Central Asia Institute

I think what this Greg Mortenson dude is doing is awesome. He is teaching underprivileged and undereducated people for nothing more than the satisfaction of helping people out. It says a lot about his character for him to be doing that. You rarely see that in this day and age and to see it really brings a joy to me. I'm sure it brings him even greater joy. After seeing the villagers' desire to learn, he vowed to come back and build them a school. Now, a lot of people would probably have made a similar promise but Mr. Mortenson actually followed through on his promise.  Now, they are more focused on teaching the females and at first they may seem kind of sexist but when you listen to why, it makes sense. By teaching the females, it helps “bring down mortality rates, reduce the population explosion and increase the basic quality of health and of life itself.” Not only is he assisting with the education of the people, but he is also helping to provide clean drinking water and giving the people skills that can be used to help them further earn income. The Central Asia Institute also assists these people by having scholarships that help people further their educations. It was pretty cool to see that guy at the bookstore that was happy he was getting a computer to make it easier for him in his studies. I also think it is great how he didn’t go in to the region and into these villages and just tell them how they were going to run things. Community elders are still responsible for making decisions. I believe that assisting these people will have a better effect in presenting a good image of the US and Americans to the area’s people. Like the video said, “a war on terror just creates more terror”. It proves that not all Muslims are “terrorists” or bad people. The villagers nursed this American back to health after he fell ill when he attempted to climb the mountain without expecting anything in return. In conclusion, I am really proud of Mr. Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute for all that they are doing for the people of Central Asia and hope that they can continue to do so. It is so great to see that they are helping people who are not their color, race or the same religion and do not appear to be doing so for the money.

What comes to mind when you think of the word "peace"?

When I think of the word peace, I think of hippies and Volkswagon buses. I guess that I think of these things because it has been a part of our culture for a long time. Movies such as Forrest Gump and music such as The Mamas and The Papas and the Beatles, etc. have been in our lives, or at least mine, for as long as I can remember. Visions of this hippy subculture in San Francisco and other parts of the west always come to mind. I think of the rallies and demonstrations and boycotts that these “hippies” put on to show that they were all for non-violence. Also, I think of soldiers in Vietnam who opposed being in a war that they felt they had no reason to be in. I remember seeing pictures of soldiers with flowers in their helmets to symbolize their desire for peace. Or, they might even have a peace sign sticker affixed to their helmets. They did not wish to be in a different country at war with people that they felt had not done anything to them.

When I think of the word peace, I also think about the hand signal itself. It’s amazing to me how pointing the “V” can mean totally different things. These hippies used to make the peace sign with their palms facing out, which meant “peace” as in “give peace a chance”. Apparently, if you do this in England and a few other countries, they find it offensive. Nowadays, in the US at least, the signal is more popular with the palm facing in. It is used more now to part ways. You put up the sign and it means “peace out” or “see you later”. Nowadays, instead of people even saying “peace out”, they are saying “deuce”, as in the two fingers that are used. Chris Brown’s song “Deuces” is a good example of this. By chucking his “deuces”, he is saying “peace out” or “I’m out of here”. I find it kind of ironic that the hand signal is used to mean “peace” because it used to be utilized in a war setting. According to legend, the index and middle fingers use to be cut off of soldiers so they would not be able to fire their bows with that hand. When victors would flash the “V” hand signal, it was kind of a taunt; used to show that they were victorious since they still had all their digits.

In general, when I think about peace, I also think of something that I feel is unattainable in a worldly sense.  I seriously doubt that there will ever be true peace in this world, at least, not in my life time. I also find it ironic that most religions preach peace yet most all wars are started in the name of religion. There is always inner peace that can be attainable and that is always a good place to start.