Kony 2012: What's the Real Story

[ehrnst]

Excellent piece in the Guardian UK with many contributors who are on the ground in Uganda. The organization Invisible Children deserves a closer look before you donate.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/mar/08/kony-2012-what-s-the-story

Edited to add:

This is one excerpt from the article - but there are many, many contributors to the article who are on the ground in Africa who talk about Invisible Children, and their good work. They also discuss how this film and activism that it espouses might have been effective 6 - 10 years ago, but isn't really now, because the situation has changed. Other, more complex solutions are more deserving of this sort of media campaign - and one that is less "Americans can fix this by donating and demanding" and more Africa-centered.


"They call themselves "a movement" seeking to end the conflict in Uganda and stop the abduction of children for use as child soldiers, but behind the slick website and the touchy-feely talk about "changing the course of human history", there's a hard-nosed money-making operation led by US filmmakers and accountants, commuication experts, lobbyists and salespeople.

So far the organisation has released 11 films and run film tours across the US and other countries to raise awareness. In Uganda, it has given scholarships to 750 children, and helped to re-build schools there and in centralo Africa. The organisation's accounts show it's a cash rich operation, which more than tripled its income in 2011, with more than two thirds of its money coming from "general donations".

The accounts suggest nearly 25% of its $8.8m income last year was spent on travel and film-making with only around 30% going toward programes on the ground. The great majority of the money raised has been spent in the US. $1.7 million went on US employee salaries, $357,000 in film costs, $850,000 in film production costs, $244,000 in "professional services" - thought to be Washington lobbyists - and $1.07 million in travel expenses . Nearly $400,000 was spent on office rent in San Diego.

Charity Navigator, a US charity evaluator, gives Invisible Children three out of four stars overall, four stars financially, but only two stars for "accountability and transparency".

[TheWraith]

1. And has been noted elsewhere, the complaints are kind of bullshit.

This is a group that's done more to raise awareness of the situation in Uganda with one video than every other single organization involved. Whining that they're spending their money on operations to raise awareness instead of tossing it at a few jars of peanut butter and keeping the public ignorant is silly.

[ehrnst]

3. I always have issues when data is 'tweaked'

Yes, it's good to raise awareness about the situation in Uganda. However, the ends does not justify the means.

I think that the concerns raised by the many, many contributors to that Guardian article - which does an excellent job of presenting different sides, deserve our attention. They are well thought out, and not simply 'complaints' about the financial transparency of the organization.

Many different people on the ground in Uganda and other places in Africa weigh in on Invisible Children in the article, as well as some of the dangers of oversimplfying the situation. There are many people that see the film assuming that the US is the source of the problem of Kony's continuing atrocities - and hence the solution.

[Junkdrawer]

2. Doctors Without Borders is always a safer bet....

And given who I see pushing this, I suspect that a greedy-NGO-targeting-kids-for-donations storyline may be the least of it before all is said and done.

[ehrnst]

4. I agree - there are far, far more Ugandan kids suffering from a neurological disorder

that is baffling doctors.

But there's no clear villian in that story.

[Junkdrawer]

5. From DemocracyNow's headlines of Feb 23rd of this year:

U.S. Troops Deployed to Fight LRA Rebels in 4 African Countries

The U.S. military has acknowledged it now has troops deployed in at least four Central African countries under the mission to fight the rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army. The United States announced a deployment of 100 troops for the Central Africa effort late last year. Special operations forces are now stationed at bases in Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic.

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/23/headlines

...To fight rebels numbering in the hundreds?

...

It would be great to get rid of Kony. He and his forces have left a path of abductions and mass murder in their wake for over 20 years. But let's get two things straight: 1) Joseph Kony is not in Uganda and hasn't been for 6 years; 2) the LRA now numbers at most in the hundreds, and while it is still causing immense suffering, it is unclear how millions of well-meaning but misinformed people are going to help deal with the more complicated reality.

...

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things

The aroma grows...

[Junkdrawer]

6. *sniff* *sniff* eau de Brzezinski

A very heady fragrance