Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way (Kindle Single) Kindle Edition

This is an important book! Like many others, I was deeply moved when I read "Three Cups of Tea" a few years ago. I had intended to make a donation, but somehow never got around to it--now I'm glad I didn't. The basic story of "Three Cups of Tea" is false, as are most of the claims Greg Mortenson makes in it. His CAI foundation bought thousands of his books to donate to schools and others, paid extravagant travel expenses for him to promote it and for speaking engagements while Mortenson kept all the royalties and fees. When these facts began to be made public, like the typical sociopath he told one lie after another to attempt to cover-up or justify his actions. The state of Montana finally stepped in and fined him, and he is prevented from heading the organization. But, most disturbing is the fact that he is still on the board of directors, still draws a salary, and the institute still gets donations! Krakauer makes other important points, such as how much we all want some "good news" from this part of the world and are therefore eager to help when it seems something is working, and how that Mortenson has hurt not only those close to him, employees, donors, the people he was supposed to help, but other organizations who really do good work, but find donors wary of being taken in
again.

In typical Krakauer style, it is well researched and well written. I heard about the feud between Mortenson and Krakauer a few years ago. Then someone told me they refused to watch the movie Everest, based on Krakauer's book,Into Thin Air, because of his anti-Mortenson stance. So I decided to read this book to see the other side of the argument. I personally never gave money to Mortenson's charity, and ater reading this, I'm very glad I didn't.

While there are always two sides to any story I simply can't imagine anyone being able to make an effective defense of Mortenson's many disreputable acts as presented in this exhaustive report. Far too many discrepancies exist to be easily explained as missteps or simplifications in the service of making complex events more easily absorbed by the readers of Three Cups Of Tea as Mortenson continues to maintain. Ego run amuck followed by endless self serving rationalization pretty much sums up my personal take on the recipe involved in brewing those Three Cups of Tea!

John Krakauer exposes the lies and fraud by the author of Three Cups of Tea. Is his usual investigative style, Jon tries uncover the character of a man with good intentions who, nevertheless embellished the stories of how he came to be an instrument in the establishment of schools in the back country of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and later used the foundation he created to enrich himself rather than the intended recipients.

When I read Three Cups of Tea, I remember feeling that there was something about Mortenson that I didn't like. Maybe it was the highly dramatized way he wrote about things or the subtle self-promotional style. However, I was very impressed that he was so intent on building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan and concentrated on raising the money to do so. It's admirable that he was serious about his desire to help people in that area of the world, and Jon Krakauer gives him credit a couple of times in Three Cups of Deceit for that.

I've always been a fan of Jon Krakauer's writing. I've read Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven in addition to Three Cups of Deceit, a Kindle Single. My biggest concern is the alleged mismanagement of funds and the seemingly qualified people at CAI who quit one by one because they couldn't do their jobs properly due to no feedback from Mortenson and if accurate, no receipts for foreign expenses or for anything. Mortenson provided no leadership or management skills, and was gung-ho one minute and couldn't care less the next. Somewhere I read that he suffers from depression and anxiety and I wonder if there is an element of mild bipolar disorder in there somewhere. He also made some impulsive decisions.

Some of the other things that Jon Krakauer says are cause for concern, too. Why would Mortenson say that he paid his respects to Mother Teresa well after the year she died when she died in 1997? She died less than a month after Princess Diana so the date sticks in the mind with that association.

I tend to believe that Krakauer's book is more fact than fiction. He certainly didn't write it for profit, because 100% of the author's proceeds go to "Stop Girl Trafficking" at the American Himalayan Foundation. Krakauer is receiving nothing from the book.

To build so many schools and not follow up with plans for teachers' salaries, school supplies and whatever else was needed seemed foolish because the people in these areas cannot afford to provide these things on their own. Perhaps the trip or trips to Telluride that Mortenson, his family and friends took could have funded some of those things.

In summary, I think that there is more truth in Jon Krakauer's book, Three Cups of Deceit, than anything else. He didn't write it for the money, he already is a well-known writer for his other books which have been made into movies, and he donated a lot of money to CAI himself. And I do know that Krakauer is a mountain climber, but Mortenson's climbing is questionable.

I liked the book, I read the article in Outside magazine and also the [...] site. I think it was in the Outside article that it said that some of the schools are being used for grain storage now, and if that's the truth, that's a real shame.

Exhaustively researched, enlightening, sobering. I love Krakauer's writing - it's no hyperbole to say his books have changed the course of my life, so it was hard to bear his heartbroken, vitriolic jeremiad, justifiable though it is. And probably just as hard to bear is the downfall of an admired character like Mortenson, who, like so many, start down that road paved with good intentions but lack the inner fortitude to withstand "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". If you've read "Three Cups of Tea" you owe it to humanity to read Krakauer's follow-up. Then go out and do small acts of local kindness that you can see through to the end and won't bring you fortune and fame.

Having been caught in the same network of lies as so many others, reading the account of the duplicitous nature of the “beloved “ Mr Mortenson just made my blood boil. My daughter and her husband really went all out to promote this jerk. Buying copies of the first book and shipping them to those who asked in return for a promise of donations, only to have the whole enterprise blow up in their faces ...disgusting.