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As I reflect on Three Cups of Tea, I am struck by what one person with good fortune, courage, and determination can accomplish. Greg Mortenson’s story reminds us that life’s journey is a path with sharp turns, detours, circles and sometimes dead ends. He certainly took an unintentional detour when he wandered into Korphe that day in 1993 – a detour that changed his life and transformed him in ways that he never dreamed possible.
I hope that each of us, especially our students, will think of how we can use our special gifts to help and heal our injured world. The gift of education is a priceless gift that changes lives and alters communities. What better gift can be offered to children who so passionately desire to learn?
I would like to pose two questions to the readers of our blog:
1) What ideas come to you when you read the following statement by David Relin: “The real enemy [to peace] is ignorance.”
2) What is your definition of poverty?
I look forward to reading your responses.
Best regards,
Debnam Chappell
Click on the Comments link below to respond.
In regards to question one, while reading that statement, only one thought comes to mind. Perhaps when a lot of people think of the “enemy” to peace they think of war, bad times, or anything negative. However what Relin is stating is that the real enemy is our own ignorance, and nothing else is more important in achieving peace than being fully aware of where it is needed, and being aware of its benefits.
Mortenson’s action of building schools for children in the middle east is fighting ignorance through education. Also his idea of educating women proves his devotion to end the problem at hand, for the women in most situation remain in their home towns where they are able to pass their knowledge to their children and future generations. Mortenson sharing his story through Three Cups of Tea is helping reduce America’s ignorant attitude of stereotyping the Middle East. Each of his readers come to the conclusion that education and understanding, not dropping bombs, is what will bring about peace. When we start fighting poverty and ignorance rather than fighting in an us vs. them fashion, this is when progress will be made.
In response to question 2, I think poverty is not having the funds to buy or own what most people take for granted such as water, food, and shelter. Greg Mortenson in 3 Cups of Tea shows that one person may not be able to cure poverty in the whole world but can make a big step into giving the poor an extra edge in life by building the schools.
As someone who spent a year doing volunteer work for a non profit organization, and seeing what the needs of people in other countries are, I have come to believe education is the key to all of our worlds problems ranging from quenching out crazy extremist ideology to simpler things such as starvation by teaching people farming. Simply throwing money at something (which the UN has a habit of doing) only solves problems temporarily, they should be more focussed on teaching people how to read and write. Give a man a fish he eats for a day, TEACH a man to fish, he’ll never go hungry.
My ideas over the past year of poverty have changed, poverty is much more than just being physically hungry, poverty is also the starvation of the mind and spirit. The ability to read, feeds all 3, you can teach someone to grow a crop to put food on the table, you can give someone the power to think for themselves, and one can gain a deeper understanding of oneself and thier spirituality (whatever it may be) all through reading.
My grandfather (who barely had a 5th grade education) used to tell his kids: “An education is light baggage, and its the only thing no one will ever be able to take away from you”. Knowledge is without a doubt power!
To answer the second question, I must begin with saying that perhaps different people across the world have a different definition of poverty. What we see in the U.S. as someone who make less than $10,000 as extremely poor, people in Africa or India may see that as a person of wealth. For example, when Mr. Mortenson first went to Afghanistan with no more than a few thousand in his hand, the people thought he was a man of wealth and power. Back in the U.S. Mortenson could barely have lived off of that kind of money for very long.
Perhaps poverty to me means someone who has to struggle to survive under the average income in that community. I don’t believe anyone should be a victim of poverty. This state of life can cause many physical and mental issues that may have the chance of being preventable.
When I read the statement that “The real enemy to peace is ignorance” it makes me think that if you are unaware and/or unknowledgeable about another person or culture, peace will never be able to be gained. Without understanding the other perspective on a situation, you are unable to come to a solution that will be accepted by both sides, therefore there will be no peace.
I think that ignorance is one of the enemies of peace. This is because ignorance brings fear, which causes people to feel threatened. It may seem easier to fight back using force and violence when not understanding all sides of a situation. This can be seen when Americans become afraid of all Muslims and Muslims begin to dislike Americans who bring fighting into their country. However, as Greg Mortenson has shown, it is actually easier to use peaceful methods of building schools and encouraging education to fight both war and ignorance. It is unfortunate that more world leaders do not see how much more education does than militarism.
Poverty seems to be having little to no resources, both tangible and intangible, to live life prosperously. This may mean having no money or income, no access to clean drinking water, little to no food, no home, no occupation, etc. Or, it could be living without an education or will to achieve more. As was stated in previous comments, poverty’s definition varies from person to person and culture to culture. Poverty in one country can be very different from poverty in another. Because of this, a better knowledge of the world can show how poverty exists in both prosperous and poor countries. It is something people deal with all over the world and is a difficult living situation. Unfortunately, it is not easy to correct the problem of poverty or it would have already been solved.
When giving poverty a definition, it is crucial to note that the use of certain resources is just as important as the availability. Just as Kim Brown said, such resources are not always concrete. In fact, the more vital ones - such as knowledge, understanding, love, and a sense of belonging - tend to be abstract. If one is fortunate enough to have some sort of knowledge, it is true that he or she has the power to battle ignorance and defeat “the real enemy.” However, if information is manipulated and resultantly exercised in a manner that supports an askew perception of the world, knowledge could become dangerous (an example is the Taliban’s madrassas). Thus, it is just as important to UNDERSTAND what is learned as it is to have knowledge.
Igorance is absolute the enemy to peace. In Mortenson’s story there was a perfect example of this. After Sepetember 11 Mortenson received countless letters condemning him for his work in the Middle East. The people who sent these letters behaved with ignorance by assuming that Mortenson was helping terrorists, while in fact he was fighting terrorism. The ignorance these people had made them hateful towards a people undeserving of this, thus preventing peace.
Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea” has been a real inspiration to me. Not only did Mortenson accomplish what he had promised to the Korphe’s village, but also he continued building schools in other villages as well, and to pursue that, he sacrificed a lot and had been in situations that even threatened his life. By his experience, Mortenson teaches us the values of courage, compassion and determination. Life is not always sugar and spice. We will inevitably find difficulties in our path, but Mortenson shows us that we should not surrender, we should fight and perservere because light is at the end of the tunnel.
“The real enemy is ignorance” says David Relin. The reason why people harm others is because they do not have knowledge. In Mortenson’s book, many people in Pakistan had a bad conception of Americans and hated them even if they had not even met one. But after meeting Mortenson, a man with a heart of gold, some changed their mentality, their way of seeing them. And also, since the incident of 9/11 many Americans considered people from the Middle East terrorists. But “Three Cups of Tea” shows us that it is wrong to stereotype them. Just like the people from Korphe’s village, many are gentle and wise; they want to improve themselves and their condition by giving their children an education. And so ignorance is our enemy. Knowledge and education are a way for people around the world to be closer to one another.
To me, someone is poor when he or she is in need of something. But that something is not essentially material or economical. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about poverty is people living in misery, in precarious homes or in the streets struggling to feed themselves and their families. But the poorest person economically could be the richest person spiritually, knowing that God will give him salvation and eternal life, or emotionally thanks to the love of his surrounding friends and family (and vice-versa). And so, poverty is the situation when a person is in need of something economically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, or morally…