Saturday, March 28, 2015

Three Cups of I Don't Know What to Think.

Hooray!!

Several years ago someone loaned me Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, probably because I'm a male nurse, like him.  I liked it.  I thought "Here's someone doing good in the world.  I could do that!"  The story goes that Mortenson got lost on a hike near K2, was taken in by a local village and was so moved by their lack of education that he started a foundation to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

No, wait - Booooo!!

Then I read Jon Krakauer's Three Cups of Deceit  which details Mortenson's dubious claims and alleged mishandling of monies and now I don't know who to believe.  I love Krakauer's writing - Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven - so I'm inclined to believe him when he says only a few schools were built and even those are mostly used as horse stables.

The whole thing stinks of paternalism and the law of unintended consequences.  Sometimes I think it's best to follow the bumper sticker's advice to Think Globally, Act Locally.  Or maybe not even act at all, just sit like a lump and watch the world burn down around you with detachment.  At least then you can smirk with moral superiority, as your skin starts to crackle, knowing you didn't start the fire.

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