Learning from the "Three Cups of Tea" Scandal

Greg Mortenson is the author of Three Cups of Tea, an advocate of female education, a philanthropist and all around good guy.

In Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson tells a beautiful story about how a small village nurses him back to health after a failed attempt at K2 - the second highest mountain in the world.

Mortenson promises to build them a school and finally manages to do so after many problems.  At one stage he is taken hostage by armed rebels in Afghanistan. 

Mortenson's organization - the CAI - has since gone on to built upwards of 140 schools in Central Asia.

It turns out that most what Moretnson claims varies from outright-lie to plain-old deception.  A 60 Minutes investigation discovered that:

• Mortenson was not nursed back to health by the villagers, but in fact first visited the village a year or so after his problems on K2
  
  
• He was not held hostage by the Taliban.  In fact, there is a photo of him with his "captors" with Mortenson holding the AK-47!
  
  
• And 140 schools?  Maybe 140 buildings, because 140 schools without teachers, students or resources are not schools, but merely buildings.

Then there are the allegations of private jets, misuse of funds, and Morternson using the CAI as his own personal ATM.

Mortenson has responded to the allegations but -meh - I don't buy it.

One of the tragedies with this whole story is that Mortenson has built schools and not merely buildings, has tirelessly promoted education for girls, and has done far more for peace in the region than any drone bombing ever has.

---

June 21st (ish) will see the start of Meaningful Volunteer's solar powered school in Uganda.  This will be the culmination of the hard work of many people.

Everyone involved in the project would like to see it not only be successful, but the first of many such schools.

So how are we going to avoid the same traps that Mortenson fell into?

Well, I think in some ways we need to keep on doing what we've always done. Be open and honest about our successes and failures.

Do you know how to build a school?  I have some vague inkling about the process, but am far from an expert.  I do know that whatever mistakes are made will be well documented and shared freely.

The school won't be teaching all subjects. It will focus on English and computer literacy.  From the census that Meaningful Volunteer conducted we know the English literacy is terrible. Computer literacy is useful in many ways as all of us who use them everyday is aware.

We'll be keeping a careful track of students that move through the school and sharing their successes.  If a Mortenson-type probe comes along we can point and say here are our students and here is what they (and we) learned.

Watch this space!  Building our first school is going to be quite the adventure!

"Genocide is a way of life [in Africa]". The Stoopid. It hurts

Ted Nugent.  And a deer.

Here are some Pearls of Wisdom from Rock n' Roll star Ted Nugent:

• There is no country in Africa that truly respects freedom or the rule of law. 
• Genocide is a way of life. 
• Africa is an international scab

These all come from his article in the Washington Times.

Mr. Nugent might want to consider the following.  The proportion of sub-Saharan Africans who were:

• Affected by famine: Less than 0.3%
• Refugees in 2005: 0.5%
• Killed in wars between 1965 and 2001: 0.01%

All of these percentages are too high. Ideally, they should all be zero.

There are a lot of depressing statistics out of Africa, but to say that no country respects freedom, genocide is way of life, and that Africa is an international scab is just ignorant and stoopid.

Meaningful Volunteer does what it does because there is both hope and growth in Africa.

Depressing Stories from the Field

Buyaya water on the right

In my last blog, I wrote about how hard it can be to actually "do good" in a developing country.

Here's another rather depressing story from the field.

We all know that access to clean water can have tremendous benefits.  The lives of the people in Buyaya (where Meaningful Volunteer is based) would be vastly improved in their water didn't have wriggly worms in it.

One enterprising Kiwi lass thought she would help out a local school by installing a rain-fed water system.   The drinkable water would gather on the roof and trickle through the guttering into a large water tank.

(This is what we are doing with our solar powered school in Uganda, by the way.)

Stop for a minute and try to think what could possibly go wrong with this scenario. I'll give you a moment.

...

Did you come up with anything?

The school buildings were being rented.  The landlord saw the improvement to to school, figured the value of his buildings had gone up and promptly increased the rent.

Hooray!

Those Damn Dirty Orphanages

A damn dirty orphanage

Who could resist a cute little slightly-dirty orphan coming up to you, grabbing your hand, and leading you to their dilapidated orphanage?

You'll likely see some wonderful salt-of-the-earth women bent doubled over a charcoal stove concocting a meal from meagre ingredients.  You're likely to be mobbed by a bunch of orphans dressed in rags who are just so excited to see you.

If there was ever a place that could do with your support, this would be it.

Right. Right?!

Kids caring for kids

Well, it might pay just to dig a little deeper.

Why did that orphan grab your hand and lead you to the orphanage?

The sad reality is that many of these orphanages are money-spinners for the numerous fat-men around the world. Those dirty little orphans and those dirty little orphanages are fantastic marketing tools for the ne'er-do-wells of this world to get some ready cash from the kind hearted tourist.

Sometimes they even abduct children to help fuel "Orphanage Tourism".

A sad reality is that the kids in the orphanage do need help. It's just a tragedy that the money people give generally go to someone sporting a politician's belly (love that Ugandan phrase!).  And let's not forget those HIV orphaned kids around the world looking after younger siblings

Check out the video below and check out this UNICEF report of the orphanage situation in Cambodia for more info.

Surviving Activism in the Philippines

Ampatuan
Massacre

Here is a simple way to increase life expectancy in the Philippines:

• Protect the Activists

That's it.  

For a start, incidents like the following will no longer happen.

• Mining activists won't be shot by greedy Canadian mining companies
  
• 43 Health activists won't be rounded up and be accused of terrorism in a blatant act of government posturing and scare tactics
  
• The deadliest ever massacre of journalists (34) will not be repeated
  
• People fighting to protect Filipinas from human trafficking will not be beaten to death

I could give countless more examples of stories like this.  

Since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took office in 2001 hundreds (thousands?) of politicians, political activists, journalists, and outspoken clergy have been killed or abducted since 2001 according to Human Rights Watch.  Arroyo's successor Beningno Aquino III is not doing much better.

Protecting the activists will not only increase their life expectancy, but also the countless other lives they will save.

If you get a chance to visit the human rights office in Manila, take a moment to reflect upon their martyr wall.  The wall contains hundreds of pictures of activists who have been killed or abducted.

Power to the peaceful.

Malaria Idea Boxing Bout

A wedding dress made
from malaria nets

What's the best way to distribute malaria nets?

Today, we have two heavy weight ideas weighing in.

In the blue corner, we have Mr. Let's Give Them Away.

Mr. Let's Give Them Away claims that malaria sufferers are usually stuck in a poverty trap.  They have less-than-no-income and struggle everyday just to find the basics of life. Giving them a mosquito net will decrease infant mortality rates, and give them more productive days to try and break free from the trap.

In the red corner, we have the mighty Mr. Let's Sell Subsidized Nets.

He too is full of good intentions.  He too wants to save lives.  He is not Mr. Evil Capitalist (who was ejected from the boxing arena).  He too has a good idea.  If we just give them the nets, then they will either a) sell them or b) use them as fishing nets.  Heck, some people will even turn them into wedding dresses!  Why not sell them to them instead?  This way, we won't upset the almighty Free Market and people will actually value the net.  You can just imagine their thought processes: "I bought this net.  It cost me a whole dollar!  I am going to make damn sure I am going to use it!"

Before these two mighty ideas go at it hammer-and-tongs, there going to talked to by the referee: Mr. Science.

Mr. Science instructs both boxers to not engage in ad hominen attacks, no ad ignorantiam arguments below the belt, and anyone engaging in a tautology will be instantly disqualified!

Mr. Science also points out a recent study by the IPA.

IPA gave nets many pregnant women in Kenya.  The price charged to the women ranged from free to highly subsidized.

They found that the price of net had no affect on how well the nets were being used.

They also did a cost effectiveness study and found that subsidized nets were a little more cost-effective than the free nets.

Mr. Science ensures he has both boxers' attention and says, "Here's the kicker boys.  The free distribution of nets leads to many more lives saved.  So if you value cost effectiveness, roll out the subsidized nets. If you value lives saved however, just give the damned things away".

In the end the boxing bout didn't actually go ahead.

Mr. Let's Sell Subsidized Nets purchased a mocha latte and grumbled about market forces with his buddies.

While Mr. Let's Give Them Away purchased a fair trade cappuccino and proceeded to work on just how he was going to give away the millions of mosquito nets he had.

Military Aid and Child Soldiers

Jeffrey (Not his real name)

About three years ago, I was doing an interview with a lady for Grassroots Uganda - an NGO I was setting up at the time.  Half way through the interview, a young man - all of seventeen years old - came up to me, gently shook my hand, shyly introduced himself, and then walked away.

That young man was Jeffrey.  I got to learn more about Jeffrey over the coming weeks.  Jeffrey had spent seven years as a child soldier with the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army).  You can read about Jeffrey's tale of hope and death in a blog article I wrote way back in 2007.

A lot of child soldiers who escape the clutches of their captives end up as armed bandits or in other violent occupations.  All the know is violence, so all they do is violence.

Not so Jeffrey.  Jeffrey was busting rocks in a quarry with a rented (!) hammer.  All he wanted was an education, which he is now getting thanks to a generous sponsor in the States.

In 2007, the U.S. governed passed the noble Child Soldier Prevention Act which was designed to limit U.S. military aid to governments who use child soldiers.  On October 25 2010, President Obama waived the bill in respect to Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen.  All four of those governments are known for their use of child soldiers.

There is some rhetoric bouncing around the White House along the lines of "national interest" and "reassessing our posture towards the governments" that are suppose to justify their actions.

As Tim Shadbolt once said: It's all bullshit and jellybeans as fas as I can see.

The bottom line for me is that the States is providing military aid to groups who use child soldiers.  That's a despicable act.

I think the world would be better off if people like Jeffrey were in charge.