A Very Depressing Day
19th Apr 2011
The sun is shining and we have some lovely friends visiting from Nepal, but I've just read a thoroughly depressing article on the Guardian website about Greg Mortenson. A few months back I blogged about his best-selling book 'Three Cups Of Tea'. Taken at face value it is the most inspiring book that I have ever read. The article I have just read casts some very serious allegations against the facts in the book, claiming that nearlty half of the schools that Greg's charity 'CAI' has set up are empty, or were built by somebody else, as well as questioning the validity of some of his stories within the amazing book.
The allegations are being made by US TV channel CBS who aired a programme on the matter a few days ago. Barack Obama donated $100,000 of his Nobel Peace Prize winnings to the charity, yet John Krakauer has lent weight to the allegations, claiming that the story of how Greg stumbled into the village of Korphe whilst lost on his way down from a failed attempt on K2, is a beautiful story, but a lie.
Whichever way you look at this, it's thoroughly depressing. Either this is a despicable cases of fraud, or somebody has decided to attack a fine and upstanding guy who is an inspiration to millions. Even if the allegations turn out to be false, there's the old adage 'throw enough dirt, and some of it will stick'. Unfortunately I fear this may be the case for Greg.