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Three Cups of Tea
Apr. 20th, 2011 10:16 amSo, I mentioned yesterday that I would have more thoughts on the scandal regarding Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and founder of the Central Asian Institute. I've written favorably about him before (see here and here). From what I can gather, the best that can be said of Greg is that he greatly exaggerated the number of schools built and their long-term viability.
The worst is that he's a fraud. A Huffington Post writer pulled some Bookscan data and determined that Greg's books had generated at least $6 million in royalties, yet Greg is drawing over $150,000 in salary from his charity and the Institute is spending about $1.5 million a year promoting the book. Needless to say, I find those numbers disappointing if not dismaying.
General thoughts:
1) Greg came to the world's attention via the national news media. They helped create him, but in their defense, they also are exposing his problems. For all the (many, many) flaws of the "mainstream media" they perform a useful service. No mere blogger could get to the bottom of this, nor would they be able to so effectively get the message out.
3) Building schools in and providing education for poor rural areas is a wonderful idea. But (and I think this is a Jerry Pournelle quote) there is no cause so good as to not have crooks associated with it.
4) Nobody, not even Yours Truly, is perfect or always right. I gave money to Greg and plugged his charity, which appears to have been a bad idea. One always needs to evaluate what one is doing and thinking. If you get it wrong, change it.
The worst is that he's a fraud. A Huffington Post writer pulled some Bookscan data and determined that Greg's books had generated at least $6 million in royalties, yet Greg is drawing over $150,000 in salary from his charity and the Institute is spending about $1.5 million a year promoting the book. Needless to say, I find those numbers disappointing if not dismaying.
General thoughts:
1) Greg came to the world's attention via the national news media. They helped create him, but in their defense, they also are exposing his problems. For all the (many, many) flaws of the "mainstream media" they perform a useful service. No mere blogger could get to the bottom of this, nor would they be able to so effectively get the message out.
1a) Which leads to a corollary - hype and hysteria can overtake everybody. Remember back to the 1980s and the "ritual child abuse" BS?
2) The charity I am most involved with, Rotary, is known for being a pain in the ass with regards to documenting the spending of grants. The mess with the Central Asian Institute is Exhibit A in Rotary's defense. 3) Building schools in and providing education for poor rural areas is a wonderful idea. But (and I think this is a Jerry Pournelle quote) there is no cause so good as to not have crooks associated with it.
4) Nobody, not even Yours Truly, is perfect or always right. I gave money to Greg and plugged his charity, which appears to have been a bad idea. One always needs to evaluate what one is doing and thinking. If you get it wrong, change it.
