Greg Mortenson

Greg Mortenson, author of the bestselling “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School At A Time,” spoke to a sold-out show Sunday night at the Hyatt in Incline Village, courtesy of the Squaw Valley Institute.

Mortenson, nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, told crowds how an adventurous climbing trip in Pakistan turned into a mission for bringing the region more peace and understanding.

“Ultimately, I think in order to have peace in the world or to make the world a more holistic global society, the key is relationships,” Mortenson said. “I think it’s great that people are traveling; they don’t do anything specific to help people, but what they’re doing — they’re ambassadors, they are people who are reaching out to people around the world. I always say that politics won’t bring peace but people bring peace.“

To date, Mortenson has established more than 130 schools and centers in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“Pakistan is going to double in population in the next 27 years. It’s the fourth fastest-growing country in the whole world,” he said. “Twenty-seven years is a very fast doubling rate. Usually it’s 40 or 50. Twenty-seven years is really scary.” Mortenson said.

What’s frustrating, he says, is that he sees the Afghanistan war being dealt with behind closed doors.

“I think of all the entities on the ground in Afghanistan, the U.S. military really gets it. I really detest the fact that capital hill and congress, they’re not opening this up to the public — it’s all secret,” he said. “This is the biggest decision we’ve had to make in years and it’s going on behind closed doors. We don’t do anything else behind closed doors except national security and this isn’t national security.”

Mortenson does believe there are a lot of good things happening in Afghanistan but we don’t hear about them in the media: “Afghanistan has established a central banking system in the last few years, there is an Eisenhower road building program, women are applying for land ownership titles and deeds, [and] the number of kids in school has gone up 10 times.

“… The two most important things that can effect the most change in a society are clean drinking water and education,” he continued. “If you have education and clean drinking water and sanitation it reduces the health care problems by 50 percent. I say safe water and educate the girls and the world will be a better place.”

(c) Sierra Sun 2009

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