Tonight I had the rare opportunity to not only meet but also help interview (I managed the sound equipment) a New York best selling author. When I first met David Oliver Relin, I didn't have a clue of who he was other than he had written a book, heck, I didn't even know it was a best seller or even its title. You want to talk about ignorance, I'm feeling like a train wreck of it.
So, we finish our little interview and I shook David's hand a few times thanking him for allowing us to interview him. I'm sitting here thinking how cool that we have a great way to kick-start podcasting at the high school library when I should be thinking how cool it was to meet such an amazing man. Don't get me wrong, Mr. Relin was a cool guy and very personable... I'm just an idiot.
Fortunately for the train wreck, I was intrigued enough to stick around to hear him talk. He talked about his book, Three Cups of Tea, like any good author, but more importantly he talked about rural Pakistan and how the lack of educational opportunities, like the ones you and I take for granted daily, affect the local people, the region, the country, and ultimately the whole world. One of the things that he continued to stress is his concern that the words "Muslim" and "terrorist" are sometimes used interchangeably, when they shouldn't, and how this war on terror (aka the Afghanistan and Iraq wars) doesn't necessarily solve our terrorist problem. It just gets rid of some of the symptoms. The true way to solve the global terrorist problem is with education.
The more we (the world) can educate the underprivileged and poor people of the world, the greater our chances are of preventing extremist groups from capturing these peoples minds and using them against everyone. I'm not just talking about Americans and the rest of the Western world. I'm also talking about the friends and families of the people that terrorists recruit. Mr. Relin made a very valid point: extremest groups want people who feel like they have nothing to live for. Someone with an education usually does not have this problem because they know there are other options. Someone who wants to be a doctor, scientist, accountant, baker, or whatever they want to aspire to, has "suicide bomber" as the furthest thing from their mind.
I keep hearing that we need to educate the women and girls of middle eastern countries. Until now, I assumed the only reason was that women have fewer educational opportunities due to oppression. In reality, there is a very good logic behind educating the women and girls of these countries: If you educate a boy, he'll have a tendency to leave his hometown (usually for a bigger one) because of the opportunities. If you educate a girl, she will have a tendency to stay in her community, but will also pass that education on to her children, continuing the educational process.
So, everyone who is reading this, I beseech you, go get a copy of Three Cups of Tea and read it. If you plan to buy it from Amazon.com ANYWAY, use the link on the Three Cups of Tea website to have up to 7% of the proceeds donated to the Central Asia Institute. It looks like the current cost of the book is $8.25 USD
I know I didn't mention it earlier in the post, the Central Asia Institute is the non-profit organization responsible for building schools in rural Pakistan (If you haven't figured it out, this is a good thing). The good news, unlike the Canadian exchange rate, the exchange to Pakistan is insane. Our dollar goes a lot further over there ($1 = about 63 Rupees) . What this means is even a small donation can help a lot.
Other ways you can help:
Start a Pennies for Peace program at your local school, place of work, local gym, etc. (100% of all donations through Pennies for Peace go to building schools for the Central Asia Institute)
Buy the book, Three Cups of Tea, for a friend, family member, co-worker, whoever.
I'll be posting the link to the interview here in a few days, so stay tuned.
David, if you read this (thank you), and if you see an error in the information, please feel free to let me know. If you are reading this, you already have my email ;)
Authors: Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Publisher: Viking
ISBN: 0670034827
Book Website: http://www.threecupsoftea.com
Central Asia Institute Website: http://www.ikat.org
Pennies for Peace Website: http://www.penniesforpeace.org
Greg Mortenson's Website: http://www.gregmortenson.com
David Oliver Relin's Website: http://www.davidoliverrelin.com
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