SAN DIEGO─Greeted by the exotic sounds of Middle Eastern music played by the Middle Earth Ensemble, visitors poured into Balboa Park's Old Globe Theatre on Monday, Jan. 28 to attend the first event of the 2008 One Book, One San Diego Program.
Arising from a partnership between KPBS and the San Diego Public Library, the program sets out to encourage all San Diegans to read the same book at the same time while discussing and sharing with each other.
"In our hurried world, it's vitally important that we find ways to create a sense of community and personal connectedness. One Book One San Diego is a wonderful opportunity to bring people together, to read, to discuss, and to learn from each other," said San Diego City Council Member Tony Atkins, introducing the event.
For the program's second year the book of choice is the New York Times bestseller, Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The story follows Mortenson from his failed attempt to climb the second highest mountain in the world, Pakistan's K2, into his newfound quest to build schools in some of Pakistan and Afghanistan's most remote corners.
As the main speaker at the event, co-author David Oliver Relin shared his own experiences and insights from helping Mortenson on his journey to bring education to a region in need.
"Greg and I talked about it and he asked if I'd write the book. I said that I couldn't think of anything more important than that. And thus began my three year journey of chasing Greg Mortenson all over the world," joked Relin.
Setting the general tone, Relin shared what he considers one of the best conversations he's ever had. Sitting with General Bashir of Islamabad at the beginning of his journey, Relin said that the general was telling him of the importance of educating the children of the region and the progress of America's war on terror, when the office television switched to a live video feed of crying Iraqi women as they carried the bodies of children from what was left of a bombed building.
Relin said that General Bashir paused and watched the report without a word before turning to him and saying, "People like me are America's best friends. I'm a moderated Muslim, an educated man. But watching this, even I could become a jihadi."
General Bashir continued by saying, "As a military man, I know that you can never fight and win against someone who can shoot at you once and then run and hide while you have to remain eternally on guard. You have to attack the source of your enemy's strength.
"In America's case, that's not Osama or Sadaam or anyone else. The enemy is ignorance. The only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever."
Moved by the General's words, Relin said that he later came to understand that extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda thrive only by feeding on poverty and ignorance, describing them as a business that survives by "harvesting hopelessness."
Relin went on to say, "That's why the work of Greg Mortenson is so important. He's offering an alternative to that kind of life. He's offering an alternative to extremist Madras, which are placed specifically in the most poor and hopeless places. Boys with bright futures don't become suicide bombers. That's the heart of what Greg Mortenson's work does."
Through his establishment of the Central Asian Institute, Mortenson has built 64 schools to date, educating more than 28,000 students.
Relin shared that part of Mortenson's success can be accredited to an important lesson learned from one of the older men of the first village he built a school in. While running around, trying to find out everyone's schedules, and after much time had passed on the slow project, Relin said that an old man of the village took Mortenson aside and asked him to come to his home, sit and calm down because he was making everyone nervous.
As the man's wife poured them tea the man said, "You need to make time to share three cups of tea with us. If you're going to get anything done in this part of the world, that's what you have to do. The first cup of tea, you're a stranger to us. The second cup of tea, you're an honored guest. By the time you share your third cup of tea, you become family, and for family we'll do anything."
Not long after their conversation the school was completed. Relin said that from this experience Mortenson came to understand that he had to listen and work with the villagers if he was going to accomplish anything. The incident also provided the book's name, Three Cups of Tea.
The main focus of the schools, said Relin, is educating girls to the 5th grade level, as it's believed that educating the girls is one of the most effective ways to help change a culture for the better.
"Basic literacy for girls changes everything. Boys who are educated tend to leave and search for work in the cities," said Relin. "But the girls return to the villages if they've gone to other schools. They pass on the values and the education in the community, and over the course of a generation, it's been seen that the basic income of a family doubles once a girl in it has been educated up to a fifth grade level. Infant mortality is cut in half and everything changes. Girls can read medicine labels and pregnancies are safer."
Relin finished his presentation by showing a picture of a Kurd refugee camp that was built after a massive earthquake that shook the region last fall, leaving 2.5 million people displaced to this day.
Pointing to one of the largest tents in the picture Relin said, "This is a kitchen tent operated by a terrorist organization." Pointing to a large tent next to it he said, "This is a fundamentalist religious school, a radical kind, also operated by the same terrorist organization. This is a factory for terrorism that has been placed in a spot to take advantage of the chaos.
There are tens of thousands of these Madras throughout the region, funded from billions of dollars of Saudi and Kuwaiti oil money. I said at the beginning of my talk that there are people out there taking advantage of chaos and poverty to harvest hopelessness. This is a picture of it in action."
Relin showed another slide of a young woman named Jahan, one of the first graduates from one of Mortenson's Central Asian Schools. He recalls her telling him that she hopes to start a hospital to help the people of her region. "Education is like water. It's important for everything in life," she told him.
Relin closed his speech by sharing, "To me, Jahan, on a micro level, is what the entire operation of what the Central Asian Institute is all about. You've seen the factory for harvesting hopelessness. Jahan is part of the first crop for harvesting hope."
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