The "Three Cups of Sad, Complicated and Greedy Tea" Debate

Afghan School Girls in town on road to Bamian, 2002. Photo: VW

Here's a link to just one of the articles swarming around the Internet, about Mortenson, the author of "Three Cups of Tea" and his alleged fabrication and/or misappropriation of funds for his non-profit.  I think it's interesting that the key characters in this escalating drama are white, American, middle-aged men, and pretty darn wealthy at that.  Maybe that's why journalists typically don't get paid a lot, it keeps them a little more honest.  


Maybe they all should read the Journalist's Code of Ethics:  60-Minutes for coming down too hard on one angle, Mortenson for at the very least, exaggerating and/obscuring the truth and forgetting to hire an accountant, and Krakauer for profiting on a sensational story.  I haven't read the book, I think because I was so immersed in Afghanistan already, and saw lots of evidence that many US NGOs were using Afghans as a way to raise money for US-based interests, not Afghan's. Yes, he built some schools, but the Afghans I spoke with were sick and tired of things started and not finished, or when they were given a hundred pencils and then forgotten about.  I try to remain unbiased, after all, the guy has some good.  But then I think about his $35K speaking fee. That alone could build 140 schools in Afghanistan!