Today at Brown

It can’t be easy to deliver a talk while still jetlagged from a long international flight just days earlier. With a cup of Starbuck’s on the lectern beside him, however, former British diplomat Rory Stewart was up to the task Wednesday night despite the nine and a half hours separating Providence from Afghanistan.

Stewart’s well-attended lecture in Salomon 101 on October 29 included a brief description of non-governmental organization (NGO) workings, the Higher Education Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture (part of the Turquoise Mountain community-action foundation founded by Stewart in 2005), and, most of all, the experiences behind his bestselling book, The Places In Between.

Assigned to every first-year Brown student as summer reading this year as part of First Readings, sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College and the Office of Alumni Relations, Places describes Stewart’s 6,000-mile 2002 solo walk across Central Asia in the winter of 2002. Students’ opinions of Stewart’s work varied, and their reactions fostered a lively discussion after his speech, with students queued enthusiastically behind the microphones.

Stewart seemed most eager to talk about the work his foundation is doing in Aghanistan. His NGO has already made significant process in Murad Khane, the old city of Kabul, he said. The project grew from a traditional arts institute to include a clinic, a primary school, garbage clearance (“We lowered the street level seven feet”), and the reconstruction of historic structures.

The foundation’s Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture instructs the next generation in the cultural heritage of Afghanistan – delicate latticework, ornate ceramics, and exquisite calligraphy in a centuries-old artisanal tradition. The art is then sold abroad, with proceeds returning to Murad Khane.

Amid his earnest arguments for more international involvement in shaping Afghanistan’s future, Stewart didn’t hesitate to detour into self-deprecation. “When putting together shiny computer-generated images, try not to have a tree in the picture with both spring blossoms and falling autumn leaves,” he said, looking ruefully at his Powerpoint screen. The audience laughed.

Once the floor opened up for questions, Stewart spoke on topics ranging from girls’ education in Kabul to fundamental problems of the Coalition’s massive reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We have a sense of moral obligation, and that is dangerous in foreign policy,” he warned. “We say we ‘ought’ to do this, we ‘ought’ to do that. Well, ‘ought’ implies ‘can.’ You don’t have a moral obligation to do what you can’t do – and when you go and try to do it anyway, you lose credibility and become the laughingstock of the world.”

Instead, Stewart recommended that other nations begin by supporting small-scale, community-based projects such as Turquoise Mountain’s arts institute – initiatives that more directly improve Afghanis’ lives and mesh with the local economy. “You take $20,000 and just give it to the village council,” he explained. “They know what the village needs better than you do, and if they steal the money, the villagers will lynch them.”

Reading a bestseller before college is fairly common. Hearing directly from the author of that work is a rare privilege, particularly when that author is as eager to take questions and converse with the students as Rory Stewart seemed on Wednesday. Students gained a voice to pair with the pages we’d pored over, as well as a new perspective on one who has pushed. “I hope you all go out and do similar things,” Stewart said frankly, referring to his NGO. He might just get his wish.