"Greg Mortenson won fame
as a humanitarian who built hundreds of schools in Afghanistan. Four-star U.S.
generals sought his advice on Afghan tribal dynamics. President Obama donated $100,000
of his Nobel Prize winnings to Mortenson’s charity. Former president Bill
Clinton praised him.
Four million people bought his book. Many of his former advocates now see him
as a fraud. A 2012
investigation into his charity, the Central Asia Institute, found
that he spent millions in donations on his expenses, including travel and
clothing. His book turned out to contain large-scale fabrications. Some of the
schools he boasted of had no students. Some appeared not to have been built at
all."
Does this article,
written by Kevin Sieff , of the Washington Post, about Greg Mortenson, Walter
Mitty fantasist, remind you of anyone?
Are there some lessons to
be learned from the Greg Mortenson story? It seems, as Scott heads off to
Tuscany to write his memoirs, that he is not going to learn any lessons at all
but will expose himself to ridicule when the truth about what goes on behind
closed walls at the Cambodian Chilren’s Fund comes out.
Perhaps, though, some
lessons may be learned by the media – so quick to jump on any feel-good story
and give men like Greg Mortenson and Scott Neeson precisely what they want –
free publicity. The world hungers for saints, saviors and genuinely decent
ethical men and women like Ghandi, Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. When someone
appears in the landscape along who seems to have some of these qualities the
media fall over themselves giving them free air time and column inches in
newspapers, without bothering to check to see if the story these people tell
about themselves align with the facts. Then some years later, some other media
person who smells a rat comes along and exposes this latest secular saint as a
fraud.
Somaly Mam is a recent
example of a fraudster provided with a platform for her lies by a lazy media
and then publically humiliated years down the track by this same media. Shock!
Horror! How could Somaly Mam lie so blatantly, cries the media – despite having
built her up years beforehand without even bothering to ask a few questions
relating to her bona fides.
Somaly Mam’s lies
were known for years before the media suddenly decided that it was time
to take her down. Now she is trying to make a come-back! And some media give
her the time of day, despite her never having accounted for, explained away,
her lies. She is now a celebrity and once you are a celebrity you can be
forgiven anything. Bad behavior in public! Not a problem. A stint in rehab and
an appearance on Oprah all all is forgiven.
Scott Neeson is not quite
a celebrity yet, but he is working on it. His book, written in Tuscany, will be
his next strategic move into the world of celebrity. Then the Hollywood movie
made about him will seal the deal. Then he will be exposed as a serial liar.
Shock! Horror! Whoever would have guessed!? The media will use Neeson on his
way up the greasy pole to celebritydom (as it does now) and then use him again
as he slides back down it into ignominy.
I hope that Neeson does not have a
co-writer, as did Mortenson, who feels the need to kill him/herself when the
truth emerges.
Mortenson returns to Afghanistan,
trying to move past his ‘Three Cups of Tea’ disgrace.
MOHAMMAD
AGHA, Afghanistan — Greg Mortenson is hurtling down the dusty back roads of
eastern Afghanistan, hoping the Taliban won’t attack his Toyota 4Runner. There
are no police checkpoints, no American troops and no sign of any foreign
development projects — including his own.
A few years
ago, when the author of “Three Cups of
Tea” was one of the world’s most beloved activists, there would have
been a host of American officials waiting for him. But now, with his reputation
in a shambles, he has slipped back into Afghanistan quietly.
When he
arrives at an unmarked blue gate in a mud wall, his driver stops. Inside,
Mortenson says, lies “the other side of the story” — hundreds of Afghan girls
getting an education, thanks to him.
Except no one
is answering the door. The place looks abandoned.
“Maybe
everyone is at a wedding,” he says with a forced laugh. He squirms in his seat.
Mortenson won
fame as a humanitarian who built hundreds of schools in Afghanistan. Four-star
U.S. generals sought his advice on Afghan tribal dynamics. President Obama donated $100,000
of his Nobel Prize winnings to Mortenson’s charity. Former president Bill
Clinton praised him.
Four million people bought his book.
Many of his
former advocates now see him as a fraud.
A 2012
investigation into his charity, the Central Asia Institute, found
that he spent millions in donations on his expenses, including travel and
clothing. His book turned out to contain large-scale fabrications. Some of the
schools he boasted of had no students. Some appeared not to have been built at
all.
Now,
Mortenson is trying to start over, to emerge from years of pain and disgrace.
His donations have crashed. His co-author
committed suicide by kneeling in front of a train. His daughter
tried to take her life. He almost died of heart failure.
The full article can be found at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/mortenson-returns-to-afghanistan-trying-to-move-past-his-three-cups-of-tea-disgrace/2014/10/12/9774ae90-402f-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html
