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Out with Kony 2012, in with indecent exposure
Posts
They're raising as much ignorance as awareness, and they're misrepresenting a lot of problems.
next pony convention is in Africa (the country)
My Little Pony Abattoir and Glue factory.
more or less this.
put another way: the video assumes that the problem can be solved simply by arresting Kony, and that getting a lot of westerners who are not even remotely aware of the ridiculous political situation in Uganda and the surrounding nations to essentially throw money and shout at the problem will fix everything. that's the attitude the U.S. took under GWB, and that did not get the U.S. anywhere.
it's also the attitude the U.S. took when Teddy Roosevelt was governor of a little colonial project in the Philippines. the idea was that the U.S. would impose U.S. language, political structures, and public education over the Philippines, and that would solve all of the problems. that never took into account local complex politics already in place between Spanish-legacy Catholics and Southeast Asian Muslims, or the notion that some Filipinos actually might want independence. see also: Afghanistan.
same problem here: the video is too simplistic, too paternalistic. better and longer lasting solutions would involve Ugandan home-grown efforts to stabilize the country and the recognition that there's a shit ton of corruption and atrocities from the current ruling government, not just Kony.
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This is the Komen Foundation version of helping Africa
Lots of advertising, so everybody knows about it, but nobody's really sure where the money goes or if in fact anyone is being helped. But people know about it so they can feel good about themselves!
This is nonsense. If there is "more intelligent" advocacy out there, they should be making themselves known. If people have better solutions to the issue, they should be doing something about it. I can't seem to find any information about other groups trying to get the international community to pay attention to the LRA, or trying to help central Africa deal with the problem.
KONY 2012: The Invisible Manchildren
Other groups that specifically focus on the LRA in particular and child soldiers in general don't get the same publicity as Invisible Children precisely because Invisible Children is getting the publicity and funding that could be going to those other groups. IC is extremely skilled at self-promotion in ways that more reputable human rights orgs generally aren't.
I first found out about the situation in Uganda back in 2006, when Invisible Children presented their first film at the Bible school I was attending at the time. It absolutely broke my heart. I know people who raised the money from their churches to go to Uganda and try to help. I would be greatly relieved to hear that Kony and his lieutenants have been captured or killed, and that international relief organizations were doing something to take care of the children he and his people have been abusing.
And what about the broader issues in that country that have allowed this to happen for two decades? This is exactly what I'm talking about. Getting rid of Kony does not equal solving the problem.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12429
I mean, they're not perfect, but they don't seem that shady?
Publicity is not a zero sum game.
"Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but it dies in the process."
Imagine all of my posts being spoken by Alec Baldwin
GamerTag: MunkusBeaver ||||| Steam: munkus
No, but it helps. I'm not sure how it would make things worse at any rate.
Komen isn't particularly shady either.
But you have to think about their ultimate purpose is, do they exist to help people or do they exist to raise their profile? Because as with Komen, it really looks like the latter.
Ah yes, "at least we're doing something!"
I'm saying I can't find any information about other groups at all. In the short time today I've been browsing Wikipedia and Google searches, I can't seem to find any indication that there are other groups out there who focus on the issue of the LRA. Of course Americans don't care about things that happen thousands of miles away that don't affect them until people bring it to their attention. Sure, it'd be nice if the average American read the whole newspaper every day and kept abroad of the issues in places other than their local community, but I don't think it's fair at all to condemn people for not doing that. The thing is though that they are trying to raise awareness to make some sort of positive change, and I don't understand why that is apparently a bad thing.
So what should people do? If you were to meet a random person on the street who was suddenly concerned about the situation because someone shared the video on their Facebook feed, what would you tell them to do?
Tell them to find out how they can actually help the situation, not just pass the message along in the misguided belief that is helping in any way shape or form.
Yeah, looking at Invisible Children's 2011 financial report, they spent around 40% of their budget that year on "awareness".
You seem to be assuming that finding out how to help is easy to do.
Of course it isn't easy. Its not a simple problem.
i think i might have to borrow this
ART BLOG
"raising awareness" can do as much, if not more, damage than doing nothing.
also, i found both USAID and Oxfam efforts to provide assistance in Uganda after literally two seconds of Google searching.
no one's saying we should do nothing. but you have to question "awareness" drives, especially ones like this Kony 2012 campaign, when they offer seemingly easy solutions to very complex problems. many people may come to think the problem started and ends with Kony, thanks to Invisible Children's "awareness." that is incredibly harmful. if you're going to raise awareness, it has to be done in a responsible manner.
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64 PAGES?
I thought I was sated with 32. But 64?! My life is complete.
Those are all organizations focused on health issues, I'm not sure what they are doing about something like the LRA?
Also, I found this article, which has some interesting current information about the LRA's status:
Lord's Resistance Army: After long silence, the US-tracked rebels attack