A remarkable book that should be read by all Americans. Some of the criticism and quibbles concerning the book and Mortenson are justified, and you sense that the authors would agree with some, yet they are dwarfed by only a few of the "take-aways." Here is a man whose passion was mountain-climbing, and he tackled one of the very hardest in the world, K-2. Serendipity, coupled with exhaustion, lead him into an unlikely village, where the warmest care and hospitality was given to this stranger. Suddenly his eyes were opened to more than mountain peaks; he saw what had always been around him--the lives of those who did the grunt work that got so many mountaineers to the top. He decided to repay the hospitality with more than words, by giving the village of Korphe something desperately wanted and needed--a school for its children. It was a $12,000 promise that he kept.
To fulfill that promise he had to master a learning curve in business and social relations as steep as many of the mountains he climbed. He quotes from Helena Norberg-Hodge's "Ancient Futures": "but that industrialized countries had lessons to learn from people like Ladakhis about building suitable societies." Yes, learning is a two way street when cultures meet, in contrast to a prevailing attitude of all too many Americans abroad that "you'll become a better person if you become more like me." Sometimes that takes the form of: "We're just here to help you by bringing you Democracy... as long as you vote the right way." In the chapter appropriately entitled "Haji Ali's Lesson" Mortenson internalizes Norberg-Hodge's dictum after Haji Ali's rebuke: "Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time." Hence the book's title, and I think Relin did a brilliant and understated juxtaposition of this outlook with that of the insufferable Rumsfeld, who would not even offer Mortenson a seat during their brief meeting in his office. Mortenson also had the insight to convey the image of the hoard of earnest young men in the Pentagon, clutching their laptops, avoiding eye-contact, as they scurried from one office to the next. No doubt the numbers on those laptops were as fanciful as that other hoard on Wall Street who were, until very recently, trading collateralized debt obligations (CDO's).
The portrait of Syed Abbas, a conservative, bearded Shia cleric, in the "Red Velvet Box" chapter was quite valuable. I have a sense of unease when I see a beard on a Muslim, and the wilder looking it is, the deeper the unease, knowing that it is a reflection of their "fundamentalism." Abbas was conservative, yes, but in a good sense of the word, and deeply cared for the well-being of the people in his area, and was not so rigid about non-believers that he could not see the good that Mortenson was doing. There are many Abbas's in the Islamic world. One of Mortenson's greatest achievements was appealing to Islamic courts, not once, but twice, concerning fatwas that had been issued against him, and in both cases the courts upheld him. A rule of law that we could learn some lessons from. I liked the choice of chapter epigraphs, particularly the two, back to back, for chapters 19 and 20. One was graffiti spray-painted on the courtyard of the Korphe school: "The time of arithmetic and poetry is past. Nowadays, my brothers, take our lessons from the Kalashnikov and the rocket-propelled grenade." The second was from a bumper sticker seen in his hometown of Bozeman, Montana: "Nuke `em All--Let Allah Sort Them Out." The intolerance, and mindless combativeness of each side.
I read all the 1 and 2 star reviews. What were these people's complaints? There were the factual errors of the reviewers, for example, the claim that he spent a million dollars to build one school. Several thought that Relin's rhetorical flourishes were overdone. Occasionally they were, but these reviewers would have been giving James Joyce and Marcel Proust minus 5 stars. Some thought Mortenson was "anti-American"! But what sentient American patriot would not be critical of so much of American domestic and foreign policy over the last 8 years? Others saw the flaw, as did Haji Ali, that Mortenson was a micro-manager who could not delegate. It was one that he saw himself, leading to adjustments with a Board and even a Bozeman staff. Others complained about the editing - true enough - but that seems to be SOP for the big publishing houses - there is a spelling mistake that "Spell Check" would have caught on page 272. But by using these quibbles to trash the entire book, well, I thought of a paraphrase from a Paul Simon song: "... and their bookmarks measured what they lost."
Based on the financial information posted on the Central Asia Institute's website, for the latest fiscal year, ending in Sept. '07, they had income of only three and a half million dollars. He has done a remarkable job with an amount that would be a rounding error on a new Pentagon weapon's system. If he was given three additional zeros, yes, three billion dollars, would he be able to handle it? Probably not, but I might give him a 40% chance that he could. Consider that the American taxpayer (and their children's children) have given one US Bank - Citicorp, at least 50 billion dollars, and what do they have to show for it? Schools are not the sole answer to conflict resolution - the ultimate proof is the departing President, "educated," or at least graduated from, two of the finest educational institutions in the United States, including the very coveted Harvard MBA. But schools are much more a step in the right direction than yet more weapons systems. Clean water, sufficient food, and a lack of bombs falling on one's head also helps, something that Mortenson clearly recognizes.
There are many other valuable insights and lessons in this wonderful book that should be read for years to come.
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Top reviews from other countries
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- MonAmiReviewed in India on May 24, 2015
I just hoped that it would not be a boring and conceited account of a person out to serve ...
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