6 questions for Greg Mortenson, director of Central Asia Institute and author of "Three Cups of Tea"

Why do you emphasize schools for girls?

Educated women refuse to let their sons join the Taliban, which targets impoverished, illiterate society. When they become mothers they won’t endorse and support that – so extremists lose their ideological way to get recruits. We can spend money on bombs, roads, electricity and condoms, but until we invest in girls’ education, nothing will change.

It’s customary in Pakistan and Afghanistan to drink three cups of tea over business: the first, you’re a stranger; the second, a friend; and by the third, family.

Greg Mortenson consumes as many as 40 cups of tea daily when he visits those countries to help build schools for children living in the rugged terrain that gave rise to the Taliban.

But when the author of the best-seller Three Cups of Tea Central Asia Institute https://ikat.powweb.com/index.html meets a Rocky Mountain News reporter for tea this week, the first order of business is a bear hug for his interviewer. The soft-spoken Mortenson, 50, already seems familiar, perhaps because he has spilled much of his life story over the 330-plus pages of his page-turning adventure tale.

Central Asia Institute https://ikat.powweb.com/index.html

Full Story: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jan/19/6-questions-for-greg-mortenson-director-of-asia/