Kony 2012

[JMohegan]

In response to all the criticism.

Kony crossed the line, it doesn't matter who kills him, just somebody do it.

The US has the experience, tools, and skill to do it.

Are you volunteering to traipse on into the jungles of Africa to do it? If not, who, in your opinion, should we send?

How much will such an expedition cost, and whose taxes should we raise to pick up the tab?

What should we do to prevent a recurrence of the ghastly retributions that occurred in the wake of the US's ill-fated '08 attempt to get Kony? Even if Kony is killed and/or captured, doesn't it seem likely to you that he has loyal followers & friends?

And finally, are you aware of the fact that it took us an entire DECADE to catch Osama Bin Laden - the most wanted villain in the history of America, ever? As for the cost of that venture....

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-hunt-stats

YES, Kony is vile. YES, we should help reputable African leaders, if it is feasible to do so. No one is suggesting otherwise. But this facile fix-it fantasy is just nonsense.

 

[JMohegan]

Too bad Kony has moved on to Sudan and invisible children will make millions to pay their CEO's , while pennies on the dollar go to the children of Uganda.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/micha...n_b_1327417.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Thank you.

That piece deserves to be quoted at length:

"Recently, a new video produced by the American NGO Invisible Children focusing on Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been making the rounds. Having just returned from the Acholi region of Northern Uganda myself, where the LRA was born, I thought I might share some of my thoughts on the subject, for what it's worth.

I think it is easy for Invisible Children and other self-aggrandizing foreigners to make the entire story of the last 30 years of Northern Uganda about Joseph Kony, but there is a history of the relationship between the Acholi people from whom the LRA emerged and the central government in Kampala that is a little more complicated than that.

Kony is a grotesque war criminal, to be sure, but the Ugandan government currently in power also came to power through the use of kadogo (child soldiers) and fought alongside militias employing child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, something that Invisible Children seem wilfully ignorant of.

The conflict in Acholi -- the ancestral homeland of the ethnic group who stretch across northern Uganda and southern Sudan -- has its roots in Uganda's history of dictatorship and political turmoil. A large number of soldiers serving in the government of dictator Milton Obote (who ruled Uganda from 1966 to 1971 and then again from 1980 to 1985) came from across northern Uganda, with the Acholis being particularly well represented, even though Obote himself hailed from the Lango ethnic group. When Obote was overthrown by his own military commanders, an ethnic Acholi, General Tito Okello, became president for six chaotic months until Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army took over. Museveni became president, and has since remained so, via elections -- some legitimate, some deeply flawed.

Upon taking power, the Museveni government launched a brutal search and destroy mission against former government soldiers throughout the north, which swept up many ordinary Acholi in its wake. Some Acholi began mobilizing to defend themselves, first under the banner of the Uganda People's Democratic Army (largely made up of former soldiers) and then the Holy Spirit Movement.

This movement, directed by Alice Auma, an Acholi who claimed to be acting on guidance from the spirit Lakwena, brought a mystical belief in their own invincibility that the soldiers of the Kampala-based government at first found terrifying: Holy Spirit Movement devotees walked headlong into blazing gunfire singing songs and holding stones they believed would turn into grenades. The movement succeeded in reaching Jinja, just 80 km from the capital Kampala, before being decimated by Museveni's forces.

Out of this slaughter was born the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, a distant relative of Alice Auma. Kony added an additional element of targeting civilian Acholi to his schismatic blend of Christianity, frequently kidnapping children and adolescents to serve in his rebel movement. The Museveni government responded by viewing all Acholi as potential collaborators, rounding them up into camps euphemistically called "protected villages", where they were vulnerable to disease and social ills, and had few ways to carry on their traditional farming.

The LRA's policy of targeting civilians (though not the Museveni government's draconian measures) eventually drew international condemnation and in 2005 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Joseph Kony and several other seniors LRA commanders for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Ironically, one of those commanders, Dominic Ongwen, was himself kidnapped by the LRA while still a small boy.

After peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government collapsed in 2007, the group decamped from its bases in southern Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

Following the end of negotiations, the Museveni government launched its Peace Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP), an effort to stabilize northern Uganda after years of war. Since then, according to the United Nations, 98 percent of internally displaced persons have moved on from the camps that once sheltered hundreds of thousands of frightened people.

Despite criticisms from the Acholi that the government's program has been insufficient, local initiatives and the work of some foreign organizations have helped restore a sense of normality and gradual progress to the region, with people returned to their homes and travel between once off-limits parts of the region now facilitated with relative ease.

Now a thousand miles from the cradle of their insurgency, the LRA would appear to have little hope of returning to Uganda, though their potential to wreak havoc on civilians remains little diminished. In Congo's Haut-Uele province, between December 2009 and January 2010, the LRA massacred 620 civilians and abducted more than 120 children.

In October 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that he was sending 100 Special Forces soldiers to help the Ugandans hunt down Kony. By the end of the year, the Ugandan army confirmed that the troops had moved along with the Ugandan army to Obo in the Central African Republic and Nzara in South Sudan.

The problem with Invisible Children's whitewashing of the role of the government of Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni in the violence of Central Africa is that it gives Museveni and company a free pass, and added ammunition with which to bludgeon virtually any domestic opposition, such as Kizza Besigye and the Forum for Democratic Change.

By blindly supporting Uganda's current government and its military adventures beyond its borders, as Invisible Children suggests that people do, Invisible Children is in fact guaranteeing that there will be more violence, not less, in Central Africa.

I have seen the well-meaning foreigners do plenty of damage before, so that is why people understanding the context and the history of the region is important before they blunder blindly forward to "help" a people they don't understand.

U.S. President Bill Clinton professed that he was "helping" in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s and his help ended up with over 6 million people losing their lives.

The same mistake should not be repeated today."

 

[YourCaptor]

Are you volunteering to traipse on into the jungles of Africa to do it? If not, who, in your opinion, should we send?

How much will such an expedition cost, and whose taxes should we raise to pick up the tab?

What should we do to prevent a recurrence of the ghastly retributions that occurred in the wake of the US's ill-fated '08 attempt to get Kony? Even if Kony is killed and/or captured, doesn't it seem likely to you that he has loyal followers & friends?

And finally, are you aware of the fact that it took us an entire DECADE to catch Osama Bin Laden - the most wanted villain in the history of America, ever? As for the cost of that venture....

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-hunt-stats

YES, Kony is vile. YES, we should help reputable African leaders, if it is feasible to do so. No one is suggesting otherwise. But this facile fix-it fantasy is just nonsense.

The standing US military.

Kill Kony would be a drop in the bucket next to Afghanistan. He also isn't the sharpest guy around.

I don't suggest taking sides, this would be an independent operation. Or better yet, the guys head just shows up in the mail.

Hopefully his buddies will get the message about fucking with kids.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Hopefully his buddies will get the message about fucking with kids.

Hope...

Uh huh.

I wish life were that simple!

 

[JMohegan]

The standing US military.

Kill Kony would be a drop in the bucket next to Afghanistan. He also isn't the sharpest guy around.

I don't suggest taking sides, this would be an independent operation. Or better yet, the guys head just shows up in the mail.

Hopefully his buddies will get the message about fucking with kids.

You're not even a US citizen. Shouldn't you pressing the German government to risk their soldiers' lives on this expedition?

And you skipped the question on cost. Are you willing to pay for the expedition, or are you volunteering other people's funds for this venture?

No taking sides? I see. So we should just violate another country's sovereign air/jungle space and swoop on in? With our magic Kony detector to pinpoint his location, and fairy dust to sprinkle on the local civilians, child soldiers, etc., to avoid collateral damage?

And yeah, I'm with Stella. Hope is not a method. Jesus christ.

Like I said. This facile fix-it fantasy is bullshit.

 

[YourCaptor]

You're not even a US citizen. Shouldn't you pressing the German government to risk their soldiers' lives on this expedition?

And you skipped the question on cost. Are you willing to pay for the expedition, or are you volunteering other people's funds for this venture?

No taking sides? I see. So we should just violate another country's sovereign air/jungle space and swoop on in? With our magic Kony detector to pinpoint his location, and fairy dust to sprinkle on the local civilians, child soldiers, etc., to avoid collateral damage?

And yeah, I'm with Stella. Hope is not a method. Jesus christ.

Like I said. This facile fix-it fantasy is bullshit.

I don’t know why you are reaching for sarcasm and insults but this is not the time.

I’m completely opposed to your sentiment. I loath to see people standing around, hoping someone comes up with something, while some piece of shit is mutilating the innocent.

If you can, step in, and the US is the best equipped.

 

[mikesaysno]

http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/03/09/kony-video-social-media-manipulation-analysis/

Unless you’ve managed, miraculously, to avoid the Kony 2012 video, you’ll understand now why the US military is investing in technology to create fake online identities with the aim of influencing social media. At least one of the armies of the future is made up of sock puppets.

Sock puppets aren’t much good for hunting warlords, of course, but they can potentially be very effective at manipulating tens of thousands or, in this case, millions of people, to support sending in real troops — supposedly even though Westerners are sick of failed military interventions.

The Kony video is an amalgam of every manipulative social media cliché and cyber-utopian stereotype (ruthlessly nailed in the Kony drinking game): the white paternalism, the Hollywood stars, the tightly edited graphics and edgy images (graffiti! face masks!), the earnest narration, the message that social media can change the world, the solipsism that nothing is quite real until white middle-class Westerners know about it, all in the name of justifying unilateral US intervention in Uganda.

Oh, which has a lot of oil, by the way, but we won’t indulge some of the more lurid conspiracy theories circulating online. Nor dwell on the gratuitous errors and omissions that litter the video. It’s not as if there hasn’t been an inaccurate internet yarn before, going right back to the days of the Neiman-Marcus cookie story.

But the beauty is that now there can be a seamless transition from social to mainstream media. The latter now only take a day or two to catch up with what’s happening online. Thus Ten ran the full video and The Project extensively, and nearly entirely uncritically, discussed it, bringing the professionally annoying Todd Sampson on to analyse it.

Even when the campaign’s many problematic aspects were exposed, it did little to dampen the enthusiasm of some. Fairfax blogger Sam De Brito, whose normal beat is the frustrations of having a p-nis, embraced the campaign enthusiastically, under the line “the greatest idea of our generation”. Strangely, that line has since vanished from De Brito’s piece as the dodgy claims and record of the group concerned, Invisible Children, came under scrutiny. De Brito was having none of it, claiming he’d never been more disgusted than about the cynicism about the campaign. “Now you know who Kony is. What is that worth?” he frothed.

Well, not much. The Kony campaign is an internet meme. It’ll be replaced by another meme next week, even among those who bought the wristband — there will, after all, always be another wristband. It’s only a meme because there’s no organic, real-world substance to it. This isn’t a campaign driven by the people of East Africa — relentlessly infantilised in the video — but by white Westerners high-fiving each other online about their social conscience in a giant round of moral masturb-tion.

There’s no communication between Westerners perched over their keyboards (or, worse yet, reclining on their sofas) and those people who’ve been exposed to this conflict since the 1980s. Ugandans and internet users from other African countries quickly came online to respond to the video, but chances are 99% of the however many tens of millions of people who watched the video won’t bother seeking out the views of people who actually live there. That’s a click too far.

Compare the social media engagement in the Arab Spring, which saw protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries using social media tools to organise and communicate with each other and their own communities, with the level of online engagement with the protests inside each country and within the region growing as the protests developed, but also enabling Western social media users to view first hand what was happening on the ground.

The Kony campaign doesn’t purport to resemble the Arab Spring, of course, but it is a compilation of every criticism levelled at “cyberutopians” in relation to the Arab Spring.

Nonetheless, the sheer speed with which the cause was taken up unthinkingly by so many people must have companies and governments excited.

The ease with which people can be manipulated isn’t a reflection on the internet — people have always been easy to manipulate. But the interconnectedness provided by social media facilitates manipulation like it facilitates any other form of propaganda or communication of any kind. That’s why, within moments of the video appearing, there was fact-checking, analysis and criticism of it available online for those interested. But unlike the video, the scepticism wasn’t viral.

The internet allows you now manipulate on a larger scale, and more quickly, particularly if you give people some agency in their dissemination of your propaganda. Thus the interest of the military-industrial complex in social media as a tool of manipulation (not aimed at US citizens, the US Central Command assured the press at the time, because as we know cyberspace rigorously adheres to national borders). Imagine the Israeli government preparing a slick video about the savage treatment of women activists in Iran and seeding it online in the hope that it goes viral, lifting the pressure on the US government for an attack.

The problem for would-be military manipulators of course is that next week the rage will be replaced by something else — fawning over baby sloths, laughing at classic movies subtitled for African-Americans (so hilarious, right?), the next Rebecca Black. Keeping people emotionally aroused is the problem. One to which the finest military and intelligence minds are likely devoting considerable attention. Remember that oil in Uganda.

 

[JMohegan]

I don’t know why you are reaching for sarcasm and insults but this is not the time.

I’m completely opposed to your sentiment. I loath to see people standing around, hoping someone comes up with something, while some piece of shit is mutilating the innocent.

If you can, step in, and the US is the best equipped.

The notion that the US government has been just standing around doing nothing is one of the many distortions in that video.

You're being lied to and manipulated, man. Wake the hell up.

The Kony video is an amalgam of every manipulative social media cliché and cyber-utopian stereotype (ruthlessly nailed in the Kony drinking game): the white paternalism, the Hollywood stars, the tightly edited graphics and edgy images (graffiti! face masks!), the earnest narration, the message that social media can change the world, the solipsism that nothing is quite real until white middle-class Westerners know about it, all in the name of justifying unilateral US intervention in Uganda.

That whole piece was well-written, but this sums it right up.

Ughh. Just... ughh. So fucking depressing.

 

[JMohegan]

How Invisible Children's Kony 2012 Will Hurt - And How You Can Help - Central Africa

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-deibert/how-invisible-childrens-k_b_1334410.html?ref=impact

 

[mikesaysno]

How Invisible Children's Kony 2012 Will Hurt - And How You Can Help - Central Africa

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-deibert/how-invisible-childrens-k_b_1334410.html?ref=impact

People are dumber than dog shit so they really have no hope against a propaganda assault like this one. I'm actually in awe of how comprehensive this mind control experiment has been. Every department of the establishment has been deployed : from corporate Facebook, to Government, to Hollywood - is it a coincidence that Machine Gun Preacher came out a few months ago? No it is not.

The view count on Youtube is fucking scary. It's amazing how popular the zombie genre has been in the past few years but now I see why...The zombies are indeed walking the streets...perhaps on April 20th when they are "Covering the night" in Kony posters from their super kony kits, we can at least identify who they are and shoot them...is a head shot still the most effective method?

 

[DVS]

We have this guy named Kony, and he has been recruiting kids to be in his army for years. We know that to be true. We don't know if he's still as active as he once was, but because he once was very active, at least a few of those kids he recruited had to enjoy being in his army.

If outside countries were to get involved, I'm sure SEAL Team 6 or maybe their British or Israeli counterparts could go in and get Kony. But how many future Konys has he already created? While Kony is someone who should be stopped, this kind of thing isn't going away by just getting him.

 

[Keroin]

People are dumber than dog shit...

I just had to quote that.

Interesting technique.

 

[the captians wench]

I hear you, Wench. I just wish the video weren't so fundamentally offensive in its 'White American Hero gallops up to save helpless Africans from mean Africans' message.

I talked to my 22-year-old niece about the video this morning. She thinks the popularity of the video is rooted not so much in the tragedy of the subject, but in the way it's packaged in a 30-minute stroking of young American egos.

*shrug* I didn't see it that way, and this just brings to mind a trend in my life that I am just starting to become fully aware of.

People will create race issues to fit situations.

Now I'm not saying that you're doing this JM. You've stated your perception, and that very well could have been the perception that the creator of the video intended. It's possible.

What gets me all sorts of angry possum pissed off is that race can so easily become a focus and it has in my life.

I mentioned not too long ago that my boss pretty much called me a racist. What's funny about that is that I decided to let slip that the man who raised me from toddler to adult was a black man 30 years older than my mother into the ears of people that I knew would get the information back to him. Practically overnight I went from "racist" to "diversity advocate" and the only thing that I did differently was let that little bit of my personal life into the public. I still treat the same people the same way I did before, but magically their view of me has changed.

I'm not going to get into a long huge debate about this. It's just something that has been bothering me the past year or so as my eyes have been opened to how much the real world really focuses on race while advocating inclution and equality.

 

[Keroin]

Some links I've been reading...

http://www.child-soldiers.org/home

This one has a good video with General Romeo Dallaire...

http://childsoldiersinitiative.org/videos.php

More Canadian content on the film and child soldier issue...

http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/world/kony-2012.html

 

[JMohegan]

I just had to quote that.

Interesting technique.

Yeah, that was obnoxious. But you know what? I share his frustration and anger. So fucking sick of ill-informed people, pushing for someone else's blood & treasure to be spent in trans-planet fools' errands.

I know that you, Keroin, aren't dumber than dog shit. But I have to say, I do find your posts on this thread baffling - precisely because I don't think of you as stupid.

Anyone can make a mistake and get sucked in to a slick presentation. But your response to very serious points made, about lies in the video and starkly different realities on the ground, is to dig your heels in. And that's what's got me puzzled.

 

[Keroin]

Yeah, that was obnoxious. But you know what? I share his frustration and anger. So fucking sick of ill-informed people, pushing for someone else's blood & treasure to be spent in trans-planet fools' errands.

I know that you, Keroin, aren't dumber than dog shit. But I have to say, I do find your posts on this thread baffling - precisely because I don't think of you as stupid.

Anyone can make a mistake and get sucked in to a slick presentation. But your response to very serious points made, about lies in the video and starkly different realities on the ground, is to dig your heels in. And that's what's got me puzzled.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still weighing the evidence, reading, researching, etc. I just understand that human nature is to swing wildly one way, then wildly the other. And it's easier not to care and not to get involved and ridicule those who do, than to actually...get involved.

As someone who champions a couple of lost-but-important causes, I also know the frustration of making people listen and, more importantly, making them care.

If an organization put out a video similar to the Kony video but advocating for the world's oceans and marine life? If 50 million people suddenly started talking about this vital issue, even if 49.5 million never did more than forward said imaginary video? Oh man...how happy I would be! Just talk about it. Just pay attention. Just care. You can't accomplish anything (or very little) until people care.

There's no lack of sound information about the state of, and threats to, our world's oceans but my experience has been that very few people know even the basic facts. In fact, most people aren't even aware there is a problem. So, there's the irony: you present facts and logic...and no one listens.

I've emailed my friend I wrote about earlier, who spent several years in Africa working for an NGO. (Still works for the same NGO but in a different country now). I asked for her honest opinion on the video and the organization. I am also dead curious to hear what Dallaire thinks about it. I remember reading about his frustrations in Rwanda when he was desperately trying to get someone, anyone to come help there during the genocide. Imagine if he could have used social media to pressure world powers into helping end that atrocity?

ETA: When Dallaire was trying to get help for Rwanda, he was accused of over-exaggerations, lies, etc. The US refused to even refer to the situation as genocide, despite Dallaire's pleas and evidence to the contrary.

The issue of child soldiers is one I was only peripherally aware of until watching the Kony video. And, be assured, I was aware of the emotional manipulation going on in that film every second of the way. But they succeeded in getting my attention. So, good for them.

And...

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/

Shameless plug.

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Thank you for this, it helps.

I signed up and now sort of understand what they're doing. Sort of. But I get the point even less! For example...

I decided to follow Ezra Klein. This was clearly a bad decision, because he constantly re-tweets crap from a bunch of people I've never heard of. So if I want to keep up with Klein, why wouldn't I just stick to clicking the bookmark for Klein's blog instead?

You're welcome. If all Klein does is retweet without commentary, you'd have to decide whether his recommendations are worth the time and space. Sounds like it's not. Most people don't do solely retweets, so yeah, you're right, unfollow him. It is interesting how people use Twitter in different ways. It's trial and error. It's the right idea, though, to find people you like from other media, and see how their tweets are.

Totally agree with you -- it's so good. And high five, we brought JM to Twitter!

p.s. are you on Pinterest? I am addicted to Pinterest, and it's the death of me.

Mister Man: I don't get Pinterest.
Me: It's like fashion magazines, plus food porn, plus DIY craft shit all in one place.
Mister Man: Oh okay, so everything I hate.

Bwah ha ha!

I like Pinterest. It's cool. But I don't have TIME for Pinterest! I really don't. When I get a Pin It button in my eyeballs, I'll do it more...

Not everyone you like will put out good Twitter content. It does take a while to find the ones who give good tweet.

True!

Don't get me wrong, I'm still weighing the evidence, reading, researching, etc. I just understand that human nature is to swing wildly one way, then wildly the other. And it's easier not to care and not to get involved and ridicule those who do, than to actually...get involved.

As someone who champions a couple of lost-but-important causes, I also know the frustration of making people listen and, more importantly, making them care.

If an organization put out a video similar to the Kony video but advocating for the world's oceans and marine life? If 50 million people suddenly started talking about this vital issue, even if 49.5 million never did more than forward said imaginary video? Oh man...how happy I would be! Just talk about it. Just pay attention. Just care. You can't accomplish anything (or very little) until people care.

There's no lack of sound information about the state of, and threats to, our world's oceans but my experience has been that very few people know even the basic facts. In fact, most people aren't even aware there is a problem. So, there's the irony: you present facts and logic...and no one listens.

I've emailed my friend I wrote about earlier, who spent several years in Africa working for an NGO. (Still works for the same NGO but in a different country now). I asked for her honest opinion on the video and the organization. I am also dead curious to hear what Dallaire thinks about it. I remember reading about his frustrations in Rwanda when he was desperately trying to get someone, anyone to come help there during the genocide. Imagine if he could have used social media to pressure world powers into helping end that atrocity?

This is the way I feel. It's a net win, and even if things aren't as simple as they appear (and they almost never are) the resulting discussion can be what's important.

 

[JMohegan]

Keroin, I was raised to believe that getting involved is a moral imperative. Community service - actual, tangible effort to make things better & prevent bad things from happening - is the hallmark of an honorable existence.

I know exactly what you mean about the effort it takes to get people to care, much less pay attention.

But I feel like you're not listening to me here.

We were lied to in '02 and '03. Slick messaging raised awareness of Saddam Hussein as a Very Bad Man about whom we desperately needed to Do Something. He was really, really Famous, and most Americans really, really Cared about stopping him.

Rational people urged restraint, and contradictory evidence was presented. But most Americans were too swept up in the emotional rush to stop the Famous Bad Guy. Even most members of Congress couldn't be bothered to read the top secret evidence that shot holes in the Bush Administration's story, or to spend time pondering the consequences of direct action.

The same thing is happening again.

There are outright lies in that video, and the response when those lies are exposed seems to be: the ends justify the means, now he's Famous, people Care, let's Do Something.

 

[Keroin]

Keroin, I was raised to believe that getting involved is a moral imperative. Community service - actual, tangible effort to make things better & prevent bad things from happening - is the hallmark of an honorable existence.

I know exactly what you mean about the effort it takes to get people to care, much less pay attention.

But I feel like you're not listening to me here.

We were lied to in '02 and '03. Slick messaging raised awareness of Saddam Hussein as a Very Bad Man about whom we desperately needed to Do Something. He was really, really Famous, and most Americans really, really Cared about stopping him.

Rational people urged restraint, and contradictory evidence was presented. But most Americans were too swept up in the emotional rush to stop the Famous Bad Guy. Even most members of Congress couldn't be bothered to read the top secret evidence that shot holes in the Bush Administration's story, or to spend time pondering the consequences of direct action.

The same thing is happening again.

There are outright lies in that video, and the response when those lies are exposed seems to be: the ends justify the means, now he's Famous, people Care, let's Do Something.

OK, unless I've completely misinterpreted something, what I understand is that IC is not seeking anything more than a continuation of what is already happening - namely the 100 US military advisors working with the Ugandan military to hunt down Joseph Kony, to make him stand trial for his crimes against humanity.

The concern, from my POV, is that without public support, what assistance there is could be withdrawn.

Now, if the stated goal was for an increased US military presence or other military actions, I would not be supportive. But garnering public support in order to keep some kind of assistance in place? Yes, I am OK with that.

Also, which lies specifically are you referring to? When I watched the video, I understood the timelines, I understood that the mass abductions they referred to were in the past (recent past, but past), and I understood that the LRA had moved on to other neighbouring countries. As for IC's finances, I looked at the breakdown. The organization has stated that it has three different facets, only one of which is on-the-ground aid, and that it divides its resources accordingly.

What have I missed?

Also, I wasn't suggesting that you do not get involved or care about important issues. I suspect quite the opposite to be true.

 

[JMohegan]

OK, unless I've completely misinterpreted something, what I understand is that IC is not seeking anything more than a continuation of what is already happening - namely the 100 US military advisors working with the Ugandan military to hunt down Joseph Kony, to make him stand trial for his crimes against humanity.

The concern, from my POV, is that without public support, what assistance there is could be withdrawn.

Now, if the stated goal was for an increased US military presence or other military actions, I would not be supportive. But garnering public support in order to keep some kind of assistance in place? Yes, I am OK with that.

Also, which lies specifically are you referring to? When I watched the video, I understood the timelines, I understood that the mass abductions they referred to were in the past (recent past, but past), and I understood that the LRA had moved on to other neighbouring countries. As for IC's finances, I looked at the breakdown. The organization has stated that it has three different facets, only one of which is on-the-ground aid, and that it divides its resources accordingly.

What have I missed?

Also, I wasn't suggesting that you do not get involved or care about important issues. I suspect quite the opposite to be true.

I know you weren't suggesting that; I was just trying to establish common ground. I get what you and others are saying about awareness and caring, I really do.

As for the lies...

The whole premise of the film is a lie! The premise being - the US government refused to do anything about Kony until the filmmaker used social media to press for action.

That's just plain not true. But that obfuscation is not merely self-serving, i.e., feeding the "let's save the world with IC & Facebook" narrative. Even worse, the actual truth that the filmmaker is hiding would have highlighted the very real danger associated with intervention. [See the NYT article, to which I've already linked, about the slaughter in the wake of the Bush administration's '08 anti-Kony venture.]

It's also not true that funding or support for the Obama administration's initiative is even threatened.

It's also not true that the child soldiers are "invisible" to world governments & aid organizations at large; nor is it true that Uganda is devoid of intelligent and dedicated people and organizations currently working to help alleviate their own country's problems.

And the film's whitewashing of the Museveni government is apparently so thorough as to be tantamount to deception, not to mention disgusting.

 

[mikesaysno]

The Definitive ‘Kony 2012′ Drinking Game
Posted on March 7, 2012 by Amanda and Kate

Yesterday a momentous new work of filmmaking was released to the public. We’re speaking, of course, of Invisible Children’s Kony 2012.

The internets are busily debating the merits of the video and accompanying advocacy campaign, but one important question remains unanswered: What should I drink while I watch it?

Tragically, we watched the thing stone-cold-sober, but to spare you a similar fate, we’ve assembled the following drinking game.

To play, you will need: eight (8) pickleback shots; one (1) Brandy Alexander; one (1) bowl Feuerzangenbowle; one (1) six-pack of Tusker Lager; one (1) jar green Play-Doh; one (1) bottle of Zima; one dozen (12) chocolate chip cookies; one (1) My Little PonyTM cocktail made of equal parts Malibu rum and Sunkist orange soda (generally used for statutorily raping 14 year olds); three (3) bottles of wine, one (1) brick wall.

Footage that makes you concerned that you are watching the wrong video because all you see is a bunch of white people doing hipster shit like undergoing vimeo’d Caesareans and making home movies of their children that involve actual special effects - slam a shot of pickleback, brace yourself for what comes next.

Nonspecific use of “Africa” or “African” instead of precise location or actual nationality – pound a Tusker.

Interviews with vulnerable Ugandan children about past trauma that make you think “Good lord, no IRB would ever allow any of this” – snootily sip a Brandy Alexander, try to have an opinion about homonationalism while you do so.

Recognition that Ugandans, other Africans have agency, do not need white college students to save them through the innovative use of bracelets – eat one gooey, delicious chocolate chip cookie (Psych! You never get to eat a cookie!)

Appearance of Adolf Hitler – down some Feuerzangenbowle, consider growing a moustache.

Statement that all that’s needed to solve the problem of the LRA is for enough Americans to “know” and “care” about Kony – slam head against brick wall, consider just giving up entirely.

Assumption that girls are only good for sex slave-ing, play no other role in the violence – drink a My Little PonyTM, feel kind of icky about it.

Exasperated Prendergast hair flip – drink one Zima, consider washing your own headsuit.

Assertion that “no one” cared about Joseph Kony for decades until white college students took up the cause – drink half a bottle of wine, wonder why all those Ugandans he was attacking and kidnapping during that period were unaware of him.

Statement that Africans are “invisible” if they aren’t a cause célèbre among middle-class white people – finish bottle of wine, cry.

Scene in which preschooler quickly understands entire Invisible Children policy platform, which is presented as a good thing – eat enough Play-Doh to make you feel kind of queasy.

Three-point action platform consisting of (1) signing a “pledge,” (2) sending money for an “action kit” that contains some bracelets, stickers and posters, and (3) sending more money so that IC will have that money – imagine what the results could have been if these genuinely brilliant marketers turned their attentions to a cause that is actually within the U.S. government’s direct control, like the Dream Act, cry so hard that you can do a shot of your own tears.

 

[neci]

i want to know more about the research they have done. i want to know who they are collaborating with in Uganda. are they working within a network of existing NGOs? which ones? i found the video to be off putting. it sits wrong with me. i am offended that Kony day is on 4/20. i find it in very poor taste.

that said, he is an evil man. i won't be sending money, but i plan on following it. once you give someone a voice, there is no telling what they will do with it. people should take the time to become educated.

 

[Keroin]

I know you weren't suggesting that; I was just trying to establish common ground. I get what you and others are saying about awareness and caring, I really do.

As for the lies...

The whole premise of the film is a lie! The premise being - the US government refused to do anything about Kony until the filmmaker used social media to press for action.

OK, so here's some facts I have been searching for and can't find.
1. When did the US first send assistance to Uganda to aid efforts to stop the LRA?
2. What motivated this action?

That's just plain not true. But that obfuscation is not merely self-serving, i.e., feeding the "let's save the world with IC & Facebook" narrative. Even worse, the actual truth that the filmmaker is hiding would have highlighted the very real danger associated with intervention. [See the NYT article, to which I've already linked, about the slaughter in the wake of the Bush administration's '08 anti-Kony venture.]

Yes, the threat of reprisals is a genuine concern. Do you think, however, that it is possible to both seek out the LRA and protect the people from attacks? Or is the answer simply to leave it alone and do nothing?

Would it be beyond reason that any future attempts to deal with the LRA would take the failed 2008 effort into consideration?

Getting back to Rwanda, one of the big reasons the US stated it refused to get involved there was because of the massive "black hawk down" failure in Somalia.

It's also not true that funding or support for the Obama administration's initiative is even threatened.

In my walk through the Internet post-video, I came across a lot of old news that criticized Obama's initiative. Now, does that threaten it? I don't know.

So, point well taken.

It's also not true that the child soldiers are "invisible" to world governments & aid organizations at large; nor is it true that Uganda is devoid of intelligent and dedicated people and organizations currently working to help alleviate their own country's problems.

I disagree, partially, with the first. To those who educate themselves on world affairs, perhaps these children were not invisible. To the world at large I think they were. I don't consider myself ill-informed on world events, but I was not aware of the scope of the (global) problem until recently. To the second, I didn't take away from the film the idea that Uganda is devoid of intelligent and dedicated people. Not at all.

But then, I took the film for what it was - a tug on the heart strings to draw attention to an issue.

And the film's whitewashing of the Museveni government is apparently so thorough as to be tantamount to deception, not to mention disgusting.

I don't recollect any mention - positive or negative or neutral - about Museveni in the film. Agreed, he's a bad dude. Unfortunately, I assume that if you want to work in the country in any kind of a military capacity, you will probably have to deal with him until he is gone.

Interestingly, I came across "Invisible Children", a full length documentary by the same film maker. This one was made in 2006, at the height of the conflict. It tells a much more nuanced story...or lets the Ugandans tell their story, more accurately. (The first 12 minutes are annoying but the film actually gets quite good after that). Having watched that, I can more easily understand how this current video came to be. I think it would have been impossible to witness that situation first hand and not come home determined to "stop at nothing" to change it.

Did they go too far? Your answer, and the answer of many others is "yes". I remain undecided. Having been alerted to this issue, I've been educating myself. There are lots of organizations out there, lots of ways to help. I'll find the way that makes the most sense to me.

And now, I must return to my regularly scheduled life!

ETA: One more tidbit. I can only assume that those who criticize IC or the US government for dealing with Museveni own nothing made in China and take a firm, vocal stand against trade with that country, as well. Because...you want to talk human rights violations?

 

[JMohegan]

The Definitive ‘Kony 2012′ Drinking Game
Posted on March 7, 2012 by Amanda and Kate

As dark humor goes, that was fucking hilarious.

imagine what the results could have been if these genuinely brilliant marketers turned their attentions to a cause that is actually within the U.S. government’s direct control, like the Dream Act, cry so hard that you can do a shot of your own tears.

And that's a bullseye, right there.

 

[mikesaysno]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMs0KNu9Txg