Posted on 04/20/2011 4:31:08 AM PDT by KantianBurke
"Three Cups of Tea" author Greg Mortenson's charity will be investigated after questions were raised about how it managed its financial affairs, the Montana state attorney general said today...
The segment also alleged that the Central Asian Institute took credit for building schools that didn't actually exist or were built by others, and that it spent more money on self-promotion than on humanitarian efforts.
Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock said today that he would investigate the issues raised by the report."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Saw this gentleman for the first and only time on Bill Moyers PBS show. I don’t normally watch shows put on by screaming anti americans, like Bill, but in this case I was interested in what the guest was pitching. It appeared too good to be true.
With that in mind, the chance to hear him live became available with a program put on by the John T. Vucerevich foundation here in Rapid City to be held in the Civic Center Theater in May. The tickets sold out in less than two hours. I didn’t get any.
My one-star Amazon.com review of this man’s book (A review which I titled, “Dreadful”) is posted for folks’ enjoyment and edification here:
*********************************************************
“It’s been a long time since I’ve written a review here, and it’s sad to put my effort into such a loser. Someone gave me this tome as a Christmas present at work, and I have not had the opportunity yet to try to hide my disappointment from her. Her glowing words about the book are obviously out of synch with my impressions. Out of some perverted sense of obligation to her gift giving, I wasted much of a nice holiday recently slogging through this monstrosity. What a chore.
“My objections are two-fold. First and foremost is the atrocious writing. Really, really hard to believe this fellow “has won more than forty national awards for his writing and editing. A former teaching/writing fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop . . . . “ Really? And then to find out as well that this is a #1 NY Times Bestseller, and won the Kiriyama Prize and who knows what else! Yeow! Simply amazing given the inability of the writer to craft a readable sentence. Or to refrain from the most self-conscious metaphors and tortured analogies I can ever remember reading. And it just dragged on, and on, and on, and on. Good thing he didn’t wait yet another ten years to write the book!
“My second reason for disliking this book is in direct opposition to the reason I think so many people love it: the politics. Did Mortenson do some good? It certainly seems that way on the surface. And yet, like someone who builds a seemingly solid road in the Himalayas, the underlying forces at work in the region are not encouraging for the structure enduring. The recent history of Islam, as summarized in Samuel Huntington’s accurate description of, “The bloody borders of Islam,” is not a recent phenomenon at all. Without going into the whole wretched catalogue of historical horrors, I think a reading of Will Durant’s rendition of the incredible cruelty Islam rained upon India in the first book of his Story of Civilization should suffice. His writings begin, “The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history.” Attempts by the political Left to dismiss or romanticize the reality of these matters are very fashionable in some circles, as they are in this book, but I am not a subscriber. The demonization of America, also all the rage among the Left, is also in full view here. We even learn on page 317 (Yes, by golly, I really read the whole dreary thing!) that it was America’s fault that traffic control in Kabul in 2003 was horrendous: “A government supported by America . . . couldn’t even control the traffic. Drivers just ignored road signs and a few shouting traffic cops and went where they wanted.” Wow! Extremely embarrassing to be an American, no?
“I also found myself repeatedly annoyed by the mixed messages about the saint-like Mortenson, who would keep his promises to foreigners in distant lands at all costs, but who thereby neglected his much more fundamental vows and obligations to his own American family. Despite the whole book - almost every single sentence - being devoted to him, I don’t think I ever really developed a very clear sense of who he was or what everyone saw in him. He came across, when he came across at all, as kind of confused and bumbling, and not very likable unless you were a Moslem who wanted something from him.
“I thought maybe three stars for this drivel at first, but by the end I resented the almost sadistic glee with which I was by then convinced the author was prolonging a story that should have ended two hundred pages earlier. The only reason it’s not one star is . . . well, it escapes me at the moment. Let me change it to one star. Dreadful. Avoid it.”
The Montana AG is getting ready to run for something. He’ll do anything to get his name in the press. He’s going to sue the sun for causing skin cancer. Press whore.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.