Kony 2012

[Gumby]

"Kony 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice."

Watch the film:

http://vimeo.com/37119711

...and learn more:

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/
http://www.kony2012.com/

[Storm]

The guy that produced the video was just arrested for masturbating in public:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ma ... r-detained

[Storm]

An alternative viewpoint:

This is a picture of the founders of Invisible Children.

Joseph Kony is undoubtedly a cruel man, but lets look at some fun facts around the issue and the organization Invisible Children (after you read what I wrote check out some of the links, especially the article from The Guardian which has scholars and experts expressing both sides of the issue and of IC):

The issue:
-The LRA is only 250 soldiers strong at this point.
-The LRA hasn't been in Uganda since 2006.
-Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting.
-US Africa Command has been trying to stop Kony for years, which only results in failure and retaliation from Kony.
"In general, we're concerned [about] the catastrophic consequences for the local population," Van Damme said. "We've seen in the past, over and over again, how there's been a lot of retaliation by the LRA, the burning of villages, maiming people, a lot of killings, with little military success." - Steven Van Damme, Oxfam's protection and policy advisor for the whole of eastern Congo
-The footage in the video and the framing of the issue are from 2004-2006.
-To get to Kony you'd have to ultimately kill some of his army...which consists of children soldiers.....
-"While the extreme atrocities committed by the LRA cannot be justified by any 'political cause', the LRA did originally emerge as a direct reaction to extreme atrocities committed since the late 1980s by the government and armed forces of Uganda against the Acholi people in northern Uganda. The person in charge since 1986 until today is Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, who is himself a former rebel army leader and came to power by force."

Invisible Children:
-Only 37% of money raised went to direct services (if you support the issue you may want to choose a more worthwhile charity).
-Of this 37%, a third goes to their scholarship program, which is undoubtedly helpful, but it only supports 700-800 children. So a MILLION dollars is being used to support ONLY 700-800 children...
-Their "accountability and transparency" is a 2 out of 4 stars on charity navigator.
-They have never been publicly audited.
-The group is in favor of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces.
- Foreign Affairs has claimed that Invisible Children (among others) “manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony — a brutal man, to be sure — as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil.”?
-"So far the organisation has released 11 films and run film tours across the US and other countries to raise awareness. In Uganda, it has given scholarships to 750 children, and helped to re-build schools there and in centralo Africa. The organisation's accounts show it's a cash rich operation, which more than tripled its income in 2011, with more than two thirds of its money coming from "general donations".

The accounts suggest nearly 25% of its $8.8m income last year was spent on travel and film-making with only around 30% going toward programes on the ground. The great majority of the money raised has been spent in the US. $1.7 million went on US employee salaries, $357,000 in film costs, $850,000 in film production costs, $244,000 in "professional services" - thought to be Washington lobbyists - and $1.07 million in travel expenses . Nearly $400,000 was spent on office rent in San Diego."

Military intervention may or may not be the right idea, but people supporting KONY 2012 probably don’t realize they’re supporting the Ugandan military who are themselves raping and looting away. Educate yourselves a little bit before supporting a particular nonprofit.

Some good reads:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/real ... ry#block-4

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blo ... _blog.html

http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ ... ?page=show

http://www.wrongingrights.com/2009/03/w ... ever.html/

http://chrisblattman.com/2009/03/04/visible-children/

http://allafrica.com/stories/201203080526.html

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2 ... ony/49634/

Videos:
http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/v ... FQbHvPf863

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvqFi_HR ... tu.be&hd=1

Not saying Kony isn't a horrible person. Just thought people might want the entire picture before they support an organization.

Also I have noticed that people have been responding to the shares with IC's response to most of these criticisms. Most of the responses, just like their video, are framed very positively and lack a real substantive dialogue. It is more piecemeal BS that is coming from the creators. I'd love to see some positive third party feedback. So far all the unbiased, third-party feedback seems either neutral or negative.

[lazyboy]

What a sad mess this is, but I can't see how raising awareness and shining a spotlight on the situation is in itself ultimately a bad thing, even if it points back at the limits of the ones shining the spotlight. I think making a charitable donation to some worthy organization you have checked out may help rebuild lives. I personally like IRC (International Rescue Committee). They have a good reputation and rating. There are probably many others worthy of consideration. However, as a Westerner,  I think our efforts should be to aid people, make micro loans, build schools, etc. (when these are asked for) and stay out of local politics and power struggles. Most often: less is more. Ultimately, even with support and moral suasion from the outside world, change will have to come from within the countries affected themselves.

[Gumby]

Thanks, Storm.

However, I'm not sure the alternate viewpoint proves much. The mission of Invisible Children is...

The Invisible Children movement is a core part of our mission. It is a global community of young people that galvanizes international support to bring a permanent end to LRA violence through mass awareness campaigns and strategic advocacy efforts. By focusing on a single objective, we’ve rallied millions of people behind the idea that human life is equal and that where you live shouldn’t determine whether you live.

In other words, the charity is basically a filmmaking business — whose core goal is to bring awareness to the masses. And, yes, the filmmaker happens to be a weirdo. I'm not sure that should diminish Kony's atrocities. If anything, the film has done exactly what the charity set out to do — bring awareness to millions through a massive social media campaign.

I mean, even the name of the organization, "Invisible Children" suggests that they are mainly trying to bring awareness to these children, and make them more visible.

What's interesting about Kony 2012 is that if it is successful, it will further change the way social media affects public policy — which is why the filmmaking focus is a very interesting approach.

[Gosso]

I could only watch the first 5 minutes of KONY before I could feel the manipulation and emotions taking over.

Here is the reaction of people from Northern Uganda to the KONY video (2:40):

http://youtu.be/rU_1jnrj5VI

Here is a comedic look at the Invisible Children "Charity" (5:34):

http://youtu.be/S6_bHzrKzik

To me this whole thing reeks of people looking for the easy answer, when in reality none exist.  I'm not sure what Invisible Children are suggesting -- start a civil war?

It is incredible to watch the power this type of campaigning can have on the population.  All you gotta do is play to our emotions and we'll do whatever you want...scary stuff.

[Gumby]

Here is a comedic look at the Invisible Children "Charity" (5:34):

http://youtu.be/S6_bHzrKzik

That is scary stuff... thanks for sharing that.

[MediumTex]

It reminds me a bit of the African starvation prevention efforts in the 1980s.

People would turn on their TVs and see pictures of starving children and send money to the people who were going to help get some food to them.  Once the people making the commercials paid their staffs and other expenses, something less than 50% of the collected money was used to buy food to send to Africa.  Once the food arrived in Africa, the same military regimes that were creating the starvation through the relocation of refugee populations would confiscate much of the food for themselves, and thus the dollar that was sent in to prevent Africans from starving often turned into 50 cents worth of food that was usd to feed the soldiers who were creating the conditions that led to the famine in the first place (i.e., guerrilla warfare that displaced large populations from the farmland they relied on for survival).

Doh!

[craigr]

Here is a read for anyone thinking of sending aid to Africa and how the money is likely used:

SPIEGEL Interview with African Economics Expert

"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"

The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa...

Shikwati: ... for God's sake, please just stop.

SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.

Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spi ... 63,00.html

[MediumTex]

Here is a read for anyone thinking of sending aid to Africa and how the money is likely used:

SPIEGEL Interview with African Economics Expert

"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"

The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa...

Shikwati: ... for God's sake, please just stop.

SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.

Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spi ... 63,00.html

I love the bit about the guilty-feeling Germans donating their designer shirts to clothe the naked Kenyans, and the Kenyans listing the shirts on Ebay and shipping them back to Germany for a huge profit.

[craigr]

I love the bit about the guilty-feeling Germans donating their designer shirts to clothe the naked Kenyans, and the Kenyans listing the shirts on Ebay and shipping them back to Germany for a huge profit.

Yeah. Jim Rogers had the same observation about dumping grain and clothes into these countries wrecking the economy in one of his books. It only makes sense when you think about it. How can a farmer or tailor compete against free?

[MediumTex]

I am watching the Kony film and apart from the basically naive view of the problems of Africa, the filmmakers are good at what they do.  They have turned several centuries of African colonialism and political dysfunction into what is basically an MTV-style video that offers a simple, engaging and feel-good story.

The thing that always strikes me as ironic about this kind of effort is all of the suffering people the filmmakers passed on their way to Uganda, many of them right here in the U.S.

From any major airport in the U.S. you can normally be in a dangerous, poor and hopeless neighborhood in half an hour or less.  In these neighborhoods there are drug dealers and other criminals who are doing things to children that are not that different from what Kony is supposed to have done to children in Uganda.

People who get involved with these BIG CAUSES often seem to drift into a kind of self-righteoussness that can be annoying.  As they get deeper into their cause they often lose sight of the actual effects of what they are doing and begin to imagine that they are closer to solutions than they actually are.

John Denver was active in these sorts of save-the-world efforts in Africa and I remember watching an interview with his ex-wife after his death who talked about how he would be a complete asshole to his family and own children when he was home, while ceaselessly talking about the plight of the children in Africa.  The basic point she seemed to be making was that it would have been nice if he had cared about the children in his own house as much as he cared about all of the children in Africa.

It would be refreshing to see a documentary or news segment where the white guy in his khaki adventure suit comes into the African village and introduces himself to the villagers in the following way: "Hello, my name is Stone Ridgewood and I am looking for tragic stories that I can turn into entertaining video segments for bored Americans who like to watch TV.  Has anything terrible happened here recently?"

[Storm]

If you're interested in more information about who Invisible Children is and where their funding comes from, some people have been looking into their IRS 990 filings and have determined that some of their largest backers are creationists and far right evangelical groups:

http://thetruthpursuit.com/society/soci ... enda/11125

It's also interesting to me that 100% of the Invisible Children employees shown in the video are white.  This can't be much of a coincidence.

The parallels between anglo-colonial missionary groups in Africa in the past and Invisible Children today are striking.