I have just finished reading Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations. . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I’ve been thinking for a while that I should post some book reviews here and this seemed a good place to start.
Three Cups of Tea is about Greg Mortenson and his mission to build schools for girls in Pakistan and Afganistan. After a failed attempt to climb K2, the second highest peak in the world, Mortenson recuperated in a mountain villiage. It was there he became aware of the lack of schools in the region and made a promise to come back to that villiage to build a school. That promise was eventually met, and Morenton is now the director of the Central Asia Institute, building schools in Pakistan and Afganistan.
I approached the book with some reservation. If nothing else several years of study in Development Studies has made me very wary of “do-gooders”. As others have noted, there is a strong element of imperialism in the idea of of an American’s mission to “fight terrorism and build nations” and I was quite ready to be critical about it. However I am happy to admit I really enjoyed and was inspired by the book. As Relin writes- “Supposedly objective reporters are at risk of being drawn into his orbit… The more time I spent watching Mortenson work, the more convinced I became that I was in the presence of something extraordinary.” Mortenson appears to have a genuine humanitarian motivation and a deep affection for the people he works with.
I was surprised as I read the book to note that many of the paper lessons I learned about “doing development” were the lessons Mortenson learned through his work and his mistakes. “Participation” is one of the biggest buzzwords in development today and this is what Mortenson learned, and one hopes, how CAI continues to practise. This is what the three cups of tea is all about. Of particular note was Mortenson’s agreement to build a bridge first, rather than a school, as this was what the community felt was needed. Then, following the completion of the first school Mortenson took an ill advised side trip into an area where he had no contacts. The lesson learned- to never go anywhere alone, and to allow the local people to guide decisions about where to go next, is immensely important.
I was also surprised how much I learned from the book about Pakistan and Afganistan, and about the “war on terror”. This is the result of Mortenson’s unique perspective as a trusted American in that region, with close relationships with local leaders and communities. The background and behind-the-scenes information, and the easy to follow explanations of complicated religious and political problems is worth the read of itself.
I do however a have a few niggles with the book. While acknowledging it was never written as a academic text I found the overwhelming positivity somewhat unrealistic. Whereever “outsiders” come in to do development or aid work, there are both positive and negative consequences, one just hopes the positive outweigh the negative. I believe in this case it certanly does, but a more rounded discussion of the work would have been good.
And there is, possibly unavoidably, a touch of imperialism. Mortenson is American. He started out as a penniless individual who wanted to help but he now leads a growing organisation with a significant budget. I hope he continues to maintain the relationships that take this organisation above being just another development project.
Overall, I highly recommend this book, taken with just the tinest little grain of salt to aid digestion.
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