My friend Stephen wrote an article on this whole thing. I suggest some of you read it before you start throwing your money at the screen.
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve seen the word Kony all over Facebook thanks to the eleventh film put out by Invisible Children (IC), aptly titled “KONY 2012.” If you haven’t watched the video, it is available here. It’s about a half an hour long, but I promise you that you can skip the first eight minutes without missing anything crucial. The video basically explains that Joseph Kony has been kidnapping young boys and forcing them to kill their parents and join his infamous Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). They also use the girls as sex slaves, but the video only mentions that for about two seconds, so I guess I shouldn’t dwell on it because it’s less important. Anyway, the video urges its viewers to purchase a Kony 2012 action kit (for the low, low price of thirty dollars!) which includes a t-shirt, some stickers, a poster maybe, and a really fashionable bracelet. It’s basically a kit that lets everyone in the world know you’re acting for a cause you discovered earlier in the week.
Almost immediately after KONY2012 went viral, a political science student in Canada launched a blogexplaining why the campaign was a bad idea. To get the full gist of what he says, read it, obviously, but I can give you a basic rundown of where he stands. He asserts that the world isn’t unaware of Kony, which is true. He’s number one on the International Criminal Court’s list of criminals. So, is more awareness going to solve the problem? He also points out a few misleading facts in the video, which I’ll address later. IC’s semi-shady finances are also brought up.
So, here are the facts according to yours truly. But before I say anything, let me preface it with two things:
ONE: Yes, Kony is a bad guy. Duh. As the faux-hawked ginger in Community said, “NO ONE IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS ISSUE.”
TWO: I am not trying to talk you out of supporting KONY 2012. I am trying to talk you out of throwing your money at a cause without doing research. I understand that being an activist is cool, but ignorantly throwing your money at an organization isn’t.
First off, the KONY 2012 video implies that Kony currently has an army of 30,000 children armed with AK-47s. However, that number (30,000) is representative of Kony’s actions over more than 20 years. As of now, the LRA is only in the few hundreds. I learned that here.
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things Second, the the video very smoothly glides over the fact that Kony is not in Uganda. They do say that he has moved into other countries. They don’t say that he fled into other countries. The LRA is not growing in size. They are shrinking and running. I also learned that here. (At the Above link).
Third, IC supports the Ugandan military. Not “support” as in they are behind them all the way, but “support” in that they give money to them. The communication director at IC justifies this by saying they “do not defend any of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Ugandan government or the Ugandan army” and that “the only feasible and proper way to stop Kony and protect the civilians he targets is to coordinate efforts with regional governments.” Whether you agree with this is up to you. Here are some reasons why working with the Ugandan government might not be awesome.
Read about his justification here:
http://www.invisiblechildren.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/critiques.html Fourth, only a third of IC’s income goes to “direct services.” Their financials are public, and not too difficult to understand. I’m sure page six will strike your interest, especially if you add “Travel and Transportation” to “Compensation” and compare that to “Direct Services.” Again, how you feel about this is up to you.
View their financial records here:
http://c2052482.r82.cf0.rackcdn.com/images/737/original/FY11-Audited%20Financial%20Statements.pdf?1320205055 Fifth, in the video, IC says that US support in this situation could literally be withdrawn at any moment. This sense of urgency is hugely displaced. They portray it like this: if you don’t buy this action kit and post an abundance of statuses, Obama will pull out those 100 troops. In reality, there is no reason to believe this will happen.
Let me say once again: this is not to convince you not to support KONY 2012. I don’t care if you support this movement, because I do believe this cause is important. I’m just trying to convince you to really look into things. Because we live in the information era, we can watch the film, read an article in support of it, and order the kit within 45 minutes and not even think that there might be reasons not to. So, whatever you do, make sure you think about it. As a great man named Justin Burkholder once said (yesterday),”We buy into things too quickly to relieve our consciences but don’t really accomplish much. I don’t think that IC is manipulative or deceptive, I just think that Americans are dumb.”
Don’t be a dumb American. Think it over. I don’t care if you got shivers when that Mumford & Sons song started playing in the video. This is more important than relieving your conscience.
