by Jon Krakauer
September 2000, “Mortenson learned that one of his heroes, Mother Teresa, had died…and decided to try and pay her his respects.” Arriving at the Missionaries of Charity Mother-house after the front gate was locked for the evening, he was admitted by a nun and escorted down a dark hallway to view Mother Teresa’s corpse. “She lay on a simple cot, at the center of a bright room full of flickering devotional candles.
Mortenson gently nudged other bouquets aside, making room for his gaudy offering, and took a seat against a wall. The nun, backing out the door, left him alone with Mother
Teresa…. ‘I sat in the corner staring at this shrouded figure,’
Mortenson says. ‘She looked so small, draped in her cloth.
And I remember thinking how amazing it was that such a
tiny person had such a huge effect on humanity.’…Mortenson knelt on the cool tiled floor next to Mother Teresa and placed his large palm over her small hand.” This a poignant anecdote, but it’s difficult to reconcile with the fact that Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997, three years before Mortenson says he knelt beside her in Calcutta.
j o n k r a k a u e r
74
5 In March 2004, the American Himalayan Foundation suspended Mortenson’s stipend because he’d repeatedly failed to report how he had used funds from the Hoerni/Pakistan Fund, as required by the Internal Revenue Service, despite repeated requests to do so.
6 http://www.edutopia.org/greg-mortenson-webinar-archive 7 http://www.edutopia.org/greg-mortenson-webinar-archive 8 There is no evidence to suggest that Kevin Fedarko was aware of the falsehoods published in Stones into Schools.
Because of the extraordinary deadline pressure he was under, he had no opportunity to fact-check what he ghostwrote for Mortenson, nor did his job description include that responsibility. Fedarko had no choice but to accept Mortenson’s word that what he and Sarfraz Khan reported to him was accurate.
9 At the time, CAI was in fact not registered as a “charity NGO” in Afghanistan. It wasn’t registered as such until 2008
(see Stones into Schools, pages 296–298).
10 On Friday, April 15, 2011, CBS News announced that on Sunday, April 17, 60 Minutes would broadcast a report casting doubt on the accuracy of Mortenson’s books and raising
questions about the financial practices of CAI.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/15/60minutes/
main20054397.shtml
t h r e e c u p s o f d e c e i t 75
l
ia
dnaMor
aboUt tHe aUtHor
JON KRAKAUER is the author of Eiger Dreams, Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Where Men Win Glory. He is also the editor of the Modern Library Exploration series.
aboUt byliner
BYLINER ORIGINALS are compelling works of
original nonfiction designed to be read in a single sitting.
BYLINER.COM features curated archives of the best nonfiction writing, and allows readers to easily find, share, and discuss new and classic work by their favorite authors.
To discover more good reads by great writers, please visit us at www.byliner.com.