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Would the Taliban Accept Greg Mortenson's Schools for Kids Across Afghanistan and Pakistan?
Thu, 2010-07-29 07:54
#1
Would the Taliban Accept Greg Mortenson's Schools for Kids Across Afghanistan and Pakistan?
Thu, 2010-07-29 07:59
#2
From a column by Nicholas D. Kristof in today's NYTimes. Readers of Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools would like to know the answer to this question...and how to bring about the condition:
"CARE, a humanitarian organization, operates 300 schools in Afghanistan, and not one has been burned by the Taliban. Greg Mortenson, of "Three Cups of Tea" fame, has overseen the building of 145 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan and operates dozens more in tents or rented buildings - and he says that not one has been destroyed by the Taliban either.
Aid groups show that it is quite possible to run schools so long as there is respectful consultation with tribal elders and buy-in from them. And my hunch is that CARE and Mr. Mortenson are doing more to bring peace to Afghanistan than Mr. Obama's surge of troops.
The American military has been eagerly reading "Three Cups of Tea" but hasn't absorbed the central lesson: building schools is a better bet for peace than firing missiles (especially when one cruise missile costs about as much as building 11 schools).
Mr. Mortenson lamented to me that for the cost of just 246 soldiers posted for one year, America could pay for a higher education plan for all Afghanistan. That would help build an Afghan economy, civil society and future - all for one-quarter of 1 percent of our military spending in Afghanistan this year.
The latest uproar over Pakistani hand-holding with the Afghan Taliban underscores that billions of dollars in U.S. military aid just doesn't buy the loyalty it used to."
Thu, 2010-07-29 15:35
#3
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In a recent immigration court case involving Turkish Islamic Leader, Fetullah Gulen, US prosecutors exposed an illegal, covert, CIA operation involving the intentional Islamization of Central Asia. This operation has been ongoing since the fall of the Soviet Union in an ongoing Cold War to control the vast energy resources of the region - Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - estimated to be worth $3 trillion.
The CIA and their ISI friends absolutely love radical Islam enough to pour billions of dollars into the building and running of thousands of masrassas in an effort to purge Central Asia of secular socialist thought since the 1980s and ongoing today. They need enemies and to destabilize other countries for fun and profit. Murder Inc love fomenting militant Islam and undermining pro-democracy movements in Central Asia. It's what they do.
Thu, 2010-07-29 16:43
#4
Bec.De.Corbin
From CARE.ORG
http://www.care.org/newsroom/articles/2009/11/Knowledge_on_Fire_Report.pdf
Long but loaded with lots of data... on school attacks.
A small sample that relates to this post...
Risk Factor #2: Schools as a symbol of government
According to a database analysis, government schools are without doubt more frequently attacked thanschools run by NGOs, suggesting very strongly that they are attacked at least in part as a symbol of thecentral government. Threats often refer to a community's or teacher's collaboration with the government and threaten severe consequences should such collaboration - including the receipt of a government salary - continue. Although this study was unable to establish a firm linkage, a possible hypothesis is that the physical government schoolhouse structure may be one element of this risk factor, as most NGO schools are located in private homes or otherwise non-traditional structures. Until more data is collected about the type of structure attacked in each instance this correlation will be difficult to ascertain.
Thu, 2010-07-29 19:21
#5
Yes, it seemed to me on reading Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools that the very isolated areas that Mortenson chose to work in and the degree to which the locals really wanted schooling for all the kids, made his work a bit of an anomaly. One could also surmise that that also saved his life. It seemed that even the very isolated tribal leaders knew that in education lay hope for the future of the villages' kids...boys and girls. The Saudi funders of madrassas, of course, have other objectives in mind.
Fri, 2010-07-30 00:35
#6
From a column by Nicholas D. Kristof in today's NYTimes. Readers of Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools would like to know the answer to this question...and how to bring about the condition:
"CARE, a humanitarian organization, operates 300 schools in Afghanistan, and not one has been burned by the Taliban. Greg Mortenson, of "Three Cups of Tea" fame, has overseen the building of 145 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan and operates dozens more in tents or rented buildings - and he says that not one has been destroyed by the Taliban either.
Aid groups show that it is quite possible to run schools so long as there is respectful consultation with tribal elders and buy-in from them. And my hunch is that CARE and Mr. Mortenson are doing more to bring peace to Afghanistan than Mr. Obama's surge of troops.
The American military has been eagerly reading "Three Cups of Tea" but hasn't absorbed the central lesson: building schools is a better bet for peace than firing missiles (especially when one cruise missile costs about as much as building 11 schools).
Mr. Mortenson lamented to me that for the cost of just 246 soldiers posted for one year, America could pay for a higher education plan for all Afghanistan. That would help build an Afghan economy, civil society and future - all for one-quarter of 1 percent of our military spending in Afghanistan this year.
The latest uproar over Pakistani hand-holding with the Afghan Taliban underscores that billions of dollars in U.S. military aid just doesn't buy the loyalty it used to."
Yes, I've heard of Mr. Mortenson and his good work.
Thanks for posting this, George.
In the end Mr. Mortenson will be proven right. His schools will remain in Afghanistan long after all our troops have gone.
Fri, 2010-07-30 02:16
#7
I'm sure the people of Afghanistan are thrilled that a white western man is showing them how to run schools. What would those people do without us enlightened (and lightened), civilized folks?
The e-mail message (from General McCrystal) was in response to a note of support from [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/world/asia/18tea.html]Mr. Mortenson.[/url] [b]It reflected his broad and deepening relationship with the United States military,[/b] 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.
So he's just another camp following scumbag. The people of Afghanistan are quite adept at dealing with imperialist collaborators like him.
Fri, 2010-07-30 02:35
#8
Timebandit
I'm curious to know how many girls attend the schools. I was under the impression that the Taliban oppose education of females.
Fri, 2010-07-30 09:58
#9
I'm curious to know how many girls attend the schools. I was under the impression that the Taliban oppose education of females.
In a CBC Radio interview Mr. Mortenson related how a former Taliban government minister turned a blind eye to an underground girls school because his daughter and the daughters of his friends and neighbors attended that school. This hushed activity, although the numbers weren't huge, occurred throught the country.
The situation seems to be similar today.
Fri, 2010-07-30 10:24
#10
I'm sure the people of Afghanistan are thrilled that a white western man is showing them how to run schools. What would those people do without us enlightened (and lightened), civilized folks?
The e-mail message (from General McCrystal) was in response to a note of support from [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/world/asia/18tea.html]Mr. Mortenson.[/url] [b]It reflected his broad and deepening relationship with the United States military,[/b] 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.So he's just another camp following scumbag. The people of Afghanistan are quite adept at dealing with imperialist collaborators like him.
Former Mujahedeen commanders have been among the first in line to support the schools in their villages. Unlike some in the West, they understand that schooling is the only hope for their sons AND daughters in the future. But then the enlightened there in the mountains understand that the first step comes with actually daring to open a book. :)
Fri, 2010-07-30 10:33
#11
I'm curious to know how many girls attend the schools. I was under the impression that the Taliban oppose education of females.
All the kids in those villages attend, Timebandit. It is not something that the Taliban can control out there in hill country. And of course, it is only the sickness of the Madrassas and their Saudi financiers that bring sexism and death into schools out there. You have to read how some girls aspire to be trained as nurses and return to work in their villages to understand their own take on the importance of all this. I'm not sure what would happen were those schools to be built in Taliban-controlled areas. I looked for Mortenson's observations on this and could not see any in either book. They are a good read, by the way, and Mortenson does not pull punches in his observations on the military there...although he was optimistic a couple of years back in "Stones." Haven't read anything on recent doings.
Fri, 2010-07-30 14:38
#12
Bec.De.Corbin
I'm sure the people of Afghanistan are thrilled that a white western man is showing them how to run schools. What would those people do without us enlightened (and lightened), civilized folks?
Errr... Jingles... you do realize many Afgahans, Taliban included, are in fact "white people"...Caucasian to be more correct.
Just look at some of the kids we're talking about...
I don't know about you but I see white people.