I just finished reading "Three Cups of Tea." Right before I finished I learned that we are bombing Somalia. Should that surprise me? I used to be frightened of how other countries perceive us. Lately, though, I have just been saddened. I am sometimes very ashamed to be an American. This book is about education and hope and small villages that survive and love each other. During parts of the story this book makes me wonder if education is not a double edged sword. Does not education breed advancement breed invention breed power and greed? Or perhaps can these villages educate their girls and have the girls return to help their children survive sickness and lead more healthy lifestyles? I can't help but wonder how all the children who go to college and private schools end up going back to their villages as the educational system means for them to.
I want them to go back. I want to hear about them acting as peaceful doctors at the foot of K2 treating villagers and hikers alike. I want to hear about their wonderful harvest and celebrations and new found recorded history that goes hand in hand with the oral one. But I can't wrap my head around it. I do have hope, though. I feel like we have to.
Nick: As that stupid Spanish poster in the library at my old high school insists, saber es poder. It's true, knowledge is power, but probably not in the way Edward James Olmos intended. Of course we're bombing Somalia; of course literacy allows those who master language to exploit living things; of course knowledge is one more technology of domination. We're just a bunch of apes with guns.
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