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Old 01-01-2010, 08:06 AM
Littlearmies Littlearmies is offline
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Only marginally on topic but a jolly good read nevertheless is a book I just finished:

"Three Cups Of Tea" by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin - 'Here we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything - even die' - Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram mountains, Pakistan.

"In 1993, after a terrifying and disastrous attempt to climb K2, a mountaineer called Greg Mortenson drifted, cold and dehydrated, into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram Mountains. Moved by the inhabitants' kindness, he promised to return and build a school. "Three Cups of Tea" is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome. Over the next decade Mortenson built not just one but fifty-five schools - especially for girls - in remote villages across the forbidding and breathtaking landscape of Pakistan and Afghanistan, just as the Taliban rose to power. His story is at once a riveting adventure and a testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit."

Actually that info is pretty out of date - it's now 131 schools and rising. What is interesting is that Mortensen was in the right place at the right time - his schools have a standard secular Pakistani curriculum, they make an effort to involve the villagers who donate land and labour while Mortensen's charity donates materials and pays the teachers (the going rate - $2 or $3 a month). His schools are free for the children - which means they are the only alternative most of these kids have to an "education" in a Saudi funded wahhabi madrassa, many of which teach terrorism at the same time. Mortensen is fighting the battle for hearts and minds in the remotest areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan one kid at a time...

As you can tell, I've become something of a fanboy over the course of the past week:

https://www.ikat.org/

Happy New Year
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