Read Online Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way by Jon Krakauer - Free Book Online
Authors: Jon Krakauer
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Administration to ban Mortenson and his books from Baltistan.
Three months after Parvi held this forum, Mortenson received another email warning that he was no longer welcome in Baltistan. It arrived out of the blue from Tanya Rosen, an international lawyer and wildlife researcher with degrees from Bard College, the Universit à Statale of Milano, Harvard Law School, and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. “ Dear Greg, ” it began,
I wrote you a couple of years ago back when I was planning on going to do some work in the Wakhan. I am primarily a scientist working on wildlife and conservation issues but obviously in places like the Wakhan such issues go hands in hands with development, livelihoods and education. Anyway the plan to go to the Wakhan has been postponed for a bit because instead friends and colleagues in Gilgit-Baltistan asked me to come help with snow leopard conservation work … . This summer I worked in Hushey, Khandey, Shigar and Baisha valleys, Krabathang etc … . The reason I am writing you is that the school you built in Hushey is empty and unused (beautiful by the way) and could not confirm that but people I ran into in Skardu and other villages told me that there are other schools you have built that apparently are not used. What was even more surprising was the fact that many people I talked to (about snow leopards) inevitably (because I live in Montana) asked me if I knew you and took that opportunity to share a series of negative feelings such as: “ the book is full of lies ” , “ Dr. Greg built the schools but did not provide funding for teachers, stationery etc. ” , “ he is banned from G-B ” . Hearing this was sad and disappointing, at the same time I know that becoming successful attracts envy or that sometimes even when you are well-meaning things do not turn out the way you want them.
Rosen ’ s report that some CAI schools were empty — including the Hushe school , which Mortenson has long trumpeted as one of his most satisfying accomplishments — was disturbing. When I asked Rosen to elaborate, she replied that the elders of Hushe village told her “ the school was built by Mortenson and that ’ s where the support ended. ” It was run thereafter by government teachers, and the “ poor quality of education was one of the reasons that the community decided to set up its own private school in a more modest building nearby with a more varied curriculum which includes English. ”
CAI has become proficient at erecting schools off the beaten path, and Mortenson deserves praise for that. But filling those schools with effective teachers and actually educating children turn out to be much more difficult than constructing schoolrooms. On this front, Mortenson has delivered far less than he has professed.
On April 15, 2010, Mortenson was the featured speaker at a conference presented on Edutopia, the website of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, during which he stated, “ The most important thing in any school is obviously a teacher … . So we provide teacher training and support. ” 7 Students at CAI schools, he assured his audience, “ learn to read and write, science, math, everything else. They also, by fifth grade, they learn five languages, including Arabic and English. One of the things we stress is not only that they learn how to read and write Arabic, but they learn how to understand Arabic … . We put a lot of emphasis now on teacher training … . It goes on for a month about twice a year. ”
Mortenson has made similar assertions on countless occasions, including a Charlie Rose interview broadcast on July 27, 2010. As recently as March 26 of this year, he told a reporter from the Spokane Spokesman-Review , “ We supply the teacher training and support … we have a teacher-training program and we have emphasized that quite a bit. ” In the case of the Hushe school , such
Three months after Parvi held this forum, Mortenson received another email warning that he was no longer welcome in Baltistan. It arrived out of the blue from Tanya Rosen, an international lawyer and wildlife researcher with degrees from Bard College, the Universit à Statale of Milano, Harvard Law School, and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. “ Dear Greg, ” it began,
I wrote you a couple of years ago back when I was planning on going to do some work in the Wakhan. I am primarily a scientist working on wildlife and conservation issues but obviously in places like the Wakhan such issues go hands in hands with development, livelihoods and education. Anyway the plan to go to the Wakhan has been postponed for a bit because instead friends and colleagues in Gilgit-Baltistan asked me to come help with snow leopard conservation work … . This summer I worked in Hushey, Khandey, Shigar and Baisha valleys, Krabathang etc … . The reason I am writing you is that the school you built in Hushey is empty and unused (beautiful by the way) and could not confirm that but people I ran into in Skardu and other villages told me that there are other schools you have built that apparently are not used. What was even more surprising was the fact that many people I talked to (about snow leopards) inevitably (because I live in Montana) asked me if I knew you and took that opportunity to share a series of negative feelings such as: “ the book is full of lies ” , “ Dr. Greg built the schools but did not provide funding for teachers, stationery etc. ” , “ he is banned from G-B ” . Hearing this was sad and disappointing, at the same time I know that becoming successful attracts envy or that sometimes even when you are well-meaning things do not turn out the way you want them.
Rosen ’ s report that some CAI schools were empty — including the Hushe school , which Mortenson has long trumpeted as one of his most satisfying accomplishments — was disturbing. When I asked Rosen to elaborate, she replied that the elders of Hushe village told her “ the school was built by Mortenson and that ’ s where the support ended. ” It was run thereafter by government teachers, and the “ poor quality of education was one of the reasons that the community decided to set up its own private school in a more modest building nearby with a more varied curriculum which includes English. ”
CAI has become proficient at erecting schools off the beaten path, and Mortenson deserves praise for that. But filling those schools with effective teachers and actually educating children turn out to be much more difficult than constructing schoolrooms. On this front, Mortenson has delivered far less than he has professed.
On April 15, 2010, Mortenson was the featured speaker at a conference presented on Edutopia, the website of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, during which he stated, “ The most important thing in any school is obviously a teacher … . So we provide teacher training and support. ” 7 Students at CAI schools, he assured his audience, “ learn to read and write, science, math, everything else. They also, by fifth grade, they learn five languages, including Arabic and English. One of the things we stress is not only that they learn how to read and write Arabic, but they learn how to understand Arabic … . We put a lot of emphasis now on teacher training … . It goes on for a month about twice a year. ”
Mortenson has made similar assertions on countless occasions, including a Charlie Rose interview broadcast on July 27, 2010. As recently as March 26 of this year, he told a reporter from the Spokane Spokesman-Review , “ We supply the teacher training and support … we have a teacher-training program and we have emphasized that quite a bit. ” In the case of the Hushe school , such
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