Scandal Aside, Mortenson Did Good Work

Greg Mortenson 'fudged facts,' treats charity like 'personal ATM': journo

(NEWSER) - A bestselling memoir about an American's efforts to build schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan has been lashed as a " pack of lies " in a 60 Minutes investigation. In Three Cups of Tea, author Greg Mortenson wrote about his experience being nursed to health by Pakistani villagers after he became lost after a mountain trek on K2. Their kindness sent him on a path of school building. But 60 Minutes skewers the book as a fabrication and asserts that Mortenson uses his charitable organization, Central Asia Institute, as a "private ATM machine." Mortenson, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, didn't meet villagers until a year after he says he did, and most of the 170 schools he claims to have built are either empty or were built by others, according to the investigation. More»

Empty school result of government's alternative education program

(NEWSER) - Two schoolhouses—one never used and falling apart, the other full of children and thriving—built in the Afghanistan countryside by Greg Mortenson's scandal-embroiled charity show the complexities of bringing aid to this desolate, war-torn region. "But what I saw of the school-building program was difficult to fit neatly into either the heroic narrative offered by Mr. Mortenson, or the depiction of greed by his accusers," writes Edward Wong in the New York Times . Rather, "what the two schools, especially the empty one, may reflect most plainly is the complexity of any development work in a country like Afghanistan." More»

Oman proves the value of education

(NEWSER) - Forty years ago, Oman was a hidebound society, similar to neighboring Yemen. There was no modern technology, no paved roads, and most of the people were illiterate. It had just three schools, all boys-only affairs. But today, Yemen is a haven for terrorists, but Oman isn’t. Why? Because in 1970, the sultan’s son deposed his father, and started modernizing the country around the principle of education for all, writes Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times . More»

Nicholas Kristof's annual list focuses on little-known aid groups

(NEWSER) - “Tired of celebrating spiritual holidays with crass commercialism?” writes Nicholas D. Kristof, in full pitchman mode. Have no fear: “Nothing says ‘happy holidays’ like donating in Aunt Tilda’s name to build a composting toilet in Haiti.” A sampling of the New York Times columnist’s list of worthy charities follows:

• Acumen Fund : A fund that invests money in for-profit aid initiatives, reflecting "a growing trend of using business mechanisms to fight poverty."
• BRAC : A Bangladeshi aid group expanding into Afghanistan and Africa that promotes "education, health, and microfinance" by turning "impoverished women into agents of change."

Doesn't US remember how our country began? Or how Vietnam ended?

(NEWSER) - The United States was born from a nationalist insurgency. “Given that history, you’d think we might be more sensitive to nationalism abroad,” writes Nicholas Kristof. “Yet the most systematic foreign-policy mistake we Americans have made in the post-World War II period has been to underestimate its potency.” It was true in Vietnam, in Latin America—and now in Afghanistan. More»