Three cups of controversy

Craig Mortensen, who wrote the best selling book, THREE CUPS OF TEA, is finding himself steeping in controversy these days. He visited Vero Beach on one of his book tours and created a lasting impression of his efforts in Afghanistan to bring education to the country's impoverished children, especially girls.The only reason I am writing about this now is that back when he visited our area, he insisted that no one else could duplicate what he has done because of his special relationship with the people of Afghanistan. That was a red flag to me.

Although I have never visited Afghanistan, I have spent plenty of time in Africa and the Middle East, especially with tribal people, to know that they are just like people anywhere. They are suspicious at first of people who come to 'help' them, but once they get to know you are sincere, you are welcome like family. I have two friends here locally who served in Afghanistan, one a medic, the other a soldier, who could not say enough about the friendliness of Afghanis, especially when they feel you are sincere in your efforts on their behalf.

So as to Craig Mortensen's alleged position that only he could develop this relationship, I can only surmise he was doing something he didn't want widely known. This past week we found out the possible explanation. A segment on last Sunday's SIXTY MINUTES news program presented numerous conflicting accounts of Mortensen's accomplishments, including questions about the finances of his charity, the Central Asia Institute as well as the claim he was kidnapped by the Taliban back in the 90s. These allegations and Mortensen's defense of them can be found by googling his name and/or THREE CUPS OF TEA, so I won't repeat them here.

The point is that in today's shrinking world, people can travel just about anywhere and see for themselves how people live. If they don't travel, they can still find out anything they want to know by clicking on to the internet.  There are a billion cell phones in the world, all capable of filming life as it really happens and uploading it to YouTube, Facebook or even blogs like this one.

So my advice to Mr. Mortensen and others who achieve fame and fortune: be careful because we are watching you.