Greg Mortenson & Three Cups of Tea

Hello,
Please post these links on your website. Many thanks! Julia Bergman

Please go to: http://www.ikat.org to read many formal and informal statements released to address the allegations made by Jon Krakauer in his distorted report.

Also see:

http://etude.uoregon.edu/winter2008/relin/

Excerpt:

Question: Three Cups of Tea wasn’t a co-written book, but you share a byline with the main character, Greg Mortenson. How did that come about?

Relin: That’s been the only negative thing about this whole adventure for me. After I turned in the manuscript, I received a galley back from the publisher with two names on it. It was published that way over my objections.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/21/lemmon.afghan.girls.mortenson/index.html

Excerpt:…

However you may feel about this controversy, it cannot be denied that Mortenson has been one of the most effective advocates for girls education — an issue that so often traffics in obscurity and penury. (A recent Time magazine article noted that 2 cents of every development dollar goes to girls — and that is an improvement over where it was in the last decade.) The media firestorm threatens to overshadow, or worse, discredit the heroines at the heart of his work building schools in Afghanistan. …

… In the wake of the allegations around "Three Cups of Tea" and the truth it contains, we must not forget about the girls. Investing in girls strengthens communities. Stronger communities make for a more stable world. And at a time in which upheaval has become the norm, this prosperity and security dividend is in the interest of everyone who fights each day for something better for their children.

Educating girls improves the world. And that is a fact.

http://coyoteblog.posterous.com/three-cups-of-tea-fallout

Excerpt…

That facts and recollections are in dispute regarding events described in Three Cups of Tea, that one person’s kidnapping is another person’s hosting of a foreigner, isn’t surprising to me at all. It’s not even alarming. I worked in Afghanistan for six months. In that region, reality is in flux. Many people will tell you what you want to hear. That approach has kept many Afghan and Pakestani individuals, families and villages alive – but can make evaluation and reporting a massive challenge. This village member says such-and-such happened yesterday. Another says it happened last year. Another says it never happened. A perpetual real-life Roshoman. Although, really, I can’t single Afghanistan out for this behavior – have you ever watched Judge Judy?

It’s been revealed that a school Mortenson’s organization funded is being used to house hay instead of educate children. Some schools may not have been built. Some are claimed by other donors. None of that is surprising – I knew of a school funded by the Afghan program I worked for that was housing the local village elders instead of holding classes. I knew of a local employment project that had paid everyone twice – once by our agency and once by a military PRT, for the same work. Not saying it’s right, not saying you shouldn’t be upset when you hear those things, but you should know that in developing countries with severe security problems, widespread corruption and profound poverty, this happens ALL THE TIME. Humanitarian professionals are told again and again: give local people control over development projects. And we do. And a result is that, sometimes, local people double dip, or don’t do what they were paid to do, or exploit others. How do you stop that? Are YOU ready to go on site visits in remote regions of Waziristan every three months? Are YOU ready to be called culturally-insensitive or overly-bureaucratic in your efforts to ensure quality in development projects in remote places?

http://www.rferl.org/content/embattled_three_cups_of_tea_author_finds_support_in_unlikely_places/9501706.html

Excerpt:

Well-known Pakistani author and journalist Ahmed Rashid has known Mortenson and his work for many years. Although he can’t vouch for 100 percent accuracy in Mortenson’s writings, he says there is no denying Mortenson’s "phenomenal" contribution to promoting education — especially for girls — in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Rashid also credits Mortenson with bringing education and development to the forefront of the Afghan discussion in America, raising awareness of the issue among the general public, America’s policy makers and its armed forces.

"I find it very hard to believe all these charges," Rashid adds. "I can well believe that there might be exaggeration on his part for some of the things that he claims to have done. But I think his mission has been absolutely extraordinary and that is what we should keep in mind."

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"I want to be thoroughly used up before I die"
George Bernard Shaw