Three Cups Of Tea

[observor 69]

One of the best books I have read for a while.

"Unlikely Tutor Giving Military Afghan Advice
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON — In the frantic last hours of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s command in Afghanistan, when the world wondered what was racing through the general’s mind, he reached out to an unlikely corner of his life: the author of the book “Three Cups of Tea,” Greg Mortenson.

“Will move through this and if I’m not involved in the years ahead, will take tremendous comfort in knowing people like you are helping Afghans build a future,” General McChrystal wrote to Mr. Mortenson in an e-mail message, as he traveled from Kabul to Washington. The note landed in Mr. Mortenson’s inbox shortly after 1 a.m. Eastern time on June 23. Nine hours later, the general walked into the Oval Office to be fired by President Obama.

The e-mail message was in response to a note of support from Mr. Mortenson. It reflected his broad and deepening relationship with the United States military, whose leaders have increasingly turned to Mr. Mortenson, once a shaggy mountaineer, to help translate the theory of counterinsurgency into tribal realities on the ground.

In the past year, Mr. Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute, responsible for the construction of more than 130 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, mostly for girls, have set up some three dozen meetings between General McChrystal or his senior staff members and village elders across Afghanistan.


I will let the New York times article quoted above expalin further.:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/world/asia/18tea.html?_r=1&ref=greg_mortenson

Three Cups Of Tea at Amazon.ca

http://www.amazon.ca/Three-Cups-Tea-Greg-Mortenson/dp/0143038257/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1280338281&sr=1-2

Greg Mortenson link

https://www.ikat.org/about-cai/

 

[kincanucks]

Just finished it a few minutes ago.  An excellent book.  Goes to show what can be accomplished without bombs and bullets.  I have a new hero, Greg Mortenson.  Read this book now!

PS - Ordered Stones into Schools, which documents Greg Mortenson's work from 2003 onwards.

 

[dimsum]

I liked Stones into Schools more than Three Cups of Tea, but both are excellent. 

 

[Danneskjold]

I can also vouch for Three Cups of Tea. It's both well-written and supremely inspiring.

Dimsum, does Stones into Schools take off where Three Cups of Tea left off? Or does it simply go into more detail about his work in Pakistan?

 

[dimsum]

Stones into Schools continues where Three Cups of Tea left off, and continues with his work in Afghanistan.

 

[leroi]

Mortensen's work is almost a miracle by today's standards.  To think, he started the Central Asia Institute while living from his car (and a storage locker).  With zero dollars and a typewriter he wrote 500 letters-and got one lucky answer back.  Haven't looked recently at the statistics, but last time I looked  his Central Asia Institute had given 55,000 children a secular education in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

[RememberanceDay]

Awesome books, deserves much more recognition than it gets  :evil: :fifty:


Another one is Free The Children. Must read, even better than three cups of tea in some ways.

 

[Danneskjold]

On a whim, I picked up a little book called "Three Cups of Deceit":

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Three-Cups-Deceit-How-Greg-Jon-Krakauer/9780307948762-item.html

The author (probably best known for his book "Where Men Win Glory") essentially demonstrates, with reference to documents and interviews, that some of the critical and more awe-inspiring passages of "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones into Schools" are outright lies, and suggests that some - if not many - of the schools set up by Mortenson's organization (the Central Asia Institute) are empty for lack of supplies, lack of teachers, or impractical access.

It's a gripping and somewhat depressing read, and it evokes the perennial question of whether it is just to deceive in support of a good cause. Though I surely will not donate any more money to the CAI, I put the book down without feeling scammed; despite the probable deceit sown throughout Mortenson's books and the CAI's activities, I am confident that they have nevertheless fought an important battle on the side, while NATO troops engaged the enemy in the more conventional sense.

I recommend looking into the book to anybody who found Mortenson's novels as inspiring as I did.