What Mortenson Saw

Think about United States, Pakistan, and Afghanistan for a minute. What is the first thought that crosses your mind when you think about these three countries? Most of us will probably think negative things about the relationship between these three countries, but the question is how did we get to a point where we automatically assume that there is always bad blood between United States and Pakistan/Afghanistan? Is it because of how the media portrays Pakistan and Afghanistan to Americans? Through the media, Americans are constantly reminded of the enemies and conflicts that our nation has with these countries when there are still the heart-warming stories like that of Mortenson’s journey in Middle East Asia. In the book, Three Cups of Tea, it shows great examples of how the different views on Pakistan and Afghanistan can change the whole outlook of those two countries. Before looking at how Mortenson viewed these countries, let’s look at some of the contrast between the United States and Pakistan/Afghanistan in regard to education, economy status, and values.
The difference starts from the education. Even though, the education system in Pakistan and Afghanistan improved significantly over the last 100 years, they still face many difficulties. According to CSS (Civil Service of Pakistan) Forum, the issues that Pakistan and Afghanistan are facing right now are teachers’ absenteeism, high drop out rates particularly at primary level, high repetition rates, low completion rates, inequalities by gender, low literacy rate, and unsatisfactory performance of schools. Many of these problems are like domino effect, which means that one problem leads to another problem. First it starts with teacher’s absenteeism; when your teacher is frequently absent, it can make students to think that school is not a serious thing. Then, students start to drop out of school, which concludes with low completion rate, and low education. Haji Ali said, “‘The Pakistani government did not...