Kony 2012 info--not completely what it seems
Since the Kony 2012 vid has become a fad, I wanted to post some more information about the organization, Invisible Children. It is worth reading if you are thinking of donating to IC. You can draw your own conclusions from it. Besides being informative, the important point this post makes is to do your own research before you act on Kony 2012. I have not verified the information in this post, I only checked out a couple of the hot links (see bottom of post for the article with links.) However it is definitely true that Invisible Children leave things out in the video that you as a potential donator should know.
For those who haven't seen the original video about Kony, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc&feature=g-logo&context=G2c87e30FOAAAAAAABAA
" On Kony 2012: I honestly wanted to stay as far away as possible from KONY 2012, the latest fauxtivist fad sweeping the web (remember “change your Facebook profile pic to stop child abuse”?), but you clearly won’t stop sending me that damn video until I say something about it, so here goes:
Stop sending me that video.
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. That’s not a good thing. In fact, it’s a very bad thing, and should make you immediately pause and reflect on where the money you’re sending them is going.
By IC’s own admission, only 31% of all the funds they receive go toward actually helping anyone [pdf]. The rest go to line the pockets of the three people in charge of the organization, to pay for their travel expenses (over $1 million in the last year alone) and to fund their filmmaking business (also over a million) — which is quite an effective way to make more money, as clearly illustrated by the fact that so many can’t seem to stop forwarding their well-engineered emotional blackmail to everyone they’ve ever known.
And as far as what they do with that money:
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.
Let’s not get our lines crossed: The Lord’s Resistance Army is bad news. And Joseph Kony is a very bad man, and needs to be stopped. But propping up Uganda’s decades-old dictatorship and its military arm, which has been accused by the UN of committing unspeakable atrocities and itself facilitated the recruitment of child soldiers, is not the way to go about it.
The United States is already plenty involved in helping rout Kony and his band of psycho sycophants. Kony is on the run, having been pushed out of Uganda, and it’s likely he will soon be caught, if he isn’t already dead. But killing Kony won’t fix anything, just as killing Osama bin Laden didn’t end terrorism. The LRA might collapse, but, as Foreign Affairs points out, it is “a relatively small player in all of this — as much a symptom as a cause of the endemic violence.”
Myopically placing the blame for all of central Africa’s woes on Kony — even as a starting point — will only imperil many more people than are already in danger.
Sending money to a nonprofit that wants to muck things up by dousing the flames with fuel is not helping. Want to help? Really want to help? Send your money to nonprofits that are putting more than 31% toward rebuilding the region’s medical and educational infrastructure, so that former child soldiers have something worth coming home to.
Here are just a few of those charities. They all have a sparkling four-star rating from Charity Navigator, and, more importantly, no interest in airdropping American troops armed to the teeth into the middle of a multi-nation tribal war to help one madman catch another.
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. "
You can check out the article with the hotlinks here:
http://tumblr.thedailywh.at/post/18909727859/on-kony-2012-i-honestly-wanted-to-stay-as-far
For those who haven't seen the original video about Kony, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc&feature=g-logo&context=G2c87e30FOAAAAAAABAA
" On Kony 2012: I honestly wanted to stay as far away as possible from KONY 2012, the latest fauxtivist fad sweeping the web (remember “change your Facebook profile pic to stop child abuse”?), but you clearly won’t stop sending me that damn video until I say something about it, so here goes:
Stop sending me that video.
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. That’s not a good thing. In fact, it’s a very bad thing, and should make you immediately pause and reflect on where the money you’re sending them is going.
By IC’s own admission, only 31% of all the funds they receive go toward actually helping anyone [pdf]. The rest go to line the pockets of the three people in charge of the organization, to pay for their travel expenses (over $1 million in the last year alone) and to fund their filmmaking business (also over a million) — which is quite an effective way to make more money, as clearly illustrated by the fact that so many can’t seem to stop forwarding their well-engineered emotional blackmail to everyone they’ve ever known.
And as far as what they do with that money:
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.
Let’s not get our lines crossed: The Lord’s Resistance Army is bad news. And Joseph Kony is a very bad man, and needs to be stopped. But propping up Uganda’s decades-old dictatorship and its military arm, which has been accused by the UN of committing unspeakable atrocities and itself facilitated the recruitment of child soldiers, is not the way to go about it.
The United States is already plenty involved in helping rout Kony and his band of psycho sycophants. Kony is on the run, having been pushed out of Uganda, and it’s likely he will soon be caught, if he isn’t already dead. But killing Kony won’t fix anything, just as killing Osama bin Laden didn’t end terrorism. The LRA might collapse, but, as Foreign Affairs points out, it is “a relatively small player in all of this — as much a symptom as a cause of the endemic violence.”
Myopically placing the blame for all of central Africa’s woes on Kony — even as a starting point — will only imperil many more people than are already in danger.
Sending money to a nonprofit that wants to muck things up by dousing the flames with fuel is not helping. Want to help? Really want to help? Send your money to nonprofits that are putting more than 31% toward rebuilding the region’s medical and educational infrastructure, so that former child soldiers have something worth coming home to.
Here are just a few of those charities. They all have a sparkling four-star rating from Charity Navigator, and, more importantly, no interest in airdropping American troops armed to the teeth into the middle of a multi-nation tribal war to help one madman catch another.
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. "
You can check out the article with the hotlinks here:
http://tumblr.thedailywh.at/post/18909727859/on-kony-2012-i-honestly-wanted-to-stay-as-far
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Replies
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There are many worthwhile charities out there, and people should be looking into all the good charities out there and donating to them and doing their part.
This particular charity has a very clear agenda and purpose - to raise enough awareness to put pressure on governments to bring this particular person to justice. This is made VERY clear in the video, that you would be donating to a charity which essentially is about raising awareness and pressuring policy makers to take action on the issue. It has been successful in its agenda - more people today are aware of who he is than ever before, and the attention that the issue gets will mean action. I am not really sure what point the article is trying to make.0 -
There are many worthwhile charities out there, and people should be looking into all the good charities out there and donating to them and doing their part.
This particular charity has a very clear agenda and purpose - to raise enough awareness to put pressure on governments to bring this particular person to justice. This is made VERY clear in the video, that you would be donating to a charity which essentially is about raising awareness and pressuring policy makers to take action on the issue. It has been successful in its agenda - more people today are aware of who he is than ever before, and the attention that the issue gets will mean action. I am not really sure what point the article is trying to make.
I would say that part of looking into a good charity is actually taking the time to see for yourself what they are about, and whether or not they doing something which you feel comfortable standing behind. Just because something is currently popular doesn't make it good. I see nothing wrong with taking a more critical look at Invisible Children before deciding to support them with donations of time and/or money.0 -
Charity starts at home. that is all. we need to start looking out for ourselfs because us ( scotland/united kingdom ) have so many charitys for other countrys n constantly helping others every year .. its all i ever see on the tv another bloody charity for kids in africa or something. but here we are, all our prices of food, buses, transport etc are going up every month !! and our money isnt changing. if we dont look out for number one and keep giving out money to others wer gonna end up the same !0
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There are many worthwhile charities out there, and people should be looking into all the good charities out there and donating to them and doing their part.
This particular charity has a very clear agenda and purpose - to raise enough awareness to put pressure on governments to bring this particular person to justice. This is made VERY clear in the video, that you would be donating to a charity which essentially is about raising awareness and pressuring policy makers to take action on the issue. It has been successful in its agenda - more people today are aware of who he is than ever before, and the attention that the issue gets will mean action. I am not really sure what point the article is trying to make.
I would say that part of looking into a good charity is actually taking the time to see for yourself what they are about, and whether or not they doing something which you feel comfortable standing behind. Just because something is currently popular doesn't make it good. I see nothing wrong with taking a more critical look at Invisible Children before deciding to support them with donations of time and/or money.
I'm not saying don't be critical about the charity, just think that all the criticisms of the video and cause sort of detract from its message - that even though there is no financial or political gain in capturing war criminals like Joseph Kony, that we should care and want to do something about it. Every persons life is equal, every child born into this world didn't get a choice as to where they live and grow up. We live priveledged enough lives to be able to do something about it.0 -
Posting this kind of thing is a political statement. Yes, it is a hot issue right now, but why not post about the government in Syria, or in Libya? Why not try to collect money for Charities in the U.S. who are trying to stop child prostitution or pornography?
What about all the people who are being forced to die in this country because of our over-priced medical system? Where do you stop on this? Raising money to fight abortion? Millions of "babies" die every year due to that.
I don't have an opinion one way or the other that needs to be expressed here on any of these issues. I just don't think this is the place.
There are many atrocities in the world. Stop shoving this one down my throat.
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Posting this kind of thing is a political statement. Yes, it is a hot issue right now, but why not post about the government in Syria, or in Libya? Why not try to collect money for Charities in the U.S. who are trying to stop child prostitution or pornography?
What about all the people who are being forced to die in this country because of our over-priced medical system? Where do you stop on this? Raising money to fight abortion? Millions of "babies" die every year due to that.
I don't have an opinion one way or the other that needs to be expressed here on any of these issues. I just don't think this is the place.
There are many atrocities in the world. Stop shoving this one down my throat.
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You chose to open this and discuss it, nobody is forcing you to read it or pay any attention to it. This is the chit chat, fun and games section so anything goes really.
Yes there are many issues to care about, but start with caring about something rather than not caring at all. Caring about global issues doesn't need to be an "all or nothing" approach. And there really is nothing wrong with wanting to take action on one particular issue, at least this charity has a primary focus and approach to get behind rather than a generalised "donate money to us to give to starving people in Africa" - NOT that there's anything wrong with that, I just appreciate where this group is coming from.
What I really think is that a lot of this cynicism about Kony 2012 comes from peoples desire to oppose or denigrate things which are popular. Just IMHO.0
This discussion has been closed.
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