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[Guest guest4729]

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[JPanda]

http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

^^ Please check this out as well.

I am still in support of this cause, but I want to make sure the time, effort, and resources that I put into this are going to be towards exactly what I went them towards. I plan on sharing this with as many people as possible, and also on writing appropriate letters to the appropriate spokespersons near me and in our government.

I also plan on participating come April 20th.

[So Late So Soon]

Uganda be kidding me

[Red1263]

I'm Africa they're not.

[aj_rock]

Invisible Children has a terrible track record for actually instigating change, being transparent about their operations, and actually getting the relief funds where they're supposed to be going.

I agree that it's a cause worth caring about, but I don't think I would ever get around to purchasing an 'action kit'.

And don't for one second think that Kony and the LRA are the worst of the lot/should be prioritized over other criminals against humanity...

[ZenGwen]

Yeah, I have to say - I have heard some dodgy things about Invisible Children. I'm glad they're raising awareness and such, but I don't think I would give them any of my money.

[chairohkey]

[Red1263]

That's so wrong, but so funny at the same time

[LRB]

For another perspective (though not contrary, necessarily, just another way to think about this):

"A doctor in Gulu, "a town that was once the center of the rebels' activities," told The Telegraph that the video is "totally wrong." People who've worked in conflict resolution in Africa ask us to take a greatly needed closer look: Calling the Kony campaign "one of the most pervasive and successful human rights based viral campaigns in recent memory,” PhD student Mark Kerston at the London School of Economics focusing on international criminal justice and conflict resolution writes in his blog that the campaign also "falls prey to the obfuscating, simplified and wildly erroneous narrative of a legitimate, terror-fighting, innocent partner of the West (the Government of Uganda) seeking to eliminate a band of lunatic, child-thieving, machine-gun wielding mystics (the LRA). The main beneficiary of this narrative is, once again, the Ugandan Government of Yoweri Museveni, whose legitimacy is bolstered and – if the ‘Kony 2012′ campaign is ‘successful’ – will receive more military funding and support from the US." [Thanks to Libby Hoffman of Catalyst for Peace for pointing out Kerston's blog.]

Let's hope that, if Kony – whose "army" of child soldiers now numbers in the hundreds, not tens of thousands – is arrested by the end of the year, as proposed by the campaign, the US would not support the Museveni government, but in any case our children deserve to understand that what they are being asked to support is a lot more messy than the video makes it sound. And crimes have not been committed by a single (still alleged) criminal and his rebel group. Just the fact that his "army" of child, or former child, soldiers are simultaneously perpetrators and victims illustrates the complexity involved. As does fundraising by a campaign that appeals so much to youth – offering a $30 "activist kit" (media literacy is protective on many levels). Maybe, with the criticism it's getting, Invisible Children will help its supporters shift the focus from getting "the bad guy" to real solutions like the work of conflict resolution activists in Africa – for example, Fambul Tok in Sierra Leone, which really needs to go viral."

http://www.connectsafely.org/NetFamilyNews/very-mixed-reactions-to-kony-2012.html

[sdquinn]

I do support the campaign, and the IC report quells some of my initial doubts. Worth posting here.

http://www.invisiblechildren.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/critiques.html

[oystergirl]

What concerns me, as it always does is this. Human rights issues are ONLY ever brought up if there is a money or power train. For how many years did the US and other powers ignore atrocities in other countries where a power struggle or a valuable natural resource was not in question? If you are going to apply human rights as your platform it needs to be used universally, not pick this, pick that, play on the hearts of a nation. There have been genocides in this world that you and I have never even heard of because they were not politically valuable to the super powers of this world. When confronted with issues like this, let us first ask the question--where is the money in this? or where is the power?