Joseph Kony - murderer, kidnapper, torture and rapist. Wanted by the International Crimincal Court for Crimes against Humanity
Over the past few days the charity Invisible Children has launched an online viral campaign to raise the profile of the infamous leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony. Already the half hour video describing the campaign and the crimes committed by Kony has been viewed over 32 million times (11 million more than when I started writing this article 2 hours ago). Invisible Children has trended on Twitter, along with the #StopKony and #Kony2012 hashtags and the world’s media are quickly following up with more detailed stories highlighting not the crimes of Kony but the campaign to “make him famous.”
I have been struck by the number of reports critical of Invisible Children. Many of these reports accuse them of spending up to 70% of their revenue on salaries, travel expenses and film making rather than those that need it. Reporters have also discovered that NGO watchdog Charity Navigator gave the group just two out of four stars for financial accountability.
One of countless thousands to have lost their childhoods and been forced to murder, rape and more by the likes of Joseph Kony
Is it just me whose first impression of these criticisms is “Who cares?” Why is it that some people look for flaws in every attempt by others to do good. I couldn’t care less if the people running the campaign smoked crack by day and lounged in their underwear eating Cheetos by night. The issue here must surely be that the world, in the form of the ICC, has decided that Joseph Kony is a despicable war criminal who has committed unspeakable crimes against people of all ages but in particular children, and Invisible Children are trying to do something about that?
But beyond this fickle debate over the pros and cons of the charity – an excellent article by the way can be found by clicking here
I find the whole Kony2012 movement interesting, not least because the central premise of the movement seems to be to ensure that US military intervention continues (albeit that entails just 100 military advisers). US military intervention is not, I would imagine, something most people tweeting about this have often supported anywhere. Debates have raged for years over the pros and cons of interventionist policies and what it means to act in the national interest. Of course every Government is elected to safeguard the security of its own people. But where man can act in the aid of others regardless of race, colour, sex or creed, is that not for the better?
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Of course many readers will cite the mistakes made in Iraq, the ongoing violence in Afghanistan and other conflicts as evidence that intervention is a bad thing. These arguments are not without merit. But I am constantly struck by how the life of a human being in one country means so little to the lives of humans in another country. Why is an African life, a Syrian or a Libyan life worth less than a British or American life? Were we not all born equal?
In some ways I wonder whether western media is partly responsible for this. Movements like Kony2012 allow a brief glimpse into the horrors that exist in some part of the world in a way that the media doesn’t. For example, for the past year we have had rolling coverage on Syria on the BBC and CNN, but it has never really shown the true horrors of what has happened there. To see those you need to know the right places to look, in particular on YouTube [Editor: we have removed this link as it contains extremely graphic and disturbing images, and so is not for a family audience]. At the same time the suffering of countless millions in Africa from famine, war and despotic dictators has raged for years with few real interventions with the exception of when people have seen the reality of these situations which has led to rock concerts or diplomatic action to try and make a difference. Personally I have always wanted to see the full gory details. Working on Middle Eastern issues I have wanted to see the shocking videos of people’s heads blown off and when I previously worked on terrorism issues for a number of years I felt obliged to watch footage of beheadings. These are truly horrifying videos, but I believe that I had a responsibility to understand the full realities of the situation, and therefore I had to watch them. I always found they galvanized me into wanting to make a difference in some way.
So I ask myself whether greater accessibility to real footage of these appalling events would inspire more people to try to make a difference, and if they did, what difference could they actually make? Do movements like Kony2012 really make a difference at a strategic level. I think perhaps not, but they can help at a tactical level. Lets take Kony2012 as an example. Will this movement actually lead to Kony being captured or killed –I doubt it. Only military forces and Governments can make that happen. But when the issue next comes to a Parliament, or an international body, people are likely to be more aware and knowledgeable of the feelings of their constituents and thus more likely to act to do something positive to help.
Many will ask whether the money it costs to make the video and fly people around the world with packs of posters was really the most cost effective way to improve the lives of those people affected by the LRA. Perhaps not. Schools and hospitals would no doubt improve the lives of children in Uganda more. But what is the ultimate outcome of the campaign? Those people who already knew about Kony are now joined by countless others. People who wanted to give money to charities will continue to do so. I have no doubt that those people will be joined by many more who are giving money for the first time to this cause. And for the other 95% of people, well, all it took was the click of a mouse and they have been involved in doing something good for the planet.
Ultimately millions of people now know who Joseph Kony is, what the people of Uganda have been through, and that is no bad thing. Regardless of whether Kony is arrested, killed or continues to live on, movements like this highlight how the suffering that exists in a large proportion of our planet. Most of the suffering on the planet sadly isn’t inflicted by comedic media fodder personalities like Colonel Qadhafi and Kim Jong Il, but from little known people like Kony. And I for one hope that similar movements spring up to highlight the actions of others like him.
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Well naive it is, and asking for more US involvement in the region taking into account all the past history is quite dubious. If they would be pushing for UN and AU intervention then that would suit me, but this is double moralism.
Nobody is saying Kony is a nice guy, but 6 years too late this campaign is. They should be going to CAR and DRC. Looking at some of the hutu extremists that are roaming around. It’s good if people know about Kony through this viral video, but if they don’t look at history, and local politics they might just be doing CIA’s work.
Check out my thoughts on US involvement in the region, and some history.
http://bunny.gilgamint.com/cjuut/2012/03/09/invicible-children-kony-2012-review-and-tactics-recommendations/
Tactically if this organisation makes the wider public cynical about charity then they are doing harm. Charities must be accountable…too many piss money up the wall, disrupt the work of efficiently run organisations and get involved in areas that should be reserved for legitimate government bodies.
This isn’t the worst example but it is about 15 years too late. The LDA is a much spent force. Uganda’s economy is growing strongly and should be able to sort this internal matter over time.
There are far more pressing problems.
It’s a little annoying that so many other pressing problems domestically and internationally are lost in the noise of flash in the pan social media campaigns and viral charity.
Fully agree that there are often bigger problems and that this comes late. I hope though that this will inspire others to also look at the more pressing problems. Sadly these days none of us have long attention spans so we need pithy jazzy campaigns to get interested
[Many will ask whether the money it costs to make the video and fly people around the world with packs of posters was really the most cost effective way to improve the lives of those people affected by the LRA. Perhaps not. Schools and hospitals would no doubt improve the lives of children in Uganda more]
I guess I imagine that we can do both and they both are part of the solution.
Fair points raised.
I really care little if they’ve spent a lot of money making videos, designing posters and increasing their reach on social media channels. We’re talking about an MTV generation that will have to keep this debate alive – a generation which has a typical attention span of less than two minutes. We have to be increasingly creative about the delivery of the message as much as the message itself.
Social media viral campaigns can be dangerous of course, people get lazy and we forget to make informed decisions based on a broad overview of facts – we just post the story, afterall the masses can’t be wrong? In this case I praise the BBC coverage for including alongside the campaigns dissenters, a clearly layed out rebuttal from the organisers themselves. All the points raised by critics have been answered by KONY2012 including ‘ where the money’s going’ and the reason for their 2 star rating:
…. “Charity Navigator gives our Programs its highest rating of 4 stars. Our Accountability and Transparency score is currently at 2 stars due primarily to the single fact that Invisible Children does not have 5 independent voting members on our board of directors–we currently have 4. ”
The honest truth is that I for one had never heard of Kony yesterday Well I have now, and I shall make sure my voice is heard.