Greg Mortenson first became acquainted with Pakiston in 1993 when he attempted and failed to climb K2, a large mountain in the area. He almost died in the process, but was nursed to health in a rural Balti village. At that time, he saw how desperate the children were for an education, but their village could not afford to pay a teacher. Instead, they got together with another village to share a teacher who would teach three days in each village. Even without a teacher there, the children would get together to study, without a building to study in.
That began a long journey that started with 580 letters painstakingly typed (300 on a typewriter until he learned how to use a computer), in hope of acquiring the funds to build a single school. Unfortunately, it didn't yield many results. In fact, besides a little over $600 that was raised by Elementary school children and a single check for $100, success did not come until after the American Himalayan Foundation published an article in their newsletter about Mortenson's efforts. That resulted in a call from Jean Hoerni who became Mortenson's principle supporter. He provided the funds to build that single school, and kept supporting him, eventually establishing the Central Asia Institute (see www.ikat.org) with Mortenson as the director. Mortenson went on to build dozens of schools in other rural areas of Pakistan and eventually in Afghanistan as well, and he continues his endeavors. The CAI is particularly dedicated to bringing education to girls.
I would like to share one particular passage that I find very touching:
--Haji Ali spoke. "If you want to thrive in Balistan, you must respect our ways," Haji Ali said, blowing on his bowl. "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 teach, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die," he said laying his hand warmly on Mortenson's own. "Doctor Greg, you must take time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time."
"That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I've ever learned in my life," Mortenson says. "We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We're the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills. Our leaders thought their 'shock and awe' campaign could end the war in Iraq before it even started. Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them."-- (pg. 150)
I really think that this is the key to peace in the world. We have to build bridges of trust. Terrorism's largest tools are propaganda and uneducation, or lack of a good education. Uneducated people do no feel that they have any options, educated ones know that they do. In that area of the world, sometimes the only education opportunity is at an extremist madrassa. With propaganda being taught to children, it is no wonder that they grow up to be terrorists. But if another opportunity is presented, they have a chance to escape that kind of education.
But, in my personal opinion, education is not enough. It is a start, and a necessary one, but education alone will not win the war on terrorism. This war is, or really should be, a war on propaganda. I've been doing a lot of reading about counterterrorism this semester since that has been the focus of my Russian senior paper. In reading about counterterrorism, I've also been reading about terrorism. One paper that I read put things into perspective (Rethinking Terrorsm and Counterterrism by Bruce Hoffman), "the weapons of modern terrorism critically are not only the guns and bombs that they have long been, but the mini-cam, videotape, television, and the Internet." In the same way that the media often portrays only one side of a story (usually the most interesting), terrorist organizations are able to use technology to portray things in a light that justifies their actions. This propaganda is used to recruit followers to their cause. Not only uneducated, backwards people become terrorists. There are highly educated terrorists, too. So why do they become terrorists? Some probably do it for money and power, but there are others who do it because they feel oppressed as a minority group. This is where the bridges of trust come in. We have to reach out to those groups and hear their complaints. We need to understand what is most frustrating for them so we can address those issues. I've talked about this a lot in regards to the Palestine-Israeli conflict. The Palestinians feel they have no other recourse but through violent acts. This is the only way their voice can be heard (or so they think). But I don't think this just characterizes that conflict. It characterizes many of the world's terrorists.
So there you have it. That is my solution to terrorism: education and listening to the complaints of people. Those are the only ways that I can see to effectively combat the propaganda of terrorist organizations.
I would highly recommend reading this book, if you can get your hands on it. Maybe it will inspire you to make a difference in the world.
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