Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way (2011)

A useful companion to Mortenson's book, and perhaps one that raises the caution: People with a passion for humanitarian work aren't necessarily the best administrators, and certainly aren't the best accountants. That Mortenson is annoying to work with should be obvious to anyone who's read him, but isn't an indictment of his practices. However, Krakauer documents a number of problems that suggest we really need to attend to infrastructure and fiscal transparency in our non-profits and NGOs, as well as conduct adequate needs assessments and outcome evaluation. ( )

This is an investigating piece by author Jon Krakauer on Greg Mortenson's charity work and the scandal behind the half truths in Three Cups of Tea, the best sellers about building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan that started it all. Krakauer's piece is well documented and does what a pamphlet should do : gives you the opinion of the writer, puts forward facts and interpretations, makes you think, makes you questions. It does stand up and provides ample fact checking that do bring doubts on the veracity of Mortenson' stories. It certainly makes me want to change the copy of the book that we have at my library from the non-fiction section to the fiction/other writing (somewhere in the 848 Dewey section) like we did for James Frey's book or Rampa's totally fictitious tales. ( )

Krakauer writes so clearly, than even though I wasn't really up on the whole Three Cups of Tea concept, I fully understood what was going on. Turns out this guy, Mortenson, is great at getting people to give him money, but he is lousy at managing a multi-million-dollar charity. As various well-intentioned but poorly thought-out celebrity charities have recently shown, a good "concept" is rarely the key to successful works. I sympathize with all those who have contributed to CAI and the Pennies for Peace causes. ( )

This is an investigating piece by author Jon Krakauer on Greg Mortenson's charity work and the scandal behind the half truths in Three Cups of Tea, the best sellers about building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan that started it all. Krakauer's piece is well documented and does what a pamphlet should do : gives you the opinion of the writer, puts forward facts and interpretations, makes you think, makes you questions. It does stand up and provides ample fact checking that do bring doubts on the veracity of Mortenson' stories. It certainly makes me want to change the copy of the book that we have at my library from the non-fiction section to the fiction/other writing (somewhere in the 848 Dewey section) like we did for James Frey's book or Rampa's totally fictitious tales. ( )

Krakauer writes so clearly, than even though I wasn't really up on the whole Three Cups of Tea concept, I fully understood what was going on. Turns out this guy, Mortenson, is great at getting people to give him money, but he is lousy at managing a multi-million-dollar charity. As various well-intentioned but poorly thought-out celebrity charities have recently shown, a good "concept" is rarely the key to successful works. I sympathize with all those who have contributed to CAI and the Pennies for Peace causes. ( )