April 18, 2011
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Integrity and Tea
I first read Three Cups of Tea several years ago. If you aren’t familiar with this book or the author, Greg Mortenson, basically the book tells the story of Mortenson visiting a mountainous region of Pakistan after a failed attempt at climbing K2. He is essentially taken in by some villagers and falls in love with the area, determined to do something to help them. He sets up schools, which kind of takes on a life of its own. I was really touched by the story and thought that it was wonderful, a sort of educational micro-finance and by micro-finance, I mean foreign aid of sorts given by a private citizen, organization, or company to another specific group.
Now there is controversy over whether Mortenson really told the truth about some of his adventures in the book after a damning 60 Minutes report. Mortenson is now accused of lying about when he visited the town that he initially set up the school in and about being held by the Taliban. On top of this, there have also been questions on the funding and handling of money given to Mortenson’s organization, the “Central Asia Institute.”
The idea behind Three Cups of Tea is a really cool one but I’m wondering if the potential lies might not take away from some of the story. I’m really struggling with this. Personally I believe that acts of micro finance can do a lot of good on a small, local level. Often times, I think it’s easy for foreign aid given to governments to be misused or just to not get to the people who could really use aid. Micro finance allows for the support of a specific group, project, or sector at a more direct level. In all facets of life, I’d rather hear the truth no matter how bad/boring/indifferent/ugly/ [insert other world with negative connotation] it may be. Pretty lies don’t do anything for me.
So I have two questions for you:
- How important is integrity if your point is still really good?
- Is there ever a need to embellish the truth?
Comments (10)
I just wonder why ,when writing something that people can research and dig into, one would not label it as fiction or at least state that it is based on the truth with liberal doses of fabrication.
I know a lot of people are struggling with this right now
@seedsower - I do think labeling it as fiction in the first place would have made things a little better now.
I agree with seedsower and she says what I was going to say. Fiction is just as effective at being “true,” especially good so-called “literary fiction.” *sigh* My guess is that it was labeled nonfiction as a specific marketing ploy.
@BoureeMusique - The problem is that Mortenson is still claiming that everything is totally true!
I would separate the book from the realities of microfinance, as you did. Even if he did lie about personal experiences, that doesn’t mean the bigger picture isn’t true.
But I wouldn’t fund the author’s own organization until those questions regarding the handling of money were answered positively.
@TheCheshireGrins - That is the point where I start taking issue with it. If he had written the book and just left it out there not a problem. When he starts claiming it as truth then things get a more complex.
I don’t know about the controversy of the book. But to answer your question….I don’t think you should embellish the truth. Tell the truth and people will respond or not. If it comes out later that you fudged details, it detracts from your message, no matter how good that message is.
I do not know the book but I think keeping ones integrity is important and these is no reason to lie, the truth is the truth.
For me, if I read a book and it is an account of what he had gone through, then it better be the truth. Otherwise just categorise it as fiction.
I don’t think that there should ever be a need to embellish the truth. Embellishing only leads to more embellishing and ends up blowing things out of proportion…
As far as the integrity question goes, what is the good of a good point if integrity has been sacrificed in getting the point across?