The Bitter Tea of Greg Mortenson

[marmar]

from The Nation:




The Bitter Tea of Greg Mortenson

Katha Pollitt
April 27, 2011


The Greg Mortenson scandal is still unfolding, but here’s one lesson we can already learn from it: if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. If exposés by Jon Krakauer and 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft check out, Mortenson is a charismatic manipulator, and his bestsellers Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools are full of lies and evasions: he didn’t lose his way descending K2 in 1993; wasn’t rescued by poor and noble residents of the village of Korphe; didn’t gratefully promise to build them a school; wasn’t kidnapped in Waziristan by the Taliban in 1996 (the Taliban were nowhere near that peaceful Shiite corner of Pakistan); never climbed assorted mountains or met assorted people he said he did; even his tale of wangling permission to pay his respects to the corpse of Mother Teresa in 2000 is false (she died in 1997).

All this—and there’s much more—comes as a terrible shock to the millions of Americans who have bought Mortenson’s books, attended his lectures, donated to his Central Asia Institute and participated in CAI’s Pennies for Peace program in the schools. But it gets worse, because the CAI was not what it seemed to be either. Some of the 141 schools it claims to have built were “ghost schools,” never used; others may not exist, were built by other organizations, were built but have received no operational funds in years. In 2009 only 41 percent of donations went to its work in Afghanistan and Pakistan; much of the rest, charge Krakauer and Kroft, went to Mortenson himself—to chartered jets, massive purchases of his books (at retail, so he would get the royalties and keep them on the bestseller list) and advertisements for them in The New Yorker at more than $100,000 a pop. One disillusioned co-worker described CAI as Mortenson’s “private ATM.”

How did Mortenson enchant so many, including knowledgeable people like Nick Kristof, who wrote an anguished column asking people to withhold judgment for now? As a string of much-praised fake memoirs can attest—to say nothing of Bernie Madoff’s meteoric career—people don’t look closely at stories that tell them what they want to hear. Americans love to be inspired by heroic lone individuals who provide simple solutions to complicated problems—especially when the individuals are American and famous, the solutions are cheap and the problems are far away. (Kristof is particularly fond of this narrative.) Mortenson took an urgent cause—girls’ education—tied it to the prevention of “terrorism,” offered himself as the bashful red-tape-scorning great white savior and, before you knew it, the US Army was making his books mandatory reading for soldiers being sent to Afghanistan. He may have collected pennies for “peace,” but Mortenson played right into one of the Bush administration’s worst ideas—the militarization of humanitarian aid. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/article/160244/bitter-tea-greg-mortenson

[callous taoboy]

1. This blows me away. What an utterly convincing snow job.

I read Three Cups... and thought it was wonderful. I can't believe this.

[RufusTFirefly]

2. Lone heroes: The flip side of lone nuts

Both fantasies that Americans cling to.

I'm not a big Hillary Clinton fan, but she was right about at least one thing:

It takes a village.

[FourScore]

3. I am going to withhold judgement on this until I know more. n/t

[FourScore]

4. I'm disappointed in the Nation for printing this

I think this issue is much more convoluted and difficult than 60 Minutes portrayed, and quite frankly, I am disappointed The Nation has published this article without looking more deeply into the allegations against Mortensen and CAI.

One of the posters at the 60 Minutes website said the following:

It's been a week since the 60 Minutes piece on Greg Mortenson. Old news now, and I doubt many are checking this site to get more insight into the issue. But I feel compelled to write anyway, since so much has come out in this past week, information I think is important to anyone interested in getting as complete a picture as possible about this complicated man and his mission to build schools, mostly for girls, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I have read the posts here and elsewhere, and despite the bickering between passionate posters of all persuasions, have learned much more about the CAI situation than 60 Minutes cared to report. For example, the school in Bozai Gumbaz which was featured so strongly in Stones Into Schools and was shown as abandoned by CBS. That was a damning image. But, it turns out, there is a lot more effort to get education to the kids of that region than one un-used building would suggest. Please read this NYT times piece which exhibits the kind of investigative journalism that 60 Minutes would do well to emulate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/weekinreview/24mortenson.html?_r=1&ref=gregmortenson

Another incident which has been made much of, the alleged kidnapping, is also a more complex story than 60 Minutes (and indeed many of the posters who long to take a strong stand pro or con) would like to admit. On April 19 McKenzieFunk revealed on this site that according to his research, Naimat Gul Mahsud, the "research director of a respected think tank in Islamabad," whom CBS trotted out as a star witness, is actually a con artist who "tried to extort money from his relatives by purporting to have abducted Mortenson". If this is so, we can just imagine what bad blood exists between these two. Clearly, Mortenson was in a position to do the most damage to the other's reputation via his books. Perhaps in hindsight it would have been more prudent to just duke it out in Pakistan. But kudus to Funk for doing the investigative work that 60 Minutes neglected to do. Through his digging we learn there is little black and white in this story.

A third piece I came across concerns Krakauer. Much has been said about his possible motives, but very little hard core "truth" about this man I once revered (for his "Into the Wild"). But on Daniel Glick's blog http://danielglick.net/2011/04/60-minutes-expose-on-three-cups-of-tea-is-weak-%E2%80%93-and-wrong/ I found this post:


"It's interesting that nobody is drawing a correlation between the disgruntled former CAI board member who was fired for misuse of funds and the close relationship this board member has with Krakauer."

Wow!! If this is true, 60 Minutes was grossly remiss in not looking into Krakauer as well as Mortenson! I feel frustrated that I will never know the behind the scenes truth as to why 60 Minutes decided to tell millions that one NGO had some holes in it, rather than a piece on ALL the NGOs that have problems, as well as some that don't. They gave Krakauer a lot of power, without, it seems, looking into HIS possible motives.

This was also on Glick's blog, someone posting:

"The initial story that 60 Minutes did on GM may have been altered to suit whatever editorial/business demands of the day, just like they alter stories to satisfy bullying special interests in other fields. Stands to reason that both sides could be slightly inaccurate. Perhaps the crux is that we need to stop expecting corporate media to broadcast stories that are both true and accurate."

It's hard for me to go that route. Corporate media reaches and influences millions--are half truths good enough? If we the people don't insist that the media uphold high standards, who will? But is there any real avenue for doing this?? Just boycotting the show is not what I have in mind, for 60 Minutes seems, for the most part, to be unbiased. But why not investigate them and, if possible, get closer to the truth? (a new job for you Krakauer?)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/15/60minutes/main20054397.shtml

[kjohehir]

5. Where is Naimat Gul Mahsud today?

A few things do not make sense.  One, if Krakauer has evidence
that Mortenson was not kidnapped, and is citing Mansur Khan
Mahsud as his source, why was he not on the broadcast, as well
as his uncle Naimat Gul Mahsud?  The uncle is the one who
brought Mortenson to the village and as others have pointed
out, and I have read on Pakistani news reports, Naimat has
been arrested and rounded up several times.

McKenzie Funk said he had been convicted of kidnapping a girl
and been given a life sentence but had escaped and was on the
lam when he met up with Mortenson.  Okay, where is Naimat Gul
Mahsud now, today?  If Mansur Mahsud has been defamed by
Mortenson (and please note thedailybeast.com story where
Mansur Mahsud admits Krakauer had called him
"recently" to tell him he had been defamed and
should sue.

Krakauer claims he is not giving interviews because he doesn't
want to "pile it on".  Please explain how calling
the family in Pakistan and arranging the "story" to
be annouced the day after his "TCD" was published
on-line.  Sounds like an ambush to me.

If Funk is correct, that what happened to Mortenson was a
failed kidnapping/exhortion attempt, and Mahsud does not deny
that Mortenson's money and passport were taken from him.  It
would appear that Morteson had every reason to believe his
life was in danger, as in the same article Mahsud admits the
area was full of "criminal gangs and kidnappers who prey
on the unwary," and his family was protecting Mortenson.

One of them is not telling the truth, so I would lobby for an
independent (lawyer would be good) person to go to the village
of Kot Langer Khel and talk to the villagers about Naimat Gul
Khan, and see if he is still alive and can be located.