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Kony

MattusMaximus said:
I've been hearing drips and drabs about this whole "Kony2012" meme over the last few days, and the fact that so many people were Tweeting and Facebooking it so feverishly made me cast a wary eye on the whole thing. I had the feeling that it was almost like how people want to uncritically forward chain emails...

Well, it seems there may have been good reason for my cautious skepticism:

Why You Should Feel Awkward About the ‘Kony2012′ Video
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The thing is that Museveni isn't that bad when you compare him to the other players in the area. I mean yes he has used child soldiers but he does have the decency not to talk about it (much). Yes he has used artillery fire to force villagers to move into his displaced persons camps but quite a few leaders in that area would just have killed them all. Yes his army was involved in the looting of the DRC but so was everyone elses.

But then you consider the standards his predecessors set.
 
stokes234 said:
It gets worse than that.
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"So, before leading my troops into battle, we would get drunk and drugged up, sacrifice a local teenager, drink their blood, then strip down to our shoes and go into battle wearing colourful wigs and carrying imaginary purses we'd looted from civilians. We'd slaughter anyone we saw, chop their heads off and use them as soccer balls. We were nude, fearless, drunk yet strategic."

Sounds like Sauchiehall Street on a Friday night.
 
Sharp analysis: Youth Movement Promotes US Military Presence in Central Africa

[...] The whereabouts of Joseph Kony are completely unknown; he was last seen in crossing between Sudan and CAR in 2010, according to unverified reports. The US military currently has one hundred military officers training and overseeing the Ugandan military in anti-LRA operations. Due to the complete absence of LRA activity in Uganda, it becomes feasible that the US may be planning further operations in the resource rich DRC. Over six million Congolese nationals have been killed in war since 1996, largely with US complicity. The regimes of Paul Kagame in Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni in Uganda have both received millions in military aid from the United States. Since the abhorrent failure of the 1993 US intervention in Somalia, the US has relied on the militaries of Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia to carry out US interests in proxy.

Paul Kagame of Rwanda has been given free reign by the US to conduct military operations inside DRC in the on-going ethnic conflict in that region following the 1994 Rwandan genocide. For Ugandan participation in the fight against Somalia’s al Shabaab, Museveni receives $45 million dollars in military aid. The US has contributed enormous sums to these nations and now is beginning to consolidate its presence in the region under Barack Obama and AFRICOM, the United States African Command. The LRA has contributed to less than one hundred unverified deaths in the past twelve months. Considering that the United States completely ignored events in DRC and Rwanda that collectively resulted in nearly seven million deaths, their participation against the ailing Lord’s Resistance Army is completely absurd by comparison.

Through AFRICOM, the United States is seeking a foothold in the incredibly resource rich central African block in a further maneuver to aggregate regional hegemony over China. DRC is one of the world’s largest regions without an effectively functioning government. It contains vast deposits of diamonds, cobalt, copper, uranium, magnesium, and tin while producing over $1 billion in gold each year. It is entirely feasible that the US can considerably increase its presence in DRC under the pretext of capturing Joseph Kony. The US may further mobilize ground forces, in addition to the use of predator drones and targeted missile strikes, inevitably killing civilians. In a press conference at the House Armed Services Committee on March 13, 2008, AFRICOM Commander, General William Ward stated that AFRICOM will further its regional presence by "operating under the principle theatre-goal of combating terrorism”. [...]
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commandlinegamer said:
"So, before leading my troops into battle, we would get drunk and drugged up, sacrifice a local teenager, drink their blood, then strip down to our shoes and go into battle wearing colourful wigs and carrying imaginary purses we'd looted from civilians. We'd slaughter anyone we saw, chop their heads off and use them as soccer balls. We were nude, fearless, drunk yet strategic."

Sounds like Sauchiehall Street on a Friday night.
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Its generaly best to be highly sceptical about claims about Joshua Milton Blahyi. He's the source of most of them and there isn't much in the way of independent verification.
 

Stop Kony, yes. But don’t stop asking questions

About ten minutes into the video, the narrator asks his young son who “the bad guy” in Uganda is; when his young son hesitates, he informs him that Joseph Kony is the bad guy. In a sense, he let Kony off lightly: he is a monster. But what the narrator also failed to do was mention to his son that when a bad guy like Kony is running riot for years on end, raping and slashing and seizing and shooting, then there is most likely another host of bad guys out there letting him get on with it. He probably should have told him that, too.
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Also just got an email from a friend who researches charity groups for fun (hey, everybody needs a hobby.) It's reproduced below with the NSFW language edited. I haven't had time to double check this, yet.

Dug even deeper into their financials.

(Invisible Children) are some privileged and crooked <poo>bags from San Diego.

Money only goes to their own sub in Uganda. Only found evidence of 2 employees in Uganda.

Their self-donations are down 15% YOY and their cash on hand is up nearly 500%.

They have _35_ open positions for UNPAID interns.

They have their wives, daughters and mothers on as PAID staff.

70% of the program expenses are for them to travel the states and int'l. All the while partying and filming <sweet f> all.

These people are worse than the drunk on the freeway exit: he's honest.
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stokes234 said:
Yeah, lovely little sarcastic response there, but you still haven't highlighted a tangible benefit of the Kony 2012 campaign.
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A benefit of any awareness campaign is bringing awareness, and the Kony campaign has been spectacularly successful in that regard.

The benefits of awareness are painfully obvious, and pretending otherwise is naive and then some.

For the benefit of commenters who don't bother to follow the discussion, I don't know enough to have an opinion if the Kony campaign is meritorious -- my remarks are in the abstract.
 
varwoche said:
A benefit of any awareness campaign is bringing awareness, and the Kony campaign has been spectacularly successful in that regard.

The benefits of awareness are painfully obvious, and pretending otherwise is naive and then some.
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If they were so "painfully obvious", you'd be able to list some. Here's your chance. In doing so, make sure you don't automatically assume that any action taken by western governments will have a good result, because we've seen that go wrong in the past.
 
Ryokan said:
Mob mentality doesn't have to be a bad thing when it comes to helping people.

Campaigns like these, even though it surely is slacktivism, can't hurt these organizations and might bring them better funding.
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Many bad things have been done in the name of helping people. Good intentions aren't really enough. If the organization isn't doing anything helpful with the extra funds, then helping them get better funding is also not a plus. The skeptic looks at both what the organization is trying to do, and what it is actually achieving.

As to this case, I have no problem with some Delta Force sniper putting a round on Kony's brain pan. I also have no problem with Obama expending resources to make that happen. The thing is, an "awareness" campaign is a wasted effort if only one person (Obama) gets to make that call. I assume he is already well aware of the situation and has decided using (limited) US military action is appropriate. I just don't understand how a viral video will make it easier for US Special Forces personnel to stalk and kill Kony.
 
I can't see how this meme is any different than any other slacktivist cause-of-the-moment.
 
Funny, Darat and I had a discussion on these boards back in 2006/2007, which was somewhat related to something to do with religion and war and killing and child soldiers and such.

I took a peak than into Kony, and I don't seem him as that much of an anomaly in post colonial Africa.

Russel is in this for the money. Don't feed him.
 
Are we to believe that most people were actually unaware that these atrocities have been going on in Africa since the mid 90's? At the very least they should have seen Blood Diamond at least once, right? I mean even if only because Jennifer Connelly is so hot.

Current has been running documentaries on this stuff too.
 
Chris L said:
Many bad things have been done in the name of helping people. Good intentions aren't really enough. If the organization isn't doing anything helpful with the extra funds, then helping them get better funding is also not a plus. The skeptic looks at both what the organization is trying to do, and what it is actually achieving.

As to this case, I have no problem with some Delta Force sniper putting a round on Kony's brain pan. I also have no problem with Obama expending resources to make that happen. The thing is, an "awareness" campaign is a wasted effort if only one person (Obama) gets to make that call. I assume he is already well aware of the situation and has decided using (limited) US military action is appropriate. I just don't understand how a viral video will make it easier for US Special Forces personnel to stalk and kill Kony.
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Exactly. Well, unless this is simply a way to fund a Merc group.
 
varwoche said:
Many millions of people are being made aware of Kony due to this project, and no doubt some of them will donate to the cause as a result.

No benefit to creating awareness? That's patently ridiculous.
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I actually believe if we have 1 million users who are interested in stopping a person, They would have to do hard work to pull Africa out of the water. Even with the Kony was captured or killed it might stabilize the region of some parts of Africa. Another problem still arises with the Ugandan army.
 
The Central Scrutinizer said:
They named an island after him in New York.
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Actually it's more of a peninsula.



On a serious note, I think it's worth pointing out that there are NGOs that are doing good work in Africa that do have their **** together.

Doctors Without Borders comes to mind.

I would disagree with the assertion that the LRA is necessarily a spent force. They have shown an impressive capacity to re-constitute themselves. I think the big concern with them right now from a foreign policy standpoint is that the Khartoum regime might be tempted to support them financially (as they did with the Janjaweed in Darfut) to destabilize the fledgling nation of South Sudan. This is consistent with Khartoum's MO.
 
Galteeth said:
On a serious note, I think it's worth pointing out that there are NGOs that are doing good work in Africa that do have their **** together.
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Sure there are. bookitty's above linked article names some who do work in Uganda and need support.

Galteeth said:
I would disagree with the assertion that the LRA is necessarily a spent force.
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Here's a short non-propaganda documentary about the situation in Uganda. Be warned that it contains gruesome details, the faint at heart better not watch.

 
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