According to CBS's 60 minutes, Greg Mortenson (famed author of the philanthropic book 3 Cups of Tea) has been using his charity as a "private atm" and his book is full of inaccuracies. Mortenson claims to have established 170 schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan, supposedly inspired by the kindness and charm of the local people when Mortenson became lost while trekking through Pakistan. His book has become a best seller since it was published in 2006 and which has been responsible for the $160 million donated to the CAI, The Central Asia Institute that Mortenson founded.
But 60 minutes has accused the folk hero of spending $1.7 million on tours of his book and flying around on a private jet, as well as more seriously accusing him of fabricating parts of his book. 60 minutes claims he has taken credit for building schools that do not exist in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Principals of some schools claim they haven't recieved financial assistance from Mortenson or his charity for years. Jon Krakauer, best selling author, former friend, and financial supporter of Mortenson told 60 minutes "It's a beautiful story and it's a lie." He offered strong evidence that Mortenson never got seperated from his fellow trekkers, had never visited or heard of Korphe (the town where he was inspired to start his first school) until a year afterward, and that the men Mortenson identified as his Taliban kidnappers were actually his tour guides.
People across the globe have donated, bought his book, and promoted Mortenson's ideals; even President Obama was so inspired by the author's actions that he donated $100,000 of his Nobel Peace Prize winnings to the CAI. If these allegations about Mortenson's fraud are true, he will have to suffer the consequences of a ruined reputation and an angry global community.
But Mortenson stands by his book. While these allegations have yet to be proven, he says that his book is completely true.
What are your opinions on these allegations? We've seen this kind of fraud before, so how do you think it can be prevented in the future?
8 comments:
when you donated to charities.. choose the smaller ones. they might be small, but its harder to get away with corruption because of its size.
-Raymond Lim
Actually, Raymond, larger charities have more of a responsibility and reputation to uphold, and are therefore held to a higher degree of accountibility than smaller charities, making it less likely that your money will be wrongfully allocated.
Nevertheless, while I do appreciate the philantrhopy of the story, the possibility of Mortenson profiting from it makes it less inspiring to say the least. While there is certainly a chance that he is flying around on a jet, he has a product he needs to sell, and because of that he needs to use some of that revenue to do business. It's not like he can make a foot pilgrimage like a bearded prophet to do business effectively.
Even so, if he's lying about what he did...there's only one way to verify that, and in doing so maybe the problem he claims to have been trying to solve might become clearer, which would be a positive outcome for everyone.
In light of events like this, skepticism, not cynicism, is the path to follow.
These accusations really bum me out. I really like this book and thought it was a great story. It is upsetting to know that he might have lied just to make a good story and get money. He should have atleast made this book fiction. It's hard to say if the accusations are true, but I hope not because of how inspiring the story is.
From someone who works with non-profit charity type things, I do have to say that transparency in the accounting is very, very important. Amrit and I, who have both started non-profits can tell you the crazy extent of the accountability required. I'd say it is always a top priority, and it is surprising to me that this fool has gotten away with this for SO long without being caught... Way to go IRS.
Point being, this fraud may be a lot more severe and intense than we may think. There has got to be some MAJOR book cooking going on for him to have gotten away with it for so long.
I think I will take both sides of the story with a grain of salt. It is hard to get away with such a big lie, but at the same time, I really do not trust charities such as these. Honestly, inspiring stories are great, but every published inspiring story has some degree of fancy-shmancy coloring that is not always true. I am always weary of charity organizations. And like Alex said, small organizations founded by one person are more likely to be corrupt. Mr.Silton also showed us that article about why not to donate to charities after the Japan natural disasters.
I do agree with Phinney and LuShang, we should trust larger and more reputatable charaties to donate to because they are held responsible by international organizations and nations, even though they have their bureacracies to contend with. People have to be more skeptical about where they will donate their money too. This sudden twist of events for Mortenson is unfortunate, but not surprising. So many people today know one of the easiest ways to earn a decent amount of money is through asking for charity, as we give money to charit through compassion instead of thinking about how exactly the money will be spent and what shall it do. By this post, Mortenson reflects the new breed of philantropists who create charities through a sickening twist of compassion, self-awareness, and self-promotion. If he truly cared for the Afghani and Pakistani, he would have made his story free, decide to teach permanently in one town, settle for a job in an ESTABLISHED organization that is trying to do the very thing he claims to be doing, or be reputable enough to not have these foul rumors around him. Its charity, not some business. I think a person should be willing to suffer and literally give themselves up if they make charity their life, and clearly he has not.
if we're talking about reputation.. well its pretty easy to slip money under the table internally without people noticing. so happens that this guy got caught. but that's just me...
ok phinney i'll give you that one. =D
-Raymond Lim
People who create charities with the intent of making a profit should be ashamed of themselves. If Mortenson is the liar that he is now seen as, he should be ashamed of deceiving the public by pulling at their heartstrings with a false tale and a bunch of lies.
I'm not going to make a judgment on whether Mortenson is a liar or not. However, an incident like this one should make it more obvious that people need to be more aware and careful of what charitable foundation they donate to and what the foundation does with their money. Maybe the Mortenson didn't plan to take in $1.7 million of donations for his own personal profit. But his unwise and superfluous spending on promoting his book does give the public a good reason to question him and his true intentions.
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