Community | December 03, 2009 | 3 comments

'Three Cups of Tea' author suggests actually listening to the countries we try to help

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34238313/ns/us_news-giving/

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redvelvet1278
I was quite angry that there were nine meetings held behind closed doors in secrecy between President Obama and several of our commanders and advisers in the run-up to the president’s decision this week to send in more troops; the one thing that was never considered in any of the factoring-in was: What do the Afghan elders, or the shura, want? I feel that they should have had at least 50 percent of the voice in those meetings with the president.

The only place where the shuras were able to have some say, at least a little bit, was in the dozens of meetings our nonprofit helped to organize and facilitate between the shura and Gen. McChrystal since the general was appointed in April. There have been probably 35 or so meetings between him and some 200 shura from many of the different rural areas in Afghanistan. Our nonprofit has done this all on its own; we don’t receive any federal money and we don’t have any agenda. We’ve done this primarily on behalf of the elders who really wanted to meet the generals, and the generals who wanted to meet the shura.

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You can’t plug in a democracy; you have to build one. The real key is not only education but also land ownership. You go into the district courts now in Afghanistan and it’s mind-boggling how many women are going in and filing their titles for land ownership. I just try to tell people that yes, there are a lot of bad things happening and it’s very frightening but there are also some very amazing things going on and pretty much this all happened at a time when we put Afghanistan on the back seat. Just imagine what could happen if we devoted serious effort over the next two to four years to help the people of Afghanistan.
  1. groups:
    Community
  2. tags:
    Obama,  War,  Afganistan,  Greg Mortenson
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3 comments // 'Three Cups of Tea' author suggests actually listening to the countries we try to help

  • brente
    • 0
      brente  

    • In 2000, when the Taliban were still in power, only 800,000 children in Afghanistan—a nation of nearly 33 million—attended school. Almost none were girls. Today, some 8.5 million Afghan children are in school, including nearly 2 million girl

    • 2 years ago
  • brente
  • EdJoyProductions
    • 0
      EdJoyProductions  

    • I was listening to an interview with him on NPR yesterday and I could not believe the arrogance of the US policy toward Afghanistan. Even in the face of this simple suggestion that should have been the common sense 1st approach, our government is still disregarding the opinions of the actual leaders in the area.

      I am disappointed that the intelligence that Obama displayed during his campaign is now a casualty of advisors that have no common sense.

    • 2 years ago
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