Tea Time with Terrorists

A journalist’s travelogue of war-torn Sri Lanka “brings refreshing clarity and enlightenment” to our understanding of terrorism (Robert Young Pelton).

Armed with a map and a motorcycle, Mark Stephen Meadows ventures to Sri Lanka’s war zone to interview terrorists, generals, and heroin dealers on their own terms. He seeks only to understand the conflict and witness the civil war’s effects on the country. As he travels north through Colombo, Kandy, and the damaged city of Jaffna, Meadows discovers an island of beauty and abundance ground down by three decades of war. He is invited into an ancient culture where he learns to trap an elephant, weave rope from coconut husks, cast out devils, and even have afternoon tea with terrorists.

Meadow’s story and take on the war focuses on the interconnectedness of globalization, the media, and modern terrorism in what Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, calls “an excellent undertaking.”