- Free Secular Literacy for All
"Asked about the biggest threat to their groups' survival, a militant says that 'free secular education for all' leading to an 'increase in the literacy rate' is the gravest threat to the survival of the jihadi groups in Pakistan."
Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill
by Jessica Stern (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), page 230
- Supported by a Three Cups of Tea School Building Program
- Activating the Under-Utilized Installed Solar Capacity in Afghanistan - There are over 700,000 solar/dynamo radios distributed all around Afghanistan which could charge AA and other standard size batteries with one simple modification. They would then become reliable sources of low voltage DC power day or night, by sunlight or muscle power.
1a.
Why not an ad hoc, all media, open source push
to make literacy possible for everybody in the world?
When Google can announce that it will digitize the NY Public Library,
why not free secular education for all,
teaching literacy in local languages available through
cell phone, Web/Net, radio, video, hard copy, and word of mouth?
Why not universal availability of learning materials
by every means possible, taking into account
the varieties of learning intelligences and
the concept of literacy beyond the written word, rune, and ideogram,
beyond numeracy?
What about providing universal global access
to the world's libraries to balance those who teach only
the One Holy Book, be it Koran, Bible, or little red book,
only by rote, and always
the only one
allowed?
2a. School building has been a successful tactic in Aghanistan, Pakistan, and "Greater Pashtunistan" for at least the last century. Adbul Ghaffar "Badshah" Khan used it to build the world's first non-violent army in the Northwest Frontier Provinces, a predominantly Islamic Non-Violent Army.
I believe the Taliban learned from his example.
3a. A solar/dynamo can easily and affordably power the flashlight, radio, cell phone, and extra set of batteries we are supposed to have on hand in case of emergency. This is why Solar IS Civil Defense as well as a significant rise in the standard of living of billions of people around the world.
About a quarter of the world's population does not now have access to electricity.