
Is the #kony2012 campaign a scam, or just misleading?  - rabbidroid
http://dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2012-03-07-kony-2012-lord-help-us-because-this-campaign-wont-help-anyone
======
rowanseymour
It takes a complex issue and reduces it to a product that people can purchase.
It's the same thing that we saw with Save Darfur, 1Million t-shirts etc.
Africa's problems become the "white man's burden" and he's told that if he
will just buy something then that proves that he cares.

Unfortunately it not always better to something than to do nothing. I really
hope there will be some scrutiny of how Invisible Children spend this money.
The US already has troops supporting the Ugandan military. Buying more guns
for the Ugandan military won't solve the issue.

Another problem is that the constant portrayal of Africa as the dark continent
helps keep Africa poor. Who wants to invest in Uganda when videos like this
portray it as a violent basket case? How many tourists are going to want to
come to Uganda?

Here's some interesting thoughts from Ugandan's themselves:
<http://allafrica.com/stories/201203090364.html>

------
oconnor0
One of my big concerns about the US military getting involved in "removing"
some crazed warlord from power is that our track record of doing that around
the world indicates we do a piss-poor job of finding better replacements.

~~~
run4yourlives
Vacuums. Vacuums aren't filled by the populace, they are filled by the
strongest of potential successors.

Often, one that the original manic was keeping at bay.

~~~
Zakharov
That actually leads to an interesting question. What happens if you just keep
killing the bad guys? If you kill a dictator, then his evil successor, then
his evil successor, does the next potential evil successor realize it's a bad
idea and leave a decent guy in charge? Or do you just end up with chaos?
Obviously assisination isn't this easy - but if it were?

~~~
GFKjunior
I think history has proven that there will always be a underling ready to take
his chance at the top. We need to look no further than at something like the
drug war in Mexico or even to the US to a smaller extent. A young, brutal
cartel member rises to the top with his crew and lasts as leader for a few
months or years until he is murdered by the next young, smart, hungry up and
comer. It is a never ending cycle, even in Mexico where people are getting
murdered everyday someone always thinks they can make it big and stay there.

But I imagine it has a lot to do with it being only alternative for these
people. Just imagine you are born in an extremely poor area with no hopes of
accomplishing anything. Better to take you chances as a rebel leader/cartel
member because as short lived as it is, it's better than living and dying
hungry in your small rural village.

------
zieski
While I don't have access to the financials of Invisible Children, I take
issue with the seemingly implied idea that all charitable organizations should
be run by paupers whose only reward is a warm fuzzy feeling. If we limit
charitable actors to people who don't desire a certain level of compensation,
we very severely limit the number of qualified charitable actors.

If giving to a charity was viewed as purchasing a product, in this case effort
toward stopping a vicious warlord, then is ~30% 'materials' cost, 70%
staffing/travel/advertising/office space an absurd ratio?

~~~
andrewfelix
I give 1% of my income to Save the Children. Their financials are much better
than Invisible Children's:
[http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.622950...](http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6229505/)

EDIT: Invisible Children's financials:
[http://www.invisiblechildren.com/images/breakdownofexpenses....](http://www.invisiblechildren.com/images/breakdownofexpenses.jpg)

------
nazgulnarsil
It seems every generation must fail to realize that real life does not consist
of 'bad guys you can kill and then the problems go away' all over again.

------
nikcub
A few years ago I was reading a story about the war in the Congo. I felt
really guilty for not knowing much about what was going on. What I knew about
it I picked up through reading The Economist or the NYT, but I didn't really
have a good overall understanding of the war and the history of that part of
the continent (despite having spent time living in Africa, too)

So I went through Amazon and picked up some books about the history of Africa,
the history of the Congo, history of Aid in Africa, and read up about it.

My impression has completely changed. Almost all of the wars and trouble in
the region are a result of the current national borders having been imposed on
the continent by colonialists who divided up the spoils, rather than being
based on local tribal affiliations.

Uganda does not have a single ethnic group that comprises more than 10% of the
overall population. This leads to instability, turmoil and multiple coupe's
(Kony belongs to a tribal group that a former president belonged to. His army
was founded initially in reaction to persecution following the coupe). During
the 90s there were over 40 conflicts at any one time in Africa - some of them
the deadliest seen since WW2 (5.4M in Congo 2 - which the Ugandan military
started with its invasion).

Most governments resort to corruption and violence to retain positions of
power. That includes exploiting minerals and mining on the black market,
nationalizing assets, etc. All to get and retain power. There are very few
functioning peaceful free market democracies.

There is also a lot to be said about western aid methods (see Dead Aid[1]).
Our food programs have been known to destroy local economies. What the WTO
would consider dumping (and a trade violation) in the west we call 'aid' in
Africa.

Before having an opinion on the Kony campaign, you should know these things:

1\. Kony was indicted by the International Criminal Court 7 years ago.

2\. He left Uganda around that time. Most of the internal refugees in Uganda
have settled back home. Uganda has been relatively peaceful since.

3\. The images of children hiding from militias in camps _was_ big news in the
west when it happen - back in 2003. There was even a celebrity campaign and
congressional lobbying at the time to do something about it. This isn't a 2012
issue.

4\. The last US trained mission in 2006 to capture Kony resulted in a months
long terror campaign by the LRA that killed hundreds[2]

5\. Most local groups, including clergy, oppose a military solution since the
remote villages in the region are not adequately protected from retribution
[3]

6\. the LRA has largely been an ineffective fighting force in the past 7
years, and have only attacked villages while retreating from military
campaigns

7\. Almost all the local aid groups including doctors without borders oppose a
military solution

Knowing this and then watching the Kony campaign video you find that there is
a lot that isn't being mentioned, some if it misleading. It has intentionally
simplified the situation and problem down to a good guys vs bad guys paradigm
- where there is only a single bad guy responsible for all ills (even his
soldiers have been kidnapped, it is Kony alone who is evil). Kony is a symptom
of a deeper seeded problem and not the solution. This campaign video spends a
lot more time talking about Facebook and social media and showing people in
the west a lot more than it talks and discusses the problems in the region.
Not a single mention of the Congo war (worst in death toll since WW2), nor of
the situation in Uganda, and with facts that were true 8 years ago but not
today.

The danger here is misleading people into believing that the problems of the
region are the responsibility of a single person, and the solution is to
capture that one person. The proposed solution is perhaps the worst part - to
re-arm and train a military that was partly responsible for the worst war
since WW2 and to send more troops into Congo and other nations.

I think the desired solution is the exact opposite - don't make Kony famous,
don't give him a means to arm more followers, keep him in the middle of the
jungle where he isn't a threat to anybody and ignore him to the point where
his message and means are completely ineffective. This is what has been
happening since the last US raid and today.

I think this is a good opportunity to get a real message out about Africa. Be
it through a film that covers the modern history of the region or a social
campaign to back more pragmatic NGO's that don't take sides in conflicts.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Aid-Working-Better-
Africa/dp/1553...](http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Aid-Working-Better-
Africa/dp/1553655427/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331359746&sr=8-1)

[2]
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/world/africa/07congo.html?...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/world/africa/07congo.html?_r=1)

[3] <http://allafrica.com/stories/201111130058.html>

~~~
indubitably
Thanks for this. Could you share the rest of your reading list?

~~~
dougk7
Friends of the Congo: <http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/films-a-videos.html>
has some great resources about this.

Another classic is Heart of Darkness (although a fiction, it tells much about
colonialism)

King Leopold's Ghost is also a great read: [http://www.amazon.com/King-
Leopolds-Ghost-Heroism-Colonial/d...](http://www.amazon.com/King-Leopolds-
Ghost-Heroism-Colonial/dp/0618001905)

~~~
rowanseymour
I would not recommend Heart of Darkness to a beginner on the Congo. Yes it
deals with the brutality of Belgian colonialism... but it's dated and has it's
own racist portrayal of Africa as the dark continent with primitive peoples.

I would tho second King Leopold's Ghost as a brilliant overview of colonialism
in the Congo.

------
DanBC
The UN has a useful news service. People wanting to read about Kony, LRA, wars
in Africa, etc could get useful information from them.

(<http://www.irinnews.org/>)

([http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94941/SECURITY-Questions-
over...](http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94941/SECURITY-Questions-over-
progress-against-the-LRA))

([http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94794/Analysis-The-LRA-not-
ye...](http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94794/Analysis-The-LRA-not-yet-a-spent-
force))

([http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94657/GLOBAL-Fighting-for-
the...](http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94657/GLOBAL-Fighting-for-the-rights-
of-child-soldiers))

etc etc.

------
majmun
This is like tactics and propaganda to get you in the army and which tells you
you MUST FIGHT some other bad guy you only know from this movie. But
essentially there are army A fighting army B over power to govern what goes on
in that part of the world. Picking either one is legit choice. (or none if you
don't want align yourself ).

I wonder what would propaganda movie be like if LRA pays same amount of
resources to made it.

What if some rich guys pay this kind of propaganda movie against you one day.
what would you do?

~~~
Zakharov
You're going too far to the opposite extreme. The LRA isn't a "legitimate
choice". Kony 2012 doesn't exist in isolation, there is a large amount of
independent evidence about the LRA's crimes.

~~~
majmun
Im sure there is large amount of evidence of crime for other army too. War is
like that there are crimes in it. each side is committing crime according to
law of other side. (because guess what: they made the law it is what people
with power do.)

~~~
majmun
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE4Z_iUTuw8&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE4Z_iUTuw8&feature=related)

------
AznHisoka
Even criminals have an interesting backstory, and if you look deeper into it,
you might feel some empathy and understanding for why certain people act a
certain way. There rarely are people who just kill because they are sinister
and purely evil.

~~~
freehunter
People who turned evil over time are still evil.

------
X4
Please upvote, people should know this.
<http://communicationtheory.org/lasswells-model/>

It explains how mass manipulation works and how you notice it.

------
joejohnson
Yes, raising awareness is easy compared to finding a solution. But African
politics has failed to solve a pretty awful issue for 25 years. Placing this
issue in the global spotlight might force something to happen before another
generation of villages is raped or abducted into slavery.

~~~
hdevalence2
FTA:

> Here’s the thing. The LRA is an incredibly complex issue. By simplifying
> down to a case of “Goodies versus Baddies” the Invisible Children campaign
> risks undermining the very real progress that is being made against the LRA.
> Also released on Tuesday, in a report completely ignored by social media, a
> spokesman for the UN High Commission for Refugees said that a recent spate
> of LRA attacks were “the last gasp of a dying organisation that's still
> trying to make a statement,” adding that there were only about 200 LRA
> fighters left. Progress is being made. There’s even a chance that Kony will
> be caught or killed by the end of 2012 – but this will have nothing to do
> with a YouTube video, however slick it is.

I don't think that the statement "African politics has failed to solve a
pretty awful issue for 25 years" is really accurate or fair. And that's one of
the problems with this video -- it propagates this idea that Africans need
Western powers to solve their problems for them.

And I guess I'd ask this: How does the attention of people in North America
and Europe "force something to happen"? Force what to happen? Force Western
military intervention? Give Ugandans more motivation to take out the LRA?

And, of course "Africa" isn't really the right word, anyways. It's an entire
continent, after all, and the people in Uganda or South Sudan aren't the same
as the people in, say, South Africa, or Botswana, or Somalia, etc., nor are
the political/economic/social contexts necessarily the same.

------
rrrazdan
Pretty misleading title, if you ask me.

------
voxx
The movement is legit, Kony is a crazy mofo, but Invisible Children is a huge
money scam. They only donate a fraction of their profits to the charities they
claim to support.

------
drivebyacct2
Please, someone tell me, is the "Lord help us" tongue-in-cheek irony? I hope
so, heh.

------
keeptrying
I think (and hope) this is the first step in creating real connections between
people in disparate regions.

In building a movement, the first thing that is necessary is a good story. And
KONY2012 will provide the story if he is caught anytime this year or the next.

I'm not saying that KONY2012 needs to be the reason he is caught - there just
needs to be a perception that it was the reason.

There are a lot of lonely people in the US with a smartphone who badly need a
human connection and in the developing nations there are tons of people who
would be happy to share their lives. I think technology can bridge that gap
leading to some real social progress on both sides.

This has always been my "dream app" but of course it requires better
infrastructure in the developing nations coupled with really cheap computing
and video equipment. But I think it should be possible soon.

~~~
joe_the_user
Did you read the article?

Do you really mean we need Americans to put pressure on politicians to support
bad and likely deadly policies so that said American people can feel an
(illusory) connection with people in the Third World?

~~~
keeptrying
Yes I read the article and yes I think americans are not using enough pressure
to get things done in developing nations.

------
cockburn
"[I am] inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa [because] all our
social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as
ours—whereas all the testing says not really." -James Watson, co-discoverer of
DNA

~~~
X4
So you're a believer of eugenics. Do you even know what you believe in?? Ask
yourself, it's not late to change your mind, you've been victim of a mind-
washing campaign. The only way to make you re-think is putting you into the
"I've been a victim, I didn't know" position again.

Don't take this personal, this is a rhetorical question: "According to your
weird belief in a form of eugenics, do you agree to be eliminated by someone
who claims to be genetically better situated?"

Of course not! Let's face it, you want to live and you can become better,
right? There is no such thing as race based intelligence, that's propaganda
you've willingly accepted, without proving it, because you want to be a
believer. You want to be part of something. You want to make the world
better..really? If you really want to be part of something, stop spreading
someone else's words, use your own "intelligence". James Watson simply
manipulated facts.

