KONY 2012

[Oughtist]

Holy crap dudes, McLuhan is spinning up a storm in Nirvana, and there's nary a whisper of this on ILP. WTF??



http://www.kony2012.com

The critical perspectives are a-flyin'... what u think?

[Oughtist]

Here's some critical perspectives:

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/​read/​should-i-donate-money-to-ko​ny-2012-or-not

http://​visiblechildren.tumblr.com/​post/18890947431/​we-got-trouble

Here's Invisible Children's response:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/​www.invisiblechildren.com/​critiques.ht


...hmm, loooks like yer gonna have to cut n paste those links

...nope, that don't work either... something's strange in interweb space right now... ???!!!

[fuse]

Thanks for sharing, I hadn't heard about this yet.

I would have to think that Invisible Children isn't a giant scam to make a bunch of money for a few people without any real intention of stopping a war criminal. That just seems really over the top. As for the questionable wisdom of arming various unstable factions in foreign countries...that's a good point. But that's no reason for ignoring or dismissing the issue - it's a reason for learning more about it and discussing it with others! If the basic message in the KONY 2012 video is genuine, and it's true that Kony has committed even half of what the video charges, then I'd be willing to help Invisible Children by spreading the word and perhaps by donating a few bucks. Doesn't seem that difficult to me.

Oh and I liked hearing Trent Reznor's work at the opening and closing of the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6R8GCX_wSs

[jonquil]

Here is a superb article on the actual facts regarding Kony and the children. It includes info from reporters on the ground and from those with real knowledge.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/real ... -the-story

But it has also attracted criticism: there are questions about the charity's funding, its targeting of US leaders instead of African leaders to instigate change, and accusations that it is failing to criticise the Ugandan government, with its poor human rights record.

This Tumblr page is collecting criticism of the project and this blog sums up a lot of the questions.

This morning, Invisible Children issued a detailed response to the criticism here.

We want, with your help, to investigate this further. Our principle approach is to attempt to gather views from Uganda about whether this film is the right way to go about campaigning on the issue. I'm going to be working with John Vidal, our environment editor, who has travelled extensively in the region and is on the phone now to his contacts there.

Do you have any relevant information? Get in touch below the line, tweet @pollycurtis or email me at polly.curtis@guardian.co.uk.

11.30am: This excellent post by Michael Wilkerson, a journalist who has worked extensively in Uganda, starts busting some of the myths around Kony and the situation in Uganda. He writes:

It would be great to get rid of Kony. He and his forces have left abductions and mass murder in their wake for over 20 years.

But let's get two things straight:

1) Joseph Kony is not in Uganda and hasn't been for six years;

2) The LRA now numbers at most in the hundreds, and while it is still causing immense suffering, it is unclear how millions of well-meaning but misinformed people are going to help deal with the more complicated reality.

It makes the following points:

• The LRA is not in Uganda but now operates in the DRC, South Sudan and the Central African Republic

• In October last year, Obama authorised the deployment of 100 US army advisers to help the Ugandan military track down Kony, with no results disclosed to date.

• The LRA is much smaller than previously thought. It does not have have 30,000 or 60,000 child soldiers. The figure of 30,000 refers to the total number of children abducted by the LRA over nearly 30 years.

It also makes the point that there is currently no threat to remove the US advisers who are working with the Uganda government to track down the army – Invisible Children's key aim is to force the US government to keep them there.

We're contacting Michael to ask him to write more about the background to this for us.

11.43am: Peter Bradshaw, the Guardian's film critic, has just filed his verdict on the Kony 2012, which will be up on the site soon.

I'm posting a taster below, partly in response to the reader who has just emailed me saying: "I am a mum in Devon with three kids, just about to run six miles for Sports Relief, please get behind this. Hollywood slick, who cares, support the kids – raise awareness and then start the criticism. It is a simple message which my 15-year-old son sent to me – Hollywood or not, it works!"

Peter Bradshaw writes:

Maybe Jason Russell's web-based film Kony 2012, calling for international action to stop the Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony, can't be considered great documentary-making. But as a piece of digital polemic and digital activism, it is quite simply brilliant.

It's a slick, high-gloss piece of work, distributed on the Vimeo site, the upscale version of YouTube for serious film-makers. And its sensational, exponential popularity growth on the web is already achieving one of its stated objectives: to make Kony famous, to publicise this psychopathic warlord's grotesque crimes – kidnapping thousands of children and turning them into mercenaries, butchers and rapists.

It does not stick to the conventions of impartial journalism in the BBC style. It is partisan, tactless and very bold. But it could be seen as insufferably condescending, a way of making US college kids feel good about themselves. And is Jason Russell scared to come out and admit that effective action entails an old-fashioned boots-on-soil invasion of a landlocked African country, with all the collateral damage that this implies?

12.32pm: I've just been speaking with Arthur Larok, Action Aid's director in Uganda.

He was previously the director of programmes at the Uganda National NGO Forum for nine years. He describes the NGO forum as independent of the government. We had a long conversation but, to be clear, he hasn't at this point seen the film though he does know about Invisible Children and its work in Uganda.

It was quite a bad line from Nairobi airport, but this is what he told me:

From what I know about Invisible Children, it's an international NGO, and it documents the lives of children living in conflict for international campaigning to draw attention to the lives of children in the north.

Six or 10 years ago, this would have been a really effective campaign strategy to get international campaigning. But today, years after Kony has moved away from Uganda, I think campaigning that appeals to these emotions … I'm not sure that's effective for now. The circumstances in the north have changed.

Many NGOs and the government, especially local government in the north, are about rebuilding and securing lives for children, in education, sanitation, health and livelihoods. International campaigning that doesn't support this agenda is not so useful at this point. We have moved beyond that.

There are conflicts in the north – several small conflicts over natural resources. Land is the major issue: after many years of displacement, there is quite a bit of land-related conflict.

But many organisations and governments are focusing on this. We need to secure social stability, health and education. These are the priorities. This is what we're trying to focus on. Poverty is high compared to the rest of the country. That's the practical issue that needs to be addressed.

I don't think this is the best way. It might be an appeal that makes sense in America. But there are more fundamental challenges. Kony has been around for 25 years and over. I don't think in the north at the moment that is really what is most important. It might be best on the internet and the like but, at the end of the day, there are more pressing things to deal with. If the Americans had wanted to arrest him, they would have done that a long time ago.

They [Invisible Children] are not a member of our forum. Many international organisations prefer to work and have direct contact with their quarters. They don't work so much within the structures we have in the country. There is nothing dramatic about them. They are like any other organisation trying to make a difference. At the moment I think the work of Invisible Children is about appealing to people's emotions. I think that time has passed. Their reputation in the country is something that can be debatable. There is a strong argument generally about NGOs and their work in the north.

It doesn't sound like a fair representation of Uganda. We have challenges within the country, but certainly the perception of a country at war is not accurate at all. There are political, economic and social challenges, but they are complex. Being dramatic about a country at war is not accurate.

If the international media want to be helpful especially for the conflict situation, they should exert more time and effort understanding practically what the needs are. It is fast-changing.

The video would have been appealing in the last decade. Now we just need support for the recovery rather than all this international attention on this one point. Getting the facts right is most important for the international media. That would help the situation as it is.

[fuse]

Getting the facts right is most important for the international media. That would help the situation as it is.

All I know is that before KONY 2012 the issue wasn't even on my radar. Now everyone is paying more attention to Uganda and more reports are coming out.

Invisible Children has an agenda, but more importantly has a plan of action. It's not enough to find flaws in IC's plans or agenda; one must either propose an alternative way of dealing with the issue or admit apathy.

[Oughtist]

Not to minimize the depravity of Joseph Kony and the whole Lord's Resistance Army issue, but... if the Invisible Children organization is even remotely successful in this venture, they will have proven to have created (and subsequently be found to still be weilding) a media-bazooka of unprecidented power. Who might they aim it at next? And is it a reproduceable commodity?

This whole approach to addressing questions of social justice (and who knows what else) may well be a fundamental game changer, imho. Sure, it might just as well fizzle out, and time will tell, but I can tell you that as a public school teacher, these dudes are totally rocking the student population (and from what I understand, many other demographic sectors, too).

On a related note, the top ranking officers of Invisible Children make less than I do (albeit I'm a teacher in a polity tat pays us relatively well)... May Invisible Children become gloriously wealthy!

And on a sadly humerous note:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2011/ ... christians

[Gobbo]

Alex Jones breaks this down pretty well.

[fuse]

[Another Ugandan Says Kony 2012 Is Bullsh*t!?]

[James L Walker]

Africom!

[phyllo]

Check out what Ugandans think of this video:

geoffrey york
Globe and Mail Update
Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 11:13AM EDT
It was planned as a tour of Uganda’s poorest towns and villages: the first chance for Joseph Kony’s victims to see the viral video sensation that has excited so many millions of people in North America.

But after a furious reaction, the tour has been cancelled. Too many Ugandans were outraged by the “Stop Kony” video when they saw it. Some even threw stones and shouted abuse, forcing the organizers to flee.
The video by a California-based activist group had already been strongly criticized by many African writers and Western aid experts, who called it simplistic, patronizing and inaccurate. They are worried that the publicity will distract attention from more deserving African needs.

But the video, calling for the arrest of the indicted war criminal who leads the Lord’s Resistance Army militia, has been viewed by more than 100 million people worldwide since its release last week. And it has stirred up a huge amount of curiosity in northern Uganda, where the LRA was born in the late 1980s – even though the vast majority of people could not see the video because they lack electricity, television, and Internet access.

So a Ugandan group, the African Youth Initiative Network, decided to organize a community tour for the video, bringing it to towns across northern Uganda for the rest of this month, so that impoverished people could see the 30-minute video for the first time.

The first screening was held this week in the northern Uganda town of Lira, once an epicentre of the battles between the LRA and the Ugandan military. The video was projected onto a white sheet, held up by crude metal rods, in a dusty town park. An estimated 5,000 people flocked to the show.

Curiosity soon turned to bafflement, and then to anger. The screening was hastily abandoned when people jeered and threw stones, forcing the crowd to scatter.

Many Ugandans at the screening were upset that the video focused on the U.S. filmmaker, Jason Russell, and his young blond son. Some were offended by its call to “make Kony famous” by putting his image on T-shirts and posters, since they saw this as giving celebrity status to a killer. Some said the video was reviving their painful memories of a war that had ended in Uganda in 2006 when the LRA was chased out of the country.

“There was chaos, we had to run away,” tweeted Rosebell Kagumire, a Ugandan blogger who attended the screening this week.

Most people were peaceful, but many were disappointed and angry, she said. “They have had enough of money makers!”

After the screening, Ugandans called local radio stations in Lira to demand that no T-shirts of Joseph Kony should be allowed into the region.

Victor Ochen, director of the youth network that organized the screening of the Kony video this week, says he is worried that the video will waste money that could be better spent on helping the victims of the LRA.

“Why spent millions on Kony alone while thousands of survivors are dying of repairable physical and psychosocial pain?” he asked in a message on his website.

Mr. Ochen is worried that the video will promote a military assault on the LRA, perhaps leading to the death of innocent children who were kidnapped by the LRA – including his own brother and cousin.

“Raising potentially false expectations such as arresting Kony in 2012 will not rebuild the lives of the people in northern Uganda,” he said. “Restoration of communities devastated by Kony is a greater priority than catching or killing him.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/worldview/stop-kony-screening-tour-cancelled-after-ugandans-react-with-outrage/article2370125/

[Gobbo]

Kony guy caught masturbating in public.

lol.

[Flannel Jesus]

Just watched it for the first time. God, that video was beautifully edited. I'm learning film editing and design right now, and JESUS CHRIST this was so well made.

It's just too bad it was made for such bullshit.

The video was an exercise in narcissism. Idk if you guys got that vibe, but the vid was half him talking about how cool he is for doing what he's doing.
Also, there seems to be a growing anti-anti-Kony going on. Lots of people are stepping up and saying that this vid is bullshit, that that self-righteous prick has no clue what he's talking about, etc.
I also read some about it here: http://takimag.com/article/touching_you ... z1pW71eNLd

I think and hope this is just gonna be a passing fad. It will of course soon be replaced by another bullshit purpose for well-off suburban middle-class left-leaning hipster white kids to get involved in. We'll see.

[Oughtist]

Well, this certainly continues to be a conundrum of contentions. I won't bother trying to defend this organization against falacious (and phallusious ) charges, etc., but would simply repose my previous thought as follows:

Invisible Children was hoping for a viewing of 500,000 on YouTube. Clearly, as with many other things, they severely underestimated the power of the media bazooka that they launched. The April 20th poster campaign has yet to demonstrate its effect, though it would seem hard to avoid anti-climax given the breadth of coverage already achieved. In any case, there seems to be potential for a differentorder of social activist venue opened by this phenomenon. This particular instance may well be populated largely by 8th grade girls, but man, those chicks are viscious and not to be underestimated. Is this a media tool that we will be seeing more of, or is it just a one-off...?

[fuse]

This is a good article.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio ... 01364.html

[Calrid]

The LRA really are getting back to the fundamentals of religion. Wiping out anyone who doesn't agree with you and then blaming it on God. Bless them.

[apaosha]

I think this can be put to rest.

[Flannel Jesus]

Oh, he's one of those guys...those gay guys who pretends to be straight...That's clear to me after watching that video. A lot of men are living that life, I think. I kinda got the gay vibe from him just in Kony 2012, but I wasn't sure until seeing that. Yes, I know he was "dehydrated" and not in his right mind, but I do think that the fact that he acted ultra-gay in that state has to at least be minor evidence that he truly is gay. I mean, when I get dehydrated I don't wag my head like a black girl and say "OH MY GOD NO YOU DIDN'T!" and I don't think most straight men would...

That topic deserves a whole thread of its' own -- the topic of gay men living a heterosexual life, having children and a wife, etc, lying to everybody they know, and themselves even more, for their whole lives.

[Oughtist]

^^...and a Christian Capitalist to boot:

"Most people view us as a non-profit, as a charity. We view ourselves as a business, as a company. [...] The point is, we can have fun while we end genocide. It's an adventure. There are so many obstacles and challenges, but we're going to have a blast doing it because we feel that God calls us to be joyful in the work that we're doing no matter what we're doing."

Nevertheless, for better or worse, and with all due respect apaosha, me thinks this story ain't over yet...

[lizbethrose]

One thing the thread has shown me, at least, is that Africa is still a 'dark continent'--About the only way the rest of the world knows anything about Africa is through charitable appeals to relieve the suffering of African people due to drought and/or warfare. All of these appeals focus on children

I disagree that the focus of Kony 1012 is to get the US Government militarily involved in Uganda; I do believe it's an attempt to focus the free world's attention on the real problems in politics and corruption within the countries of the largest continent in the world.

[SIATD v2]

One thing the thread has shown me, at least, is that Africa is still a 'dark continent'--About the only way the rest of the world knows anything about Africa is through charitable appeals to relieve the suffering of African people due to drought and/or warfare. All of these appeals focus on children

I disagree. Last year the major African story was NATO waging a war in Libya, and there wasn't much in the press about the suffering being inflicted on Libyan children. Most of it was imperialistic tubthumping and chest-beating.

Nonetheless, most people do see Africa as a 'dark continent' - a place with too many brown people, ridden by poverty and warfare that is, of course, entirely a product of local corruption and tribal conflict, rather than the genocidal imperialism inflicted on it for centuries...

[lizbethrose]

One thing the thread has shown me, at least, is that Africa is still a 'dark continent'--About the only way the rest of the world knows anything about Africa is through charitable appeals to relieve the suffering of African people due to drought and/or warfare. All of these appeals focus on children

SIATD v2 wrote:

I disagree. Last year the major African story was NATO waging a war in Libya, and there wasn't much in the press about the suffering being inflicted on Libyan children. Most of it was imperialistic tubthumping and chest-beating.

Nonetheless, most people do see Africa as a 'dark continent' - a place with too many brown people, ridden by poverty and warfare that is, of course, entirely a product of local corruption and tribal conflict, rather than the genocidal imperialism inflicted on it for centuries...

Most Westerners would say North Africa--Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are Middle-eastern. They know nothing about Mauritania. The imperialism was mainly European and, while it went on for at least 3-4 centuries, the main genocide came from inter-tribal warfare. At least, that's how I read history. If one tribe conquered another the conquered became the slaves of the conqueror. and were sold as such to British and American slavers. But that's another subject.

The countries along the Mediterranean are more Middle Eastern than they are African--They're a mixture of people from the Southern Mediterranean Countries with the natives of their states. Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya are mostly thought of as ME. Algeria and Morocco retain their French colonialism. This is all a part of the convoluted and primarily misunderstood political background of the various countries in Africa.

For me, the major story both last year and this is the drought in Somalia and the subsequent suffering of both adults and children. Is it wise for me to donate money to a Somali relief organization if there is the very real probability that the aid monies will go, instead, to a repressive government which doesn't care a damn about its own people--a government that should take on the responsibilities of teaching and implementing good farming practices so the people could at least feed themselves.

What Kony 2012 did, for me, was give a name to a recognized, renegade human evil--whether or not he exists--That's much more politic than to 'blame' governments or the leaders of those governments, for being evil and uncaring.

[SIATD v2]

Most Westerners would say North Africa--Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are Middle-eastern. They know nothing about Mauritania. The imperialism was mainly European and, while it went on for at least 3-4 centuries, the main genocide came from inter-tribal warfare. At least, that's how I read history. If one tribe conquered another the conquered became the slaves of the conqueror. and were sold as such to British and American slavers. But that's another subject.

If there weren't European slave-owners to sell the slaves to then why bother enslaving them?

But OK, slavery and butchery did exist in Africa pre-colonialism. Nonetheless, an awful lot of it was a direct result of us white Europeans simply drawing lines on maps and defining states thus, without the slightest concern for whether it made sense to the locals. I could go on at great length about how the Belgian colonial strategy led directly to the Rwandan genocide in the early 1990s.

The countries along the Mediterranean are more Middle Eastern than they are African--They're a mixture of people from the Southern Mediterranean Countries with the natives of their states. Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya are mostly thought of as ME. Algeria and Morocco retain their French colonialism. This is all a part of the convoluted and primarily misunderstood political background of the various countries in Africa.

You're right, they are thought of as Middle Eastern. Bizarrely, the East African states (who have more Arab blood in their racial mixture than the North African states) are not usually considered part of the Middle East.

For me, the major story both last year and this is the drought in Somalia and the subsequent suffering of both adults and children. Is it wise for me to donate money to a Somali relief organization if there is the very real probability that the aid monies will go, instead, to a repressive government which doesn't care a damn about its own people--a government that should take on the responsibilities of teaching and implementing good farming practices so the people could at least feed themselves.

Or one could look at the history of why Somalia has never developed an economy or food production system that enables them to resist the frequent droughts. Dealing with a problem after it has happened by giving aid is a major part of why the African continent remains 'dark'.

Donating a small amount of money that might keep a couple of brown people alive for a bit longer, only to then need to give them more money a couple of years down the line to keep them alive a bit longer is not exactly a solution. Rather than demand that the already oppressive and incompetent government solve the problem you could always go to Somalia and help solve it yourself. The Somali government has no motive to solve it, in fact the worse it gets the more foreign aid the country receives, and the more of that foreign aid the corrupt bastards can siphon off into their bank accounts in Switzerland or the Caymans or wherever.

[quote[What Kony 2012 did, for me, was give a name to a recognized, renegade human evil--whether or not he exists--That's much more politic than to 'blame' governments or the leaders of those governments, for being evil and uncaring.[/quote]

Giving a name to an evil that doesn't exist is a complete and utter waste of time. Like I say, if you really care then go to Somalia or Uganda or wherever you are motivated to help and teach the locals a few things that will help them. That's far better than simply watching a well-made but highly misleading online video and getting upset about things.

[apaosha]

There is a tacit admission here that the .... potentials we'll say.... of two races have diverged. Therefore when these two races come into contact again after a long period of mutual isolation the consequences of that divergence make themselves felt in a hierarchical arrangement.

That one race remained in a warm, fertile, resource rich territory while another migrated, or was pushed out into a more barren, cold and scarce area necessitated a form of selection for certain traits that down the line made themselves known dramatically and, of course, unfairly.

When these two distinct parties were reunited then, their profound differences in evolution lead one, through the consequences of it's necessary struggle for existence, to possess traits that allowed it to easily dominate and subjugate it's distant relative. The stronger race took territory, resources and people from the weaker race and arranged a relationship of master and servant.

This went on for a while until the master tired of owning it's servants and freed them. The master became conceited and felt responsibility and shame for the plight of the servant.... as if it had kicked a puppy. But the freed servants couldn't copy the master's way of organising a nation. It was not in their nature. They were more tribal.

So the masters again saw a failure and again blamed themselves. They threw money at the problem. They tried to train members of the other race to be like them and then sent these back to their original lands in a hope that the training could be passed on, like a virus.

But it appeared that the servant race is flawed. Tragically flawed. It cannot be taught to imitate it's master and invariably regresses to it's natural behaviour. It behooves members of the master race to correct this tragedy. Therefore giving money to the servant race, thereby making them the beggar race, is a virtuous thing to do. Such an act guarantees positive karma and thus entry to heaven/paradise/whatever.

This way, the beggar race does not have to resolve it's own tragedy (not being the master race) and can subsist on handouts.

All the while an illusion of "equality" can be broadcast and maintained........... despite appearances.

-------

What always must be asked is why sub-Saharan Africans cannot build nations by themselves, cannot keep the peace by themselves, cannot feed themselves, cannot protect their people, territory or resources by themselves?
And why is it the responsibility of Westerners, not just whites, to do this for them?

[SIATD v2]

What always must be asked is why sub-Saharan Africans cannot build nations by themselves, cannot keep the peace by themselves, cannot feed themselves, cannot protect their people, territory or resources by themselves?
And why is it the responsibility of Westerners, not just whites, to do this for them?

Because they are darkies, innit?

[Calrid]

Mali was a great Empire once. Abyssinia was once the richest nation on Earth.