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Discussion: Stop supporting KONY 2012
Member Since: 11/12/2011
Posts: 5,343
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Stop supporting KONY 2012
YES. I said it. STOP supporting Invisible Children.
They're an INCREDIBLY shady organization with a very long, controversial history. Educate yourselves before you blindly support something. Ignorance and naivety will NOT help anybody. If you are genuinely concerned then please donate to charities who will ACTUALLY help and not just use your money to fund more documentaries. IC has been criticized multiple times and is FULL of radical extremists. Changing your profile picture to a pretty red picture isn't going to stop Kony. And no, neither is buying that "special ultra deluxe package!" Think of where your money is going.
I implore you, PLEASE read this and pass it along.
Quote:
I do not doubt for a second that those involved in KONY 2012 have great intentions, nor do I doubt for a second that Joseph Kony is a very evil man. But despite this, I’m strongly opposed to the KONY 2012 campaign.
KONY 2012 is the product of a group called Invisible Children, a controversial activist group and not-for-profit. They’ve released 11 films, most with an accompanying bracelet colour (KONY 2012 is fittingly red), all of which focus on Joseph Kony. When we buy merch from them, when we link to their video, when we put up posters linking to their website, we support the organization. I don’t think that’s a good thing, and I’m not alone.
Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal for an issue which arguably needs action and aid, not awareness, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they lack an external audit committee. But it goes way deeper than that.
The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s a photo of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.
Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission. These books each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending.
Still, the bulk of Invisible Children’s spending isn’t on supporting African militias, but on awareness and filmmaking. Which can be great, except that Foreign Affairs has claimed that Invisible Children (among others) “manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony — a brutal man, to be sure — as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil.” He’s certainly evil, but exaggeration and manipulation to capture the public eye is unproductive, unprofessional and dishonest.
As Chris Blattman, a political scientist at Yale, writes on the topic of IC’s programming, “There’s also something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa. […] It hints uncomfortably of the White Man’s Burden. Worse, sometimes it does more than hint. The savior attitude is pervasive in advocacy, and it inevitably shapes programming. Usually misconceived programming.”
Still, Kony’s a bad guy, and he’s been around a while. Which is why the US has been involved in stopping him for years. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent multiple missions to capture or kill Kony over the years. And they’ve failed time and time again, each provoking a ferocious response and increased retaliative slaughter. The issue with taking out a man who uses a child army is that his bodyguards are children. Any effort to capture or kill him will almost certainly result in many children’s deaths, an impact that needs to be minimized as much as possible. Each attempt brings more retaliation. And yet Invisible Children supports military intervention. Kony has been involved in peace talks in the past, which have fallen through. But Invisible Children is now focusing on military intervention.
Military intervention may or may not be the right idea, but people supporting KONY 2012 probably don’t realize they’re supporting the Ugandan military who are themselves raping and looting away. If people know this and still support Invisible Children because they feel it’s the best solution based on their knowledge and research, I have no issue with that. But I don’t think most people are in that position, and that’s a problem.
Is awareness good? Yes. But these problems are highly complex, not one-dimensional and, frankly, aren’t of the nature that can be solved by postering, film-making and changing your Facebook profile picture, as hard as that is to swallow. Giving your money and public support to Invisible Children so they can spend it on supporting ill-advised violent intervention and movie #12 isn’t helping. Do I have a better answer? No, I don’t, but that doesn’t mean that you should support KONY 2012 just because it’s something. Something isn’t always better than nothing. Sometimes it’s worse.
If you want to write to your Member of Parliament or your Senator or the President or the Prime Minister, by all means, go ahead. If you want to post about Joseph Kony’s crimes on Facebook, go ahead. But let’s keep it about Joseph Kony, not KONY 2012.
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READ: http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/po...we-got-trouble
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Member Since: 5/6/2010
Posts: 35,158
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Tumblr?
So.. bascially, we should care about. HELPING them but. Not about the Kony movement?... Well how else are we gonna stop them when most people are only aware of this because of this movement? I guess I'll be spreading this link around.
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Member Since: 11/12/2011
Posts: 5,343
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Quote:
Originally posted by Shaliydah88
Tumblr?
*exits thread*
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You are aware the guy lists his sources, right?
This is what I mean by Ignorance. He links EVERYTHING. The author (whom is an experienced sociology professor) didn't make this stuff up. IC doesn't have a pretty past.
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ATRL Administrator
Member Since: 6/29/2002
Posts: 77,601
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This KONY 2012 viral campaign is quite disturbing indeed.
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Member Since: 5/6/2010
Posts: 35,158
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Quote:
Originally posted by mariska
You are aware the guy lists his sources, right?
This is what I mean by Ignorance. He links EVERYTHING. The author (whom is an experienced sociology professor) didn't make this stuff up. IC doesn't have a pretty past.
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Oh. All I read was what you posted.
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Member Since: 11/12/2011
Posts: 5,343
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Quote:
Originally posted by Shaliydah88
Tumblr?
So.. bascially, we should care about. HELPING them but. Not about the Kony movement?... Well how else are we gonna stop them?
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Donate to real charities who invest their time and YOUR money in actually helping people. Making a documentary that incites people to press reblog isn't going to change anything. You may have not heard of Kony until recently, but the U.S Government has been trying time and time again to dethrone him. Kony has been in multiple peacetalks and still IC is a proponent of military intervention.
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Banned
Member Since: 1/4/2011
Posts: 4,127
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You're really naive to think that when you donate money to a charity it goes DIRECTLY to people in need. When you donate to a charity part of it is to help sustain the charity itself.
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ATRL Moderator
Member Since: 8/4/2009
Posts: 21,911
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Quote:
Originally posted by Will_
You're really naive to think that when you donate money to a charity it goes DIRECTLY to people in need. When you donate to a charity part of it is to help sustain the charity itself.
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THIS
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Member Since: 11/12/2011
Posts: 5,343
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Quote:
Originally posted by Will_
You're really naive to think that when you donate money to a charity it goes DIRECTLY to people in need. When you donate to a charity part of it is to help sustain the charity itself.
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I'm aware. Nowhere did I say that this was false.
30% is an incredibly low number for an average charity. A very, very, VERY low number. The majority of the money you donate goes straight to documentaries which does nothing but fuel the same perpetual cycle. IC is going to get tons and tons of money off this documentary and after a few years they'll simply make another one. You could be donating to a charity that does MORE then just make documentaries.
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Member Since: 5/6/2010
Posts: 35,158
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Quote:
Originally posted by mariska
Donate to real charities who invest their time and YOUR money in actually helping people. Making a documentary that incites people to press reblog isn't going to change anything. You may have not heard of Kony until recently, but the U.S Government has been trying time and time again to dethrone him.
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Okay.... lemme give that Tumblr a full read, because for this to have been brought to light SO recently for all of us and thenexposed like this is just......
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Member Since: 6/6/2011
Posts: 29,899
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Quote:
Originally posted by Will_
You're really naive to think that when you donate money to a charity it goes DIRECTLY to people in need. When you donate to a charity part of it is to help sustain the charity itself.
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This 
I have no regret of my 50$ donation
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Banned
Member Since: 9/22/2011
Posts: 5,131
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Quote:
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Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production.
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This is incredibly misleading. Travel, transport, and film production all go toward raising awareness of the LRA, which is, you know, their goal. It's not like they don't travel from the west coast of the USA to Africa regularly. Then there's funds which sustain the charity, of course.
IC is flawed, but not as atrocious people are making it out to be. The issue is complex, even the good guys have dubious motivations, but you don't tear down a building because you found a hole in the wall.
The "but intervention will kill children!" point is also moot. Kids will be raped and killed with or without intervention, but guess which path leads to Kony's downfall?
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Member Since: 6/16/2011
Posts: 2,785
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It's better to do something rather than nothing.
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Member Since: 5/22/2011
Posts: 21,227
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I have no regrets donating to them.
As well I'll be enjoying my Kony Kit and help raising awarness in my hometown about this guy.
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Member Since: 11/12/2011
Posts: 5,343
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Quote:
Originally posted by WoozyFloozy
This is incredibly misleading. Travel, transport, and film production all go toward raising awareness of the LRA, which is, you know, their goal. It's not like they don't travel from the west coast of the USA to Africa regularly. Then there's funds which sustain the charity, of course.
IC isn't as atrocious people are making it out to be. The issue is complex, even the good guys have dubious motivations, but you don't tear down a building because you found a hole in the wall.
The "but intervention will kill children!" point is also moot, also. Kids will be raped and killed with or without intervention, but guess which path leads to Kony's downfall?
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Raising awareness to what extent? All it's doing is getting people to know who Joseph Kony is. Knowing who Joseph Kony is 'aint gonna stop him, guys. And even if you stop him it's not like the issue will magically go away. Killing Bin Laden didn't stop terrorism and Killing Kony isn't going to stop this, either. His downfall isn't going to put an end to child soldiers and sex slaves.
All I'm saying is that there are OTHER charities that are much less dubious and could do a much better job at directly helping people.
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Member Since: 8/16/2011
Posts: 19,718
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Trust me. In this situation, something is better than nothing. 
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Member Since: 2/11/2008
Posts: 10,964
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I can only think that the campaign proves how easy is nowadays to make something really big, but at the same time its message remains "unclear" and misleading, with being the word "famous" some how a "positive" adjective, and using it to stop a bad guy. 
I thought it was something to support a random politician.
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Member Since: 11/12/2011
Posts: 5,343
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Quote:
Originally posted by VAN de
Trust me. In this situation. Something is better than nothing. |
But it's not like without this charity you can't do anything. There are so many other better options.
This "movement" is no longer STOP JOSEPH KONY. It's KONY 2012!!!!!!!!!! There are people on Facebook who have changed their profile pictures and don't even know who Joseph Kony is. You are all feeding into this. I applaud their efforts to raise awareness so people can follow the issue, but still, if you wanna donate DON'T donate to IC. Unless of course you want a Ugandan army accused of rape to pillage an entire village of people which would inevitably lead to the slaughter of innocent children. And then assume we kill Kony. Now what? Is the issue going to magically go away?
This isn't about killing Kony and getting revenge. This is about helping the victims.
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Member Since: 3/22/2011
Posts: 26,525
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IC does seem a bit shady. Like, when I watched the video I just felt like there was something they are not telling us.
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Member Since: 11/12/2011
Posts: 5,343
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And for godsake people Foreign Affairs and The Better Business Bureau has criticized them. Stop trying to defend them.
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