Invisible Children: The race to capture Joseph Kony
Discussion
visiblechildren.tumblr.com said:
I do not doubt for a second that those involved in KONY 2012 have great intentions, nor do I doubt for a second that Joseph Kony is a very evil man. But despite this, I’m strongly opposed to the KONY 2012 campaign.
KONY 2012 is the product of a group called Invisible Children, a controversial activist group and not-for-profit. They’ve released 11 films, most with an accompanying bracelet colour (KONY 2012 is fittingly red), all of which focus on Joseph Kony. When we buy merch from them, when we link to their video, when we put up posters linking to their website, we support the organization. I don’t think that’s a good thing, and I’m not alone.
Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public . Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they haven’t had their finances externally audited. But it goes way deeper than that.
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arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission.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.
Still, the bulk of Invisible Children’s spending isn’t on supporting African militias, but on awareness and filmmaking. Which can be great, except that 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.” He’s certainly evil, but exaggeration and manipulation to capture the public eye is unproductive, unprofessional and dishonest.
As Chris Blattman, a political scientist at Yale, writes on the topic of IC’s programming, “There’s also something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa. […] It hints uncomfortably of the White Man’s Burden. Worse, sometimes it does more than hint. The savior attitude is pervasive in advocacy, and it inevitably shapes programming. Usually misconceived programming.”
Still, Kony’s a bad guy, and he’s been around a while. Which is why the US has been involved in stopping him for years. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent multiple missions to capture or kill Kony over the years . And they’ve failed time and time again, each provoking a ferocious response and increased retaliative slaughter. The issue with taking out a man who uses a child army is that his bodyguards are children. Any effort to capture or kill him will almost certainly result in many children’s deaths , an impact that needs to be minimized as much as possible. Each attempt brings more retaliation. And yet Invisible Children supports military intervention. Kony has been involved in peace talks in the past, which have fallen through. But Invisible Children is now focusing on military intervention .
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. If people know this and still support Invisible Children because they feel it’s the best solution based on their knowledge and research, I have no issue with that. But I don’t think most people are in that position, and that’s a problem.
Is awareness good? Yes. But these problems are highly complex, not one-dimensional and, frankly, aren’t of the nature that can be solved by postering, film-making and changing your Facebook profile picture, as hard as that is to swallow. Giving your money and public support to Invisible Children so they can spend it on supporting ill-advised violent intervention and movie #12 isn’t helping. Do I have a better answer? No, I don’t, but that doesn’t mean that you should support KONY 2012 just because it’s something. Something isn’t always better than nothing . Sometimes it’s worse.
If you want to write to your Member of Parliament or your Senator or the President or the Prime Minister, by all means, go ahead. If you want to post about Joseph Kony’s crimes on Facebook, go ahead. But let’s keep it about Joseph Kony, not KONY 2012.
~ Grant Oyston, visiblechildren@grantoyston.com
KONY 2012 is the product of a group called Invisible Children, a controversial activist group and not-for-profit. They’ve released 11 films, most with an accompanying bracelet colour (KONY 2012 is fittingly red), all of which focus on Joseph Kony. When we buy merch from them, when we link to their video, when we put up posters linking to their website, we support the organization. I don’t think that’s a good thing, and I’m not alone.
Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public . Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they haven’t had their finances externally audited. But it goes way deeper than that.
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.
Still, the bulk of Invisible Children’s spending isn’t on supporting African militias, but on awareness and filmmaking. Which can be great, except that 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.” He’s certainly evil, but exaggeration and manipulation to capture the public eye is unproductive, unprofessional and dishonest.
As Chris Blattman, a political scientist at Yale, writes on the topic of IC’s programming, “There’s also something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa. […] It hints uncomfortably of the White Man’s Burden. Worse, sometimes it does more than hint. The savior attitude is pervasive in advocacy, and it inevitably shapes programming. Usually misconceived programming.”
Still, Kony’s a bad guy, and he’s been around a while. Which is why the US has been involved in stopping him for years. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent multiple missions to capture or kill Kony over the years . And they’ve failed time and time again, each provoking a ferocious response and increased retaliative slaughter. The issue with taking out a man who uses a child army is that his bodyguards are children. Any effort to capture or kill him will almost certainly result in many children’s deaths , an impact that needs to be minimized as much as possible. Each attempt brings more retaliation. And yet Invisible Children supports military intervention. Kony has been involved in peace talks in the past, which have fallen through. But Invisible Children is now focusing on military intervention .
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. If people know this and still support Invisible Children because they feel it’s the best solution based on their knowledge and research, I have no issue with that. But I don’t think most people are in that position, and that’s a problem.
Is awareness good? Yes. But these problems are highly complex, not one-dimensional and, frankly, aren’t of the nature that can be solved by postering, film-making and changing your Facebook profile picture, as hard as that is to swallow. Giving your money and public support to Invisible Children so they can spend it on supporting ill-advised violent intervention and movie #12 isn’t helping. Do I have a better answer? No, I don’t, but that doesn’t mean that you should support KONY 2012 just because it’s something. Something isn’t always better than nothing . Sometimes it’s worse.
If you want to write to your Member of Parliament or your Senator or the President or the Prime Minister, by all means, go ahead. If you want to post about Joseph Kony’s crimes on Facebook, go ahead. But let’s keep it about Joseph Kony, not KONY 2012.
~ Grant Oyston, visiblechildren@grantoyston.com
As I put on facebook (and something that caused a bit of tension): Whilst I agree with the cause of this charity, I believe people money would be much better spent on other charities as these guys seem to be taking a LOT of money and then squandering it all. Also the money which does go directly to the cause (37% IIRC) goes to the Ugandan army/ government which itself is not a good organisation.
I like the fact that this chap is trying to do something BUT it doesn't matter how much effort he puts into or how many people he gets on side africa will never change.
The key to change is education of the masses but again this will never happen as "warlords" or whatever losely banded together local government are only interested in oppressing the population so they can personally gain. ask yourself how many schools do you see being built then how many do you think survive in the areas that their really needed.
I wish the dude all the best but cant see much coming from it for africa.
The key to change is education of the masses but again this will never happen as "warlords" or whatever losely banded together local government are only interested in oppressing the population so they can personally gain. ask yourself how many schools do you see being built then how many do you think survive in the areas that their really needed.
I wish the dude all the best but cant see much coming from it for africa.
VinceFox said:
This is a VERY interesting study of social media influence. I'll be watching this closely.
This is the piece of it I am VERY interested in, it is a damn good cause and the idea is a very good one - make him so well known he cant hide. I know from looking on my facebook feed a lot of people are talking about it already and some of the more well known vloggers on youtube are mentioning it
Well, now I'm torn. I want to help, but have no idea how to as donating to the charity doesn't look as good anymore :/
Damn you people of pistonheads who research things before blindly following a pretty video
Although I must say, the maker of the video seems to genuinly care and is trying to help. Just by publicising Kony he's making a difference, which is a lot more than I've ever done.
Damn you people of pistonheads who research things before blindly following a pretty video
Although I must say, the maker of the video seems to genuinly care and is trying to help. Just by publicising Kony he's making a difference, which is a lot more than I've ever done.
I support this, but I'm not advocating for a moment that one should simply give a bucket load of money to the organisation.
first off, there is absolutely NO perfect charity or organisation on this planet without either some stain on their character or some shady corners or history of squandering funds or some other such sore point etc etc. none. however, this is about the people of the internet making their voices heard, using this relatively new technology for the greater good; make your voices heard en masse, make the people in power know, and letting those that make the decisons know that this is something that should be done, that we, the voters, care about. for justice. for children's lives. this is going world wide, not just in the US.
if we simply say 'we dont like the charity' and ignore the issues the represent, they continue, they compound, they grow, they go unnoticed; people, children die needlessly. look at fuel prices, for example; we simply bend over take the shafting and they continue to rise. feck all gets done until someone like this chap stands up and says no and others follow.
this is our opportunity to help bring one criminal into the sights of those that can make a difference! lets make it happen.
after this Kony chap is brought down, maybe mugabe is next (for example, I know little of world politics). it costs you nothing; if simply posting this on your facebook along with the other fb users saves the life of just one child, will it not be worth it?
I think so.
first off, there is absolutely NO perfect charity or organisation on this planet without either some stain on their character or some shady corners or history of squandering funds or some other such sore point etc etc. none. however, this is about the people of the internet making their voices heard, using this relatively new technology for the greater good; make your voices heard en masse, make the people in power know, and letting those that make the decisons know that this is something that should be done, that we, the voters, care about. for justice. for children's lives. this is going world wide, not just in the US.
if we simply say 'we dont like the charity' and ignore the issues the represent, they continue, they compound, they grow, they go unnoticed; people, children die needlessly. look at fuel prices, for example; we simply bend over take the shafting and they continue to rise. feck all gets done until someone like this chap stands up and says no and others follow.
this is our opportunity to help bring one criminal into the sights of those that can make a difference! lets make it happen.
after this Kony chap is brought down, maybe mugabe is next (for example, I know little of world politics). it costs you nothing; if simply posting this on your facebook along with the other fb users saves the life of just one child, will it not be worth it?
I think so.
chryslerben said:
I like the fact that this chap is trying to do something BUT it doesn't matter how much effort he puts into or how many people he gets on side africa will never change.
for two reasons:1) because too many people think exactly this.
2) no one is trying to 'change africa' with this campaign. this campaign is simply to raise awareness among world leaders to remove one of the world's current greatest criminals from power.
I switched that crap off after a few minutes. The film seems as though it was made for a five year old. Anyone who finds themselves exhibiting an emotional response needs to grow a pair and get some stiff upper lip going on. Only a moron would donate cash to this idiotic, self serving 'charity'.
In fairness, one has to think that the 'indirect' costs of running a charity from the US, the work of which is based in Africa, must be fairly huge. One could probably also argue that the more work they do, the greater those costs are, and so the greater proportion of charitable donations they form.
$90,000 salary sounds like a lot. It's not, particularly. The fella is back and forward to fairly grim parts of Africa, and I can only imagine is exposed to dangerous situations on a comparatively regular basis.
I hope Koni is captured, and gets the fate he so richly deserves. Though he could well be replaced by another like him, hydra style, if it goes some way to stopping the cycle and making it unacceptable even to those who might have been interested in perpetuating it, it'll be worthwhile.
Unfortunately, Baryonyx, in switching the film off after a minutes you sort of... well, you rule yourself out of making any authorative contribution to its merits or otherwise. Well I suppose you can speak on the first few minutes, right enough
$90,000 salary sounds like a lot. It's not, particularly. The fella is back and forward to fairly grim parts of Africa, and I can only imagine is exposed to dangerous situations on a comparatively regular basis.
I hope Koni is captured, and gets the fate he so richly deserves. Though he could well be replaced by another like him, hydra style, if it goes some way to stopping the cycle and making it unacceptable even to those who might have been interested in perpetuating it, it'll be worthwhile.
Unfortunately, Baryonyx, in switching the film off after a minutes you sort of... well, you rule yourself out of making any authorative contribution to its merits or otherwise. Well I suppose you can speak on the first few minutes, right enough
Edited by iphonedyou on Thursday 8th March 08:13
they've answered some questions here http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/...
My view is: if they can hunt for Bin Laden, out of revenge, they can hunt for Kony
if this 'raising awareness' gets him in the firing line, then great
My view is: if they can hunt for Bin Laden, out of revenge, they can hunt for Kony
if this 'raising awareness' gets him in the firing line, then great
nm231 said:
Joseph Kony steals kids and forces them to fight in Uganda
Yank meets one of the escaped kids
He promises to help and starts a campaign to get Kony arrested this year
Obama sends troops to advise Ugandan troops
Yank needs people to support this cause so that US troops stay in the country and capture Kony
Seems all for the good of Uganda
Kony has not been in Uganda since 2007. Yank meets one of the escaped kids
He promises to help and starts a campaign to get Kony arrested this year
Obama sends troops to advise Ugandan troops
Yank needs people to support this cause so that US troops stay in the country and capture Kony
Seems all for the good of Uganda
IC is obscuring the fact that Uganda is undergoing something of a recovery, which continually repainting it incorrectly as a war zone will undermine.
Current issues afflicting the children of Uganda are not what they were when Kony as active in Uganda.
Misdirected activism might be worse than doing nothing at all.
This, all in all, smacks more about raising awareness for IC than anything genuinely about the children they purport to be trying to help.
References:
http://siena-anstis.com/2012/03/07/on-invisible-ch...
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/gue...
they clearly state that it DID happen in Uganda, Kony and the LRA have left Uganda, and that they want to help the Ugandan army (because the are the most organised, and with a vested interest in getting Kony) to capture Kony wherever he is now
CAR, DRC and Rwanda are in no position to do it
If somebody committed his war crimes in the UK or USA, then left to do the same thing in France or Canada, we'd all just leave him to get on with it?
CAR, DRC and Rwanda are in no position to do it
If somebody committed his war crimes in the UK or USA, then left to do the same thing in France or Canada, we'd all just leave him to get on with it?
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