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Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations . . . One School at a Time | 
 enlarge | Author: Greg Mortenson
Publisher: Viking
Category: EBooks
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $9.00
You Save: $6.00 (40%)
Rating:  1210 reviews
Sales Rank: 7
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Dewey Decimal Number: 371.82209549
ASIN: B000OT8GTO
Publication Date: March 22, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban's backyard. Anyone who despairs of the individual's power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan's treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools especially for girls that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson's quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1205 more reviews...
Boys and Girls: Raining on this Happy Parade August 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yes, this is a marvelous tale of compassion and dedication. But there are reasons to fear that it's sadly misdirected and may not accomplish all that it might.
The problem lies in the basic mission of the Central Asia Institute as stated on their website (ikat dot org): "To Promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan." That's backed up by the picture at the top of that web page, which has what appears to be four girls and a single boy reading books, the boy appearing smaller, more withdrawn, and slightly separated from the girls. The girls belong to a group. He is an outsider. The cover of this book displays an even greater bias. It shows three girls and no boys.
Educating girls is good. Educating boys is good. But educating girls in preference to boys is a prescription for disaster, particularly in that culture and at this time in history. Why? Because in that volatile, ideologically driven culture, it creates the danger that education will become something that girls do and boys don't. Boys will seek meaning elsewhere, particularly in drugs and violence, both easily available in that region. The more Western the education being given to girls, the more anti-Western these boys will become. And if I had to state which side would win, it would be those angry young men. Size, strength, and violence trump all else. These schools may meet with less opposition than they would have met had they laid special stress on educating boys instead. Greg Mortenson's foes may know something he doesn't.
Last year, a friend talked to me about programs in Africa that help women set up small businesses. When I asked him what that would mean for all the now-unnecessary young men, deprived of any role in family life, he had no answer. When I pointed out to him that a few thousand angry young men could reduce the typical African country to absolute chaos, nullifying all the good those programs for women might accomplish, he still had no answer.
Not amount of politically correct dogma can erase one important fact. If you want to establish a healthy, stable society, you need devote much greater effort to turning boys into the right sort of men than you do teaching girls to be women. Feminist may rage, but biology drives what girls become. Culture determines whether boys become dedicated fathers or angry, sexual predators.
If they truly want to "fight terrorism and build nations one school at at time," Greg Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute need to reverse their emphasis, taking on the far more difficulty task of training and educating boys to be men. Otherwise, I fear much of their effort may be in vain and even counterproductive.
--Michael W. Perry
Education is productive, war is not August 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Greg is an inspiration. I hope to take the message of his book and contribute in someway myself. At a time when I disagree so whole-heartedly with the way our government is conducting itself, it is nice to find someone like Greg to give us hope. Would these "evil terrorists" as George W. would call them, even exist if they had an opportunity to have a balanced education. Something we American's take for granted. The heroics come not form being proud, having to puff out our chest and show that we are something. No, heroics is true compassion, it is a humble man like Greg and all of those who support him. This is a book that everyone should read.
Great Story, timely topic August 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an amazing book. As many other reviewers have said, it may even change your life. Greg Mortensen's story is a real page-turner and in the end I think you will say something like: "Wow. I had no idea. In the face of incredible obstacles, one person with a heart can have a huge impact."
Read this book. Give a copy to a friend.
Three Cups of Tea August 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book is excellent and vividly written. My Great Books Club is studying it in October and both the author and Greg Mortenson are coming to give programs in Rockford, IL this fall. I hope to catch them both. And Amazon - thank you for all the great service and no screw-ups all these years! Marion Wilke
Books instead of bombs August 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Everyone should read this inspirational book that takes readers into the heart of a foreign land most will never set foot upon. I am amazed at the challenges that Greg Mortensen faced, yet still he forged onward despite obstacle after obstacle. Unable to summit the world's second highest peak in the Himalaya, Mortensen stumbles upon a village called Korphe in his descent after almost losing his life on K2. Befriended by these humble, loyal people, Mortensen vows to build a school for this village. This promise turns into decades, and a lifetime, of revolutionizing Pakistan and Afghanistan's educational systems.
If anyone questions the heroism in Mortensen and the slew of financial supporters in the United States and the core group in Pakistan, it is evidenced by the thousands of school children that would never have received the education that they were afforded if not by the Central Asia Institute (CAI). The most phenomenal aspect of this book is that it successfully illustrates how consequential are the negative stereotypes Westerners have of Islamic culture. Relin and Mortensen beautifully illustrate the peaceloving men and women of this region and how poverty and ignorance are more responsible for the dilemmas of religious extremism far more than anything else. Though this book most certainly does not primarily serve as a critique on the US's role in Iraq, the book keenly and sadly sheds light on America's major missteps and failures in the war through the personal testimonies of the people he meets. Mortensen and the CIA's efforts to bring books to Pakistan and Afghanistan- rather than bombs- was a major effort of bravery, courage, and determination and one that hauntingly illustrates the unnecessary loss of human life.
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