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nukeday
Joined: 13 May 2010
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 Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 7:09 pm Post subject: |
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I find the backlash against this campaign puzzling.
Yes, there are bigger fish to fry. Yes, they probably enjoy a bit of their fame (I wonder if Bono enjoys being Mr. African AIDS-fighter). No, I won't be giving them any money - money gets misused by a lot of charity organizations.
I think a lot of people might just be a little bit jealous that some guys were successful in getting their pet cause to go mainstream. A lot of people don't like it when their favorite underground band puts out a music video. |
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Died By Bear
Joined: 13 Jul 2010
Location: On the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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| pkang0202 wrote: |
The whole Kony 2012 thing is retarded. Stickers all over the city? Raise awareness?
If people care so much about the guy, they should pick up a gun, make a militia, and take the guy out. Until then, all I see are hippies and hipsters making noise so they can feel like they are doing something good, when in fact they are doing absolutely nothing. |
Funny how that works eh?
Good movie I just saw yesterday: Act Of Valor. Great movie. If we have the resources to do what they were doing in that movie, it shouldn't be too hard to equip a few "occupy protestors" and send them over with guns n ammo. Drop em in the jungle and let them 'occupy' Kony Boney's villa for a bit.
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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| nukeday wrote: |
I find the backlash against this campaign puzzling.
Yes, there are bigger fish to fry. Yes, they probably enjoy a bit of their fame (I wonder if Bono enjoys being Mr. African AIDS-fighter). No, I won't be giving them any money - money gets misused by a lot of charity organizations.
I think a lot of people might just be a little bit jealous that some guys were successful in getting their pet cause to go mainstream. A lot of people don't like it when their favorite underground band puts out a music video. |
It's just that it's the equivalent of holding an outdoor rock concert to save the Earth. A ridiculous gesture that signifies nothing and only serves to make people feel good. If you want to get rid of Kony, a bunch of fliers and a facebook page aren't going to do it. The man and his consiglieri need to be found and murdered. Anything other than that is a waste of time.
I mean I guess its kinda okay in that raises awareness, of course this should be achieved by reading the news and keeping aware, not waiting for somebody to share it on facebook.
Frankly its that kind of idiocy that probably serves as a recruitment tool for Kony. He can point to news stories about spoiled idiots who know nothing about his country thinking they know what's best and sharing it through idle chatter on the net. The western capitalist lackeys are being brainwashed through the net and their facebook propaganda or something like that. |
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Died By Bear
Joined: 13 Jul 2010
Location: On the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:34 pm Post subject: |
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http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/the-visible-problem-with-invisible-children/
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The visible problem with invisible children
2 11 2006
EDIT ON MARCH 7, 2012: This post was originally written in 2006. As you read and comment, please consider that it has been over 5 years since I wrote my thoughts here. I personally still have the same concerns about IC that I did when I posted this and have chosen not to contribute to their cause. However, Uganda continues to hold a very special place in my heart. When I wrote this article, I supported and I continue to support relief efforts in Uganda through the work of Steve Hoyt at Engineering Ministries International (eMi), an organization with a 4 star rating from Charity Navigator. If you�d like, you can support Steve�s work in Uganda here: https://emisecure.org/donate.html . To learn more about the work that eMi does in Uganda visit http://emiea.org/index.html.
Thanks for continuing to be a part of this important conversation.
James
Original Post:
Invisible Children (IC) swept the university campuses of America last year. The group wanted to mobilize college students to be aware of what happened in Uganda in recent years, the atrocious acts of Joseph Kony and his rebel group, the Lord�s Resistance Army (LRA). I heard about Invisible Children for the first time when I was researching Uganda. I was immediately fascinated by their website. It�s very well done, but I noticed one thing. It lacked real information. If you haven�t seen the film or know nothing about their purpose, let me catch you up to speed with my version. Three clueless college kids head to Sudan with no plans and no idea about what they�re going to find. They�re looking for a �story�. They leave Sudan and make their way into Uganda. They find some bad stuff going on there. So they made a MTV-esque DVD about what was happening there. They wanted to draw attention to what they found.
So far, this sounds good. However, there is a major, major problem. I�m going to compare what IC is doing to an analogy that I thought of this past summer when I was Uganda thinking about this issue. Imagine that today you heard about what happened in NYC and Washington DC on September 11, 2001 for the first time. You were shown a video of footage from that day. You saw the planes hit the towers, you heard President Bush�s address, you saw the Pentagon wreckage, you watch in horror as you see people plunge to their death, jumping from the burning towers. Now imagine that you are inspired by this disaster. You want to something to help. What if you went to NYC today, expecting to see piles of rubble to clean up? What if you went, expecting that there would be thousands of people in the streets crying, looking for loved ones? But what would happen when you arrived and discovered that there was none of this, but a whole host of other problems?
And back to Uganda. Uganda is no longer experiencing violence from the LRA. Yes, I said it. It�s an uncomfortable truth, but it is a truth. For about the last year, since before IC hit the scene, Kony and his troops have been pushed into Congo, into the Garamba National Forest there. He�s sick, starving, and on his last legs. For the first time, Uganda is in the middle of real peace talks and the rebels have laid down their arms and are assembling to make peace. Why? This is happening because Joseph Kony was defeated. The Uganda People�s Defense Force (UPDF) has beaten them back and Kony was sitting in Congo starving to death. Since March 2002, the UPDF has been allowed to carry out raids against the LRA into Southern Sudan and has even crossed into Congo, to the distress of most of the African community. Nonetheless, Operation Iron Fist, as this military offensive was called, has freed many child soldiers and sex slaves and brought them back to Uganda. The rebels again became very violent in 2003, but since 2004, the Ugandan government has been repeatedly beating the rebels and weakening them. Uganda is no longer allowed to enter Sudan or Congo to fight the LRA.
Invisible Children was founded in 2004, with the film crew filming in Uganda in 2003. Watching Invisible Children is watching old news. Will watching it alert you to what has occurred in Uganda? Yes, but it will not let you know what is happening there today.
Invisible Children is too late. It has taught us that MTV type media can get university students interested in a world crisis, the problem is it took too much time. Night commuting, outlined as one of the major problems in northern Uganda by the film, is practically non-existent now. Why? Peace is coming to the region. According to UN reports, children who still are commuting at night are not doing it because of safety concerns, but because they want to enjoy the amenities that NGO�s are offering in the towns, like Gulu, Kitgum, and Lira. At the peak of the commuting, there were between 30,000 and 40,000 children commuting. Now, estimates are below 10,000.
The scars of the 20 year conflict are everywhere in northern Uganda. I walked through internally displaced person (IDP) camps. I smelled, I listened, I saw, I touched, I tasted. I experienced Uganda. I saw people whose lives had been radically changed. I placed my hands on a woman whose lips had been cut off by the LRA. I walked with children whose parents had been killed. I sat on the foundation of a hut burned down by the LRA. I talked with people whose relatives had been abducted. I walked over land guarded by the UPDF. The landscape, the people, and the country itself has an immense burden to deal with.
Uganda has problems today. Their government is ridden with corruption. There are people still living in fear in IDP camps, afraid that violence will again return to their land. The education system is inadequate and many do not have the chance to go to school. For those who do work their way through the school system, there is a good chance that there will not be a job for them when they get even a university degree. Why doesn�t anyone want to do something about these problems? Why will thousands of people participate in IC�s Global Night Commute but not take the time to actually find out what is going on in Uganda today?
There have been many inspired to do more than just watch a DVD and sleep downtown for a night. However, that�s where we run into another problem. This summer, IC had a bunch of college students in northern Uganda wasting time and money. There were almost 30 people who were in Uganda this summer connected with IC and even more who were inspired to change the world and fly around it. That also sounds somewhat heart warming. Self centered American kids are flying around the world to change it. The catch is they don�t know what they are doing or where they are going. They are blindly making a problem worse by throwing thousands of dollars at something they don�t understand.
When I traveled into Southern Sudan, you could sense something was different there. There is a greedy spirit there that you can feel. Foreign aid had ruined South Sudan. People do not want to work, they want handouts. An entire generation has been cared for by the UN and other NGO�s. They are fed, clothed, protected, and sent to school without having to do anything. I walked through the market there and saw UNICEF tarps and blankets for sale. I could also buy Samaritan�s Purse shoe-boxes, filled with all sorts of American goodies. I thought back how I thought it was a good idea for me to send a shoebox filled with soap, toothpaste, bouncy balls, and a washcloth to a faraway land. What I realize now is that sending things, whether money, objects, or people to a place that I have no information on is a bad idea.
The problems that Uganda faces today cannot be fixed by hundreds of uneducated Westerners going there to �help�. As you read this article, think about how much you really know about the political situations in Uganda and throughout Africa that contribute to long lasting problems.
Africa as a whole needs to break free from foreign aid. Almost half of Uganda�s yearly budget is made up of foreign aid. I think that many of Uganda�s problems stem from its reliance on foreign support. If you want to read more on that, check out a Ugandan journalist named Andrew Mwenda. The aid to African nations is increasing the corruption there and encouraging these nations to continue this dependence on foreign nations and it does not encourage them to become totally self sufficient. When asked what rich nations should do to help Africa, Mwenda said,
So what is the solution? I�ve now written the first negative article I can find about Invisible Children. I also have suggested that we should think about cutting foreign aid and debt relief to African nations.
If you�ve seen the old news that Uganda has to offer and are disturbed, I encourage you to do some research and find out what is really going on in Uganda. I spent months before I went to Uganda researching the country. I talked to many people on the phone or with Skype, I emailed countless others, I read books, I monitored the news. If you want to find out what the situation is really like, find out. Don�t blindly fly yourself to a developing country like a Western idiot. I would also suggest finding out more about organizations that you support that work in foreign countries. Find out what their relationships are like with the local people and find out how they are grooming local people to take over their group. No aid organization should plan to be somewhere forever. If they do, they are not focused on solving the problem they are there to address.
Do not be fooled by slick video editing. Sleeping outside in downtown Pittsburgh will not help anyone who is still night commuting in northern Uganda. Perhaps you are now aware that there is a problem, perhaps you know that there is more to this world than just your country, your state, and your little hometown. What you may not know is that the US government is not going to get involved if it doesn�t benefit the American people. Remember Rwanda? It is up to you to figure out how to deal with this knowledge and the knowledge that your warm and fuzzy thoughts are not going to be the solution to this.
As of today, Uganda is still in a tedious peace process with the LRA, with both sides accusing each other of violating peace agreements. The good news is that they are still in the peace process and they�re doing it without the help of a foreign country that will attempt to benefit from the talks. Instead, using Rick Machar and South Sudan is helping to build ties with all those in that region. The LRA and the UPDF have now signed a second peace accord and hopefully this one will result in successful peace.
As I have written this over the past couple of months, I�m disappointed that I cannot offer a real solution to this problem. I wish that I had the answers for Uganda and those of you who are interested in doing something to help the people there. Unfortunately, I feel that I have done little more than to highlight problems there and then problems with our response to their problems. I learned so much while I was there, but I still have a lot that I can learn. |
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duke of new york
Joined: 23 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:42 pm Post subject: |
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The biggest problem I have with this campaign is that it totally glosses over all the important background information. The video basically says, "Kony is a bad guy who kidnaps children, so we should hunt him down," but there is a lot more to the situation, such as:
1. The LRA hasn't been actively fighting or kidnapping anyone for several years.
2. Kony is the leader of an organization with clear political and religious goals. He is not, as the video explicitly portrays him as, a lone wolf with a personal child army with no other goal but to maintain his own personal power.
3. Kony is not the only person in the leadership of the LRA. Taking him out will not kill the LRA any more than taking out bin Laden killed al Qaeda.
4. Finally, and I think this is really important: the Ugandan government's record on human rights is hardly any better than Kony's. The military police routinely abduct suspected political dissidents, then torture and murder them. Being HIV positive is a capital offense in Uganda. Executions are often extrajudicial.
What does it say when the US offers free military aid to a regime like Uganda's? It's a sad situation for the innocent people caught in the crossfire, but there are no "good guys" in this conflict, and I don't think we should be taking sides in a fight between Nazi Germany and North Korea. There's nothing wrong with raising awareness, but making the arrest of Kony the central goal creates the illusion that this will solve the problem. It's nothing more than a quest for revenge. I hope he is arrested or killed, but it will do little to help these people, and it is certainly not in the interest peace.
I also really hate how this video relies almost entirely on creating an emotional response. There is more footage of people hugging and crying than actual information about what is or was going on in Uganda. The music and melodramatic scenes are just cheesy and annoying; it reminds me of stuff shown at the youth service of an evangelical church.
All this in the name of peace...but they essentially just want to kill somebody. It's kind of morbid to make it out to be such a noble goal, when they are really just crowdfunding a war. |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 12:01 am Post subject: |
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| pkang0202 wrote: |
| Until then, all I see are hippies and hipsters making noise so they can feel like they are doing something good, when in fact they are doing absolutely nothing. |
It pretty much is the definition of slacktivism:
"The word is usually considered a pejorative term that describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction. The acts tend to require minimal personal effort from the slacktivist. The underlying assumption being promoted by the term is that these low cost efforts substitute for more substantive actions rather than supplementing them, although this assumption has not been borne out by research.
Slacktivist activities include signing Internet petitions, joining a community organization without contributing to the organization's efforts, copying and pasting of Social Network statuses or messages or altering one's personal data or avatar on social network services." |
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everything-is-everything
Joined: 06 Jun 2011
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| Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 2:07 am Post subject: |
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| madoka wrote: |
| pkang0202 wrote: |
| Until then, all I see are hippies and hipsters making noise so they can feel like they are doing something good, when in fact they are doing absolutely nothing. |
It pretty much is the definition of slacktivism:
"The word is usually considered a pejorative term that describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction. The acts tend to require minimal personal effort from the slacktivist. The underlying assumption being promoted by the term is that these low cost efforts substitute for more substantive actions rather than supplementing them, although this assumption has not been borne out by research.
Slacktivist activities include signing Internet petitions, joining a community organization without contributing to the organization's efforts, copying and pasting of Social Network statuses or messages or altering one's personal data or avatar on social network services." |
So what exactly have either of you two done about what's going on in central Africa?
I mean besides criticize people, what have you done.
Me? Well I've done nothing, but I think what these people have done is great. |
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Spartacist
Joined: 18 Feb 2012
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| Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 4:30 am Post subject: |
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The whole Kony 2012 is just another example of the 'White Man's Burden', a bunch of privileged white people taking it upon themselves to protect poor Africans, ignoring a whole range of social and political realities. And their tacit support for foreign intervention is appalling - because that worked out so well in Iraq and Afghanistan  |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 5:56 am Post subject: |
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| everything-is-everything wrote: |
| madoka wrote: |
| pkang0202 wrote: |
| Until then, all I see are hippies and hipsters making noise so they can feel like they are doing something good, when in fact they are doing absolutely nothing. |
It pretty much is the definition of slacktivism:
"The word is usually considered a pejorative term that describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction. The acts tend to require minimal personal effort from the slacktivist. The underlying assumption being promoted by the term is that these low cost efforts substitute for more substantive actions rather than supplementing them, although this assumption has not been borne out by research.
Slacktivist activities include signing Internet petitions, joining a community organization without contributing to the organization's efforts, copying and pasting of Social Network statuses or messages or altering one's personal data or avatar on social network services." |
So what exactly have either of you two done about what's going on in central Africa?
I mean besides criticize people, what have you done.
Me? Well I've done nothing, but I think what these people have done is great. |
Until you look at the facts. And their brilliant ideas such as
A) Sending money to the Ugandan Military
B) Calling for US intervention
C) Ignoring the circumstances and political backstory to all of this and treating it like some movie where if we send in Rambo and kill Kony this problem will magically resolve itself.
This war is theirs. They must fight it out themselves. |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 12:13 am Post subject: |
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| everything-is-everything wrote: |
Me? Well I've done nothing, but I think what these people have done is great. |
http://tumblr.thedailywh.at/post/18909727859/on-kony-2012-i-honestly-wanted-to-stay-as-far
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The organization behind Kony 2012 � Invisible Children Inc. � is an extremely shady nonprofit that has been called �misleading,� �naive,� and �dangerous� by a Yale political science professor, and has been accused by Foreign Affairs of �manipulat[ing] facts for strategic purposes.� They have also been criticized by the Better Business Bureau for refusing to provide information necessary to determine if IC meets the Bureau�s standards.
Additionally, IC has a low two-star rating in accountability from Charity Navigator because they won�t let their financials be independently audited.
...
The bottom line is, research your causes thoroughly. Don�t just forward a random video to a stranger because a mass murderer makes a five-year-old �sad.� Learn a little bit about the complexities of the region�s ongoing strife before advocating for direct military intervention.
There is no black and white in the world. And going about solving important problems like there is just serves to make all those equally troubling shades of gray invisible. |
Do you still think what they do is great? |
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cuorev
Joined: 10 Apr 2012
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| Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:57 am Post subject: |
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| Captain Corea wrote: |
| I don't agree with the plastering of signs everywhere, but spreading awareness about certain issues that go neglected in the msm seems reasonable to me. |
agreed! |
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