Drop Books, Not Bombs

Part tribute, history lesson, and sociological analysis, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin is not the glowing review that I expected.
The book tells of Mortenson, an American climber who set out to climb Everest (K2) in 1993. Mortenson was aiming to summit the mountain as a tribute to his little sister, who had died recently. However, Mortenson lost his porter and wandered off the path. Lost and struggling with the idea he had failed at something that was important to him, Mortenson spent two days on the deadly mountainside that had killed more than 200 climbers by the end of 2006.
Luckily, he stumbled into a Balti village and onto a path that led to a much more significant tribute to his sister, benefiting thousands of children along the way. When he arrived in Korphe, a tiny village in the Karakoram region, Mortenson was taken in and nursed back to health. Overwhelmed by the people’s generosity, he promised to return to the small, poor village and build a school for their children. Cue swelling dramatic hero music.
Mortenson has since built over 50 schools in one of the world’s most unstable and hostile places.
While Three Cups of Tea could have been a simple tribute to a man with vision and perseverance who survives some frustrating and terrifying ordeals, it’s not that one dimensional. It examines Mortenson’s personal motivations, but it doesn’t ignore the other key players. Mortenson readily admits that the schools are the accomplishment of many people: donators, Balti locals, religious leaders, and even extreme Islamists.
Three Cups of Tea humanizes a culture that has been demonized by many North American leaders in order to justify the questionable behaviour of American leadership after 9/11.
The book gives an on-the-ground perspective of Pakistan and Central Asia in the 90s and the early 2000s, as well as a glimpse into the rise of the Taliban.
Mortenson’s championing of the right to education for the Muslim children of Pakistan was a dangerous endeavour in Central Asia, but it was surprising to learn about the resistance that he met in America after the attacks in New York. A man who was putting his life on the line in tribal Pakistan for the good of children received hundreds of death threats.
Thankfully, the knee-jerk mentality of the time seems to have worn off and the book is now a #1 New York Times bestseller.
The book’s author, journalist David Oliver Relin, does a great job of pacing the story and revealing the characters, but at times his overly flowery descriptions distract rather than enlighten.