Kony Campaign

[Vong]

As I'm sure most of you are aware of this campaign, you can't go anywhere on Facebook without seeing something regarding this. After only two days of seeing this shit on Kony, I'm fed up with it all.

The campaign showcases an old portrait of a man slowly losing relevance in Africa. And not only is it naive to think that this campaign will accomplish anything, the message they are sending is outdated and will do more harm then good.

[Bourne101]

Agreed. I find it scary how quickly the bandwagon social activists jumped onto this one and expect that buying bracelets and liking Facebook statuses is going to do anything.

[DaveyJoeG]

I posted this picture on my Facebook in response to all of the Kony hype. I think the reaction has been pretty ridiculous. The same people who want the US to pull out of the Middle East are all up in arms about this video without knowing the full story. It's not like there is a shortage of "bad guys" in the world. These people need to decide whether they want America to police the world or not.

[fixedMind]

Originally Posted by DaveyJoeG

I posted this picture on my Facebook in response to all of the Kony hype. I think the reaction has been pretty ridiculous. The same people who want the US to pull out of the Middle East are all up in arms about this video without knowing the full story. It's not like there is a shortage of "bad guys" in the world. These people need to decide whether they want America to police the world or not.

http://thedailywh.at/2012/03/07/on-kony-2012-2/

And as far as what they do with that money:

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s a photo of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission. These books each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending.

Let’s not get our lines crossed: The Lord’s Resistance Army is bad news. And Joseph Kony is a very bad man, and needs to be stopped. But propping up Uganda’s decades-old dictatorship and its military arm, which has been accused by the UN of committing unspeakable atrocities and itself facilitated the recruitment of child soldiers, is not the way to go about it.

The United States is already plenty involved in helping rout Kony and his band of psycho sycophants. Kony is on the run, having been pushed out of Uganda, and it’s likely he will soon be caught, if he isn’t already dead. But killing Kony won’t fix anything, just as killing Osama bin Laden didn’t end terrorism. The LRA might collapse, but, as Foreign Affairs points out, it is “a relatively small player in all of this — as much a symptom as a cause of the endemic violence.”

Myopically placing the blame for all of central Africa’s woes on Kony — even as a starting point — will only imperil many more people than are already in danger.

Sending money to a nonprofit that wants to muck things up by dousing the flames with fuel is not helping. Want to help? Really want to help? Send your money to nonprofits that are putting more than 31% toward rebuilding the region’s medical and educational infrastructure, so that former child soldiers have something worth coming home to.

[Badbird]

It's kinda weird how the backlash over this is almost as large and fast as the original video spread. I never heard of this thing till last night, and I've seen more stuff about the cynical backlash than the original video.

I can't say I don't agree with the sentiments, though. Yeah, Africa is kinda fucked. Welcome to the last five hundred years.

Kinda reminds me about how no one gave a shit about the WBC when they were protesting gay funerals, but the moment they started protesting funerals of soldiers everyone was suddenly outraged.

[smok3h]

I love this thread. I couldn't agree more with what all of you are saying. I shared that Wonka meme on my Facebook and it pissed a lot of people off who were sharing the Kony link. It made for some entertaining discussion.

I honestly bet in two weeks nobody will be talking about this asshole.

[Smiert Spionam]

I'm surprised we didn't get into Africa sooner. Fuck oil, diamonds, son! And the "freedom fighters" of Africa aren't nearly as organized or as competent as the Taliban (it's basically just who has the most/biggest guns), so it seems like it'd be something that's actually winnable. Also, once it's all cleaned up, you sell it back to the states as a travel destination.

The government needs to hire me.

[Brando @$$ Fat]

I'm ambivalent about it. On the one hand, I think it's a great thing that people are getting access to information through social networking that they wouldn't have ten years ago. However, it still hasn't provoked the kind of meaningful discussion that it should have by this point. Everyone still talks about "Africa" like it's a country and assume that all of the issues affecting that region are the same across the board. I don't think an internet meme is going to un-homogenize people's thinking about global issues.

[AceD]

Full disclosure, fellas: I was the head staff writer/copy editor at Invisible Children (who produced Kony 2012) from 2006-2008. I've spent time on the ground in Uganda and I've seen the organization from all sides.

Let me be clear: none of that inherently makes my opinion more valid. At all. I'm not saying that. I didn't and I don't agree with every choice they make as an organization but I didn't leave over disagreements either, I left for things that seemed better for me. I'm not pretending I have no biases here.

What I will say is that IC, as an organization, has done great good. To this point, much more good than harm. Could that change? Of course. One choice or a series of bad choice can bring down anything, no matter how good.

Some things that deserve to be cleared up, though:

The claim that "their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces" is 100% false. No money goes to the government and IC has consistently and loudly railed against the illegal practices by the UPDF. They do work with some regional government programs in coordinating some programs, but that's a long way from giving money to the army.

The famous picture of the founders holding guns has been explained on the website for years. They don't defend it, but it was a small personal photo meant for family that was a (poor) attempt at humor/irony. That this is what people (not here, but elsewhere) are clinging to is a little silly.

The claim that "only 31% of funds go to helping anyone" is equally false. 70% of the money goes to programs goes directly into programs in Africa or raising awareness elsewhere, and another 10% goes to "awareness products" like T-shirts and stuff (IC tends to to lump those together, and while I think the T-Shirts and stuff are fine, they're still T-shirts). The rest goes to management and such as well as fundraising. It's not like the staff are bringing home big checks.

There is more specific info here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisibl...critiques.html Yes, that's from IC and that fact should be considered while reading it, but they do address the issues directly.

Also, the "2 star" rating by the BBB that keeps getting referenced is simply due to a vacancy on the board. The BBB's own report acknowledges this.

I know that some within the organization had reservations regarding how the new video oversimplified things. Every "artistic" endeavor does so. That doesn't excuse them, but it's true.

There's two issues here: IC as an organization, and the way Facebook et al respond to it.

I completely agree that it's discouraging and silly how people with little to no knowledge of anything jumped on this as if they're now informed based on a sexy video. But to lump IC as an organization into that, as if they haven't been working to make change for nearly a decade, is equally discouraging and silly. There's plenty of reasons to be critical, but to read an article like The Daily What's about it and believe you're informed is equally as silly as watching the video and believing that.

I hope all of this is taken as I intend it: as information to add. I don't desire to convert anyone to my side based just on this, and let me say again that I know my opinion is inherently not unbiased. I don't desire to argue and I'm not coming down on anyone here.

As has been said, ultimately there's a good cause at least within what IC is trying to accomplish, and any meaningful dialogue on that is getting lost.

[Squid Vicious]

Originally Posted by Badbird

It's kinda weird how the backlash over this is almost as large and fast as the original video spread. I never heard of this thing till last night, and I've seen more stuff about the cynical backlash than the original video.

I'd say that's a good thing. The fewer people who fall for imperialist propaganda, the better.

This whole campaign would've made Rudyard Kipling cringe...

[fixedMind]

Originally Posted by AceD

Full disclosure, fellas: I was the head staff writer/copy editor at Invisible Children (who produced Kony 2012) from 2006-2008. I've spent time on the ground in Uganda and I've seen the organization from all sides.

Great post.

[Badbird]

Remember when Rush Limbaugh supported Kony?

Rush Limbaugh Defended Joseph Kony, Leader Of Rebel Militia Accused Of Atrocities


First Posted: 03/ 8/2012 1:24 pm Updated: 03/ 8/2012 4:41 pm
React

Joseph Kony, the African strongman who is suddenly a major villain thanks to a viral video about his atrocities, has a friend in Rush Limbaugh.

In 2011, President Obama sent American troops to fight Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a guerilla group in Uganda. The LRA has been condemned for human rights violations and using child soldiers to carry out atrocities. A video from the charity group, the Invisible Children, about Kony and the violence in central Africa, has garnered nearly 40 million views since it went up on Youtube three days ago.

But last October, Limbaugh blasted the president for committing troops to "wipe out Christians."

Lord's Resistance Army are Christians. It means God. I was only kidding. Lord's Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. That's what the lingo means, "to help regional forces remove from the battlefield," meaning capture or kill.

So that's a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda, and -- (interruption) no, I'm not kidding. Jacob Tapper just reported it. Now, are we gonna help the Egyptians wipe out the Christians? Wouldn't you say that we are? I mean the Coptic Christians are being wiped out, but it wasn't just Obama that supported that. The conservative intelligentsia thought it was an outbreak of democracy. Now they've done a 180 on that, but they forgot that they supported it in the first place. Now they're criticizing it.

Lord's Resistance Army objectives. I have them here. "To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people." Now, again Lord's Resistance Army is who Obama sent troops to help nations wipe out. The objectives of the Lord's Resistance Army, what they're trying to accomplish with their military action in these countries is the following: "To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people; to fight for the immediate restoration of the competitive multiparty democracy in Uganda; to see an end to gross violation of human rights and dignity of Ugandans; to ensure the restoration of peace and security in Uganda, to ensure unity, sovereignty, and economic prosperity beneficial to all Ugandans, and to bring to an end the repressive policy of deliberate marginalization of groups of people who may not agree with the LRA ideology." Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting, or who are being fought and we are joining in the effort to remove them from the battlefield.


In 2005, a warrant was issued for his arrest in the International Criminal Court. "The LRA has engaged in a cycle of violence and established a pattern of 'brutalization of civilians' by acts including murder, abduction, sexual
enslavement, mutilation, as well as mass burnings of houses and looting of camp settlements; that abducted civilians, including children, are said to have been forcibly "recruited" as fighters, porters and sex slaves to serve the LRA and to contribute to attacks against the Ugandan army and civilian communities," the warrant read.

Link

[Squid Vicious]

Isn't it interesting that hardly anyone is talking about Kony's religion? Something tells me that if he was the head of Allah's Resistance Army, we'd be hearing a lot more about it...

[Vong]

Originally Posted by Squid Vicious

Isn't it interesting that hardly anyone is talking about Kony's religion? Something tells me that if he was the head of Allah's Resistance Army, we'd be hearing a lot more about it...

+1 for truth

[The Postmaster General]

There are two parts to it for me - I don't know fully about the campaign, in terms of thinking it's going to do all that good. At the same time, I think it's cool as a proof that people inherently want to do good. Maybe lazy, but good all the same. But I still don't know how good this campaign is. I like the idea that awareness is good, but not the idea that some awareness leads to aggression and violence.

[someguy]

Uganda (or at least northern Uganda) has been pretty stable for a while, Kony has been out of that region now but this only gets a brief mention in the video. The group supports working with the national army in Uganda who have been accused of doing actions similar to what Kony does. And of course IC hasn't even brought up the question of why Kony was able to get away with this shit for years in the country or the government's involvement with this issue.

You can read the most popular critique here and check out what some Africans involved in a similar effort are saying about IC here.

There's nothing wrong with good intentions and rallying massive support to stop a war criminal sounds great but IC are shining a really dim, ignorant and somewhat offensive light on this issue to paint it in black and white so they can twist it into a more accessible narrative for the public.

And some other fun items: The movie screened in Uganda but was stopped midway after people started throwing rocks in anger and Jason Russell, the guy who spent a chunk of the Kony video blathering on about his wonderful life and white child, just got detained for masturbating in public.

[The Postmaster General]

Originally Posted by someguy

...Jason Russell, the guy who spent a chunk of the Kony video blathering on about his wonderful life and white child, just got detained for masturbating in public.

I saw that this morning. It seems like he's learned from the Dewey Cox manual on feeling like a rock star.

Bringing up the kid reminded me of what my main problem was with the video. It wasn't even the Kony thing but more the way the guy talked to his kid. If someone else felt this, let me know because I'm having a hard time putting it to words because it really is just more of a feeling. It wasn't even the question of whether it was exploitive but more in that it didn't feel sincere. That was the point of the movie that I felt most undermined the 'seriousness' of what he was talking about.

[fixedMind]

Originally Posted by The Postmaster General

I saw that this morning. It seems like he's learned from the Dewey Cox manual on feeling like a rock star.

Bringing up the kid reminded me of what my main problem was with the video. It wasn't even the Kony thing but more the way the guy talked to his kid. If someone else felt this, let me know because I'm having a hard time putting it to words because it really is just more of a feeling. It wasn't even the question of whether it was exploitive but more in that it didn't feel sincere. That was the point of the movie that I felt most undermined the 'seriousness' of what he was talking about.

I think you hit on the two key words of why it made you feel uncomfortable: exploitive and insincere. I also felt a bit confused by the way he was trying to talk with his son about who Kony was. I don't have a child, so I cant speak from experience, but it seemed to me that the child was in the video more as a character than as the humanizing being I imagine was originally intended.

The whole video was geared toward a full on media-blitzkrieg, I can see how the whole father-son interaction would seem out of place in that scenario. Perhaps his whole breakdown had something to do with guilt or sadness at letting his altruistic lifes work become a pop-sensation and a meme. The media, and by extension those of us who pay attention, really are a ravenous mob. Having a passion project get sucked into that abysmal maw of cynical critique would not be a pleasant process.

[fixedMind]

[hrdude]

Whoohoo my first post in the politics forum thanks to the man Joblo.

My issue with this campaign is that it is to focused on social networking rather than real action. Pretty typical of any left wing ideal really.

Buying a wristband, clicking on a webpage or unliking a facebook site is not going to bring this guy down. Plus facts seem to be a little shakey.

[The Postmaster General]

Originally Posted by hrdude

My issue with this campaign is that it is to focused on social networking rather than real action. Pretty typical of any left wing ideal really.

As if the right-wing doesn't play on Facebook:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...ef=mostpopular

[Vong]

Originally Posted by hrdude

Pretty typical of any left wing ideal really.

Your first post and you've wasted no time in identifying your political leaning, generalizing an entire ideology and mislabeling the campaign as "left wing".

Well done.