KONY 2012- The White Man's War

KONY 2012 poster featuring Joseph Kony, Osama bin-Laden and Adolf Hitler.


If you've been on the internet at all in the past couple of days, you may have seen this poster. It's the KONY 2012 poster, recently made popular by the group Invisible Children's recent documentary that has gone viral on the internet since it's posting on Monday. Here's the video in question, a whopping 30 minutes long and chock full of... well, "information". Take a half an hour to sit down and watch this video, everyone else has and it's vital that you become informed on this subject. Because it's vital to be informed before making decisions.

Watched it? Good. Now let’s see. First reaction? Good, bad? You're probably thinking something along the lines of "This Kony guy sounds like a real d*ck." or "Yeah! People are doing something to stop this guy!" But maybe you're also thinking some other thoughts. Some not-so-positive ones. For instance, there’s been a large faction of people that have been disillusioned by this video. Why, you may ask? They find the message, the goal, and the ways the group goes about things wrong, or even sickening. That’s right, sickening. Strong word there.

You see, while this viral fad has hit people's twitter, Facebook, and RSS feeds like some sort of H1N1/AIDS epidemic, people have looked into the reasons behind its popularity, as well as the campaign itself. And they've found some disappointing things. This is The Daily What, a favorite blog of mine. As you read through the post, you can tell that people have been harassing him with messages about this campaign. But things take a surprising turn when he seems to set the record straight.

Here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to list the main concerns people have with KONY 2012 and Invisible Children. Ready? Let’s go.

1. The charity Invisible Children is under scrutiny for it's less-than-transparent financial records. (Including iffy third-party verification of their audit)

2. Only 31% of their profits actually go to programs that directly help Ugandans in Africa. The rest of the 80-some percent they say they use towards helping actually goes to their "advocacy" and "awareness" campaigns. This includes traveling expenses, salaries, lobbying, and film production.

3. Their support of the Ugandan Army, which has been accused of atrocities ranging from drug trafficking and prostitution rings to employing child soldiers. Yes, let’s pin child soldier army #1 against child soldier regime #2.

4 .Killing Kony won't do much to stop what’s going on in the region. In fact, it might make it worse since it will leave a power vacuum just waiting to be filled by many others. The region is not stable and is populated by many shady governments and regimes. Killing one guy won't help that.

5. Kony isn't in Uganda. He hasn't been since 2006, maybe even earlier. People in Uganda are rebuilding and moving on. In fact Kony is suspected to be somewhere deep in the Congolese jungle with less than 300 forces left. Not the 30,000 that the video seemed to imply. (That’s the total over the past 30 years, not the present number)

6. This campaign supports a type of activism I like to call "armchair activism". Also coined as slackivism and clickivism, this give people a way to feel good about themselves through a charity without actually doing anything at all. Sharing a link or liking a status does nothing people. If it did, breast cancer would be a thing of the past by now.

7. This campaign also promoted the "White-Savior" Complex. That being the idea that the white man, or America, is required to step in to help those who can't do it on their own. I.E., Africa and Africans. While this is more of an underlying issue, it is also a prominent one and raises more questions about what a good charity actually is. And plus this complex is built on racism. Yeah, that too.

8. The Kony 2012 campaign is often misleading and stretches the truth to send the message they want. They also dress up the presentation in order to get a better response, regardless of the actual facts.

The Most Important Reason:

Ugandans don't want this type of support and they don't like it. In fact, they think it's misleading, which can definitely be said about the campaign. They would much rather see us giving them financial and educational aid so they themselves can rebuild rather than us coming in guns a-blazing to kill a guy that’s not there.

Ugandans are also angry because this campaign has taken focus away from their own charity agencys. There are charities and organizations ACTUALLY RUN BY UGANDANS that aim to help Uganda through aid and economic reconstruction, not military intervention. And the fact that Kony 2012 is so popular angers some of them. Says TMS Ruge, co-founder of Project Diaspora: “It is a slap in the face to so many of us who want to rise from the ashes of our tumultuous past and the noose of benevolent, paternalistic, aid-driven development memes.” This view is echoed by many in Uganda and is being ignored by those who have blindly clutched to this movement. It's stuff like this that makes third world countries hate 1st world countries. We always act all high and mighty and try to fix things according to our viewpoints or what we are led to believe, but the fact remains that we may be wrong. Or even if we are right, does that give us the right to go in and fix everything? If people don't want our help we should respect that. There are obviously exceptions to that rule but in this case I think it can apply. Not to say we shouldn't be involved, I'm just saying that if they don't want our help with what we're offering as help, we should listen to what they want. And what they want isn't what KONY 2012 and Invisible Children is offering.