Greg Mortenson's first book 'Three Cups of Tea' was so poorly written that I had trouble finishing it, but I thought the story was a good one. Well, it turns out that it was probably too good to be true.
Mortenson wrote about Afghanistan and the appalling poverty, the severe conditions under which tribes in the mountains lived, and how far a small investment in schools could go towards making things better and thereby gaining friendships. The allegations made by Jon Krakauer (http://byliner.com/) and an expose on '60 Minutes' are that the book has large swaths of untruth in it, that the schools that have been built are unused and therefore unsuccessful, and that Mortenson may have improperly used funds from his charitable organization.
Such a shame. Mortenson gave people a ray of hope that small efforts could bring real results--something that those of us who do not control large fortunes but would like to make a difference in the world love to hear. But false hope is the worst kind, and if the basics of these allegations are true, then he is in fact guilty of something quite serious. Taking the wind out of the sails of those who want to believe what he had to say may seem trivial, but I suspect that he will end up doing far more harm than good. Which is probably not the place he started, but it may be the place he ends up.
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