Baseball:
Off to a strong start - page 12
KAREN CHAPMAN
May 2, 2011
Volume 21. Issue 14
chaffeybreeze.com
inside Three shattered cups of tea Graduation is right around the corner page 3 A soldier’s story from Iraq page 6-7 Student Invitational displays student artwork page 8-9 A few last words from the Editor-in-Chief Page 10 Kurtis watch Page 13
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tudents taking general education courses are required to read a book every year chosen by the faculty. While any faculty member is allowed to nominate a book, votes are taken to narrow down the choices and eventually students select the final College Book in a “Battle of the Books.” In the 2009-2010, that book was Three Cups of Tea, an inspirational story about Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber who was injured during a climb to the K2 summit and as a result was brought back to health by leaders of village in Central Asia. He wanted to honor his saviors by building the village a school and in the process found a new calling in life. “While the story itself was not well written, it had a wonderful message of an ordinary man and his ability to make a change in the world,” said English professor Deckard Hodge, who heads Chaffey’s College Book committee. However on April 16, the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes presented an
investigation on Mortenson’s book and its veracity. One of the people who spoke out against Mortenson was the author of yet another former College Book, Jon Krakauer. Krakauer’s Into the Wild was the College Book in 2008-2009. “What Greg has done is incredible,” Krakauer said. “He built schools in areas that desperately needed them. However, he is putting that in jeopardy by exaggerating the truth.” The financial reports from the Central Asia Institute, (CAI) the non-profit organization Mortenson founded to build the schools, claimed that more than 141 schools have been built. But, according to the 60 Minutes investigation and Krakauer, just 30 are up and running. Hodge said that Mortenson did not write the book. “He was interviewed by David Oliver Relin, and it was Relin’s job to make the book readable,” Hodge said. “So what may have taken place over a year instead takes place in one trip.” In Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson says the Taliban allegedly detained him during one of his trips to Pakistan. 60 Minutes
found three of his alleged captors and they all claimed Mortenson was their friend and an honored guest. However in an interview on OutsideOnline, Mortenson tells his own version of the story as well as his response to the 60 Minutes investigation. He admitted that while his captors may not have been Taliban, he was detained against his will for about a week. Mortenson also defended his travel and expense budget that 60 Minutes charged was fully paid for out of CAI funds. “I have to see my kids. Charter flights made it easier,” he said. “However, since January I have totally paid for my own travel.” Since the report on 60 Minutes aired, the state of Montana has been investigating CAI and its handling of money. Mortenson agrees there are some shady areas in his finances and has hired accounting and attorney firms to straighten out the accounts. “I was never really convinced by the book,” psychology major Anna Barba said. “None of my classmates were either.”