Three Cups of Tea: A Defense

By Albert (Age 13, Canadian International School)

Editor's note: Read a response from a student who believes Greg Mortenson should face the consequences for purposefully deceiving the public. 

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Three Cups of Tea is a book by Greg Mortenson. It was published in 2006 and it is an apparently true life story about Mortenson getting lost on K2, the second highest peak in the world, and eventually stumbling across a tiny village named Korphe. There the villagers nursed him back to health and he vowed to return to build schools there. Since then he has built over 150 schools in Pakistan and nearby Afghanistan. Despite this book being a bestseller for over five years, recently, there has been a lot of criticism. Author and climber Jon Krakauer discovered some parts of Mortenson's memoir were made up and that he used the money from the organization for his personal use. However, I believe that Mortenson's achievements far outweigh allegations made by Krakauer.

The first reason why I believe Mortenson's achievements outweigh the mistakes is that the mistakes in my opinion aren't that serious. There is only one big issue with what he is doing right now, which is that he is using money from the charity for himself. All the other mistakes, such as building schools on peaceful grounds in Afghanistan while he claimed he was building in dangerous zones, are just exaggerations made by Mortenson. The false stories he tells don't really have a huge impact on the work he does. As for the big offense, no one can really be sure if Mortenson does keep the money for himself. Also, the main point is that he has done the work and has helped the children, not if the money used was less than it should have been.

The next reason is that many other famous people who have helped change the world have also done things that weren't right. Mother Teresa, who devoted her life to building orphanages, schools, and clinics for the poor, was criticized for accepting questionable donations from dictators and criminals. She was also critized for the deplorable conditions of her clinics. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized parts of his Ph.D. thesis, but that doesn't even come close to overshadowing the achievement he had leading the civil rights movement. Some believe that Gandhi may have had relationships despite his vow of celibacy, but does that affect or overshadow his achievements such as making India an independent country? No. So why should it be any different for Greg Mortenson? His achievements far outweigh the mistakes he made.

On the other hand, some feel strongly about Mortenson deceiving people with made up tales in his book, but the main point is that the money goes to charity. Some also feel strongly about Mortenson using more money for himself than he should, but it is more important that the rest of the money is helping build schools in rural and dangerous parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In conclusion, despite the many mistakes that Greg Mortenson made such as making up parts of the book and using more company money than he should have, his achievements such as building over 150 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, raising money for charity, and inspiring many far outweigh his mistakes.

Three Cups of Deceit

By Jamie (Age 13, Renaissance College)

Editor's note: Read a response from a student who believes Greg Mortenson's accomplishments far outweigh Jon Krakauer's allegations. 

Three Cups of Tea is about how Greg Mortenson, failing to climb K2, got separated from his teammates and found his way to Korphe, a Pakistani village. The villagers healed the weak Mr. Mortenson and in return he promised to build a school, which happened one year later. He made his adventures into the book Three Cups of Tea and it became a New York Times bestseller. He also founded a non-profit organization called Central Asia Institute. The money earned from his book and donations from readers who were touched by his story was used to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, it was revealed that some facts in Three Cups of Tea were false, made up, and this accusation was confirmed by Jon Krakauer, the author of Three Cups of Deceit. 

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

I think that Greg Mortenson purposefully deceived the public with his book and he should be prepared for the consequences. Since a lot of people bought his book and gave donations to Central Asia Institute, a lot of people would be mad and furious since all their money has been given to a deceitful organization. Even though he has been using the money from CAI's funds to build schools, it has been found by Jon Krakauer that the building of the schools have only used up 41% of the funding donations. Advertising and promotional activities for Greg Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute have used up the rest of the funds.

All of these allegations have been gathered up and written into a book called Three Cups of Deceit by Jon Krakauer. There have been serious accusations. Although over 170 schools have been built by the Central Asia Institute in Pakistan and Afghanistan, many have been reported to be left empty and unused. Also, in these schools, there has been no attempt to hire teachers and buy supplies for the students, which makes the school an empty shell. It has also been found that the proceeds from book sales do not go to the Central Asia Institute, but instead to Greg Mortenson.

All these allegations are enough to outweigh Greg Mortenson's accomplishments in Central Asia. As the Chinese saying says, "A bad person is still a bad person, no matter what they do to change the fact." Whatever good deeds such as building schools that Greg Mortenson has done, he cannot change the fact that he has written a book with false facts, deceived millions of people into donating to his "non-profit organization", and used the money himself for his personal use. So, I think that although Greg Mortenson is a person who has done good deeds, he still has flaws and is not one to be believed in.