Books, Not Bombs: the Power of Education

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Books, Not Bombs: The Power of Education A Study of ‘Three Cups of Tea’ By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin By Isabelle Flinn Humanities 20 Books, Not Bombs: The Power of Education Greg Mortenson was an ordinary man. But since a fateful failure in 1993, he has done extraordinary things. When he left California for Pakistan in an attempt to climb the world’s 2nd tallest mountain, he did not expect it to change his life, much less the lives of other people. But since then, Mortenson has effected change in the lives of more than 60,000 impoverished children, simply through education. In Mortenson’s biography written by David Oliver Relin, ‘Three Cups of Tea’, Mortenson develops the idea that in the pursuit of peace, education is humanity’s strongest weapon. There are countless examples of the tragic effect that ignorance can have on a group of people, from the Crusades to the Holocaust. An example that still wages on today is the War on Terror. Since 9/11, the USA and the UK have used immeasurable amounts of resources on prevention of these attacks on their soil, and destruction of the groups that have brought about these tragedies. However, the point that is established in Greg Mortenson’s story is that if these countries truly want to end the threat of terrorism, they need to get to the root of the problem – the lack of education in the countries from which these groups are emerging In the quest to bring peace to every nation, everyone must be given equal opportunity to be educated. When this happens, different ideas and perspectives are brought to the table, which can solve major problems and promote peaceful inter-nation relations. In Mortenson’s tale, this is especially demonstrated by his push to educate more women. There is an African proverb restated by Mortenson that illustrates this point very well; “Educate a boy, and you educate and

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