Kony 2012 Criticism

According to CBS news, here are their top concerns about the Kony 2012 campaign…

One issue CBS news has is that Kony 2012 is making the situation in Uganda an “easy, good-guys-vs.-bad-guys narrative, when the reality is far more complex”. They believe that the video is making the situation less important and forcing on capturing Kony.

The founders have no comment about this topic.

Another issue CBS news has is that the video and the cause “does not include the people of northern Uganda themselves”. CBS thinks that we should be helping the people in Uganda also since we are there to find Kony. I believe we are helping the people there by finding Kony and preventing future abductions.

Again, the founders have no comment about this topic.

CBS news also has a problem with the fact that we are sending a message “that only rich, white North Americans can do something about the problem”. I believe that if the people of Uganda would tell us that they don’t want our help, we would back off but until such day comes, I believe that it is ok to help them.

Again, the founders have no comment about this topic.

Of course CBS has a problem with how the organization,  “Invisible Children”, are getting their money and how that money is being spent. According to http://animalnewyork.com, last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production”. I can’t find anywhere it says how they get their money.

The founders do have a comment to this concern. According to http://invisible.tumblr.com/, you can go to “www.invisiblechildren.com/financials for the past 5 years of financial statements for everyone to see”. “Below is a screen-shot from pages 35 and 36 of the 2011 Invisible Children annual report that detail our total expenses for Fiscal Year 2011. An expense statement by class is the way nonprofits present their expenses to the public because it’s the clearest way to show the purpose of different organizational expenses vs. a line item expense statement such as the one on page 6 of our Audited Financial Report”.

Picture from http://invisible.tumblr.com

 One concern I have about Invisible Children is how do we know if our money and our efforts will be enough to capture Kony. In the film, it says this campaign ends at the end of the year; well what if by then Kony hasn’t been arrested? Will everyone just give up and forget about this?

I believe that the picture of the film makers holding the guns may come back to haunt them because they say that they want peace and don’t want children to hold guns but then they go and pose with guns? If they want to keep up their image, they shouldn’t have done this.

The following is taken from http://invisible.tumblr.com/ and is regarding the picture of the founders holding guns. Jason Russell (the guy in the video) addressed this concern.

 “Let me start by saying that that photo was a bad idea. We were young and we got caught up in the moment. It was never meant to reflect on the organization. The photo of Bobby, Laren and I with the guns was taken in an LRA camp in DRC during the 2008 Juba Peace Talks. We were there to see Joseph Kony come to the table to sign the Final Peace Agreement. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) was surrounding our camp for protection since Sudan was mediating the peace talks. We wanted to talk to them and film them and get their perspective. And because Bobby, Laren and I are friends and had been doing this for 5 years, we thought it would be funny to bring back to our friends and family a joke photo.  You know, “Haha - they have bazookas in their hands but they’re actually fighting for peace.”  The ironic thing about this photo is that I HATE guns. I always have. Back in 2008 I wanted this war to end, like we all did, peacefully, through peace talks. But Kony was not interested in that; he kept killing. And we still don’t want war. We don’t want him killed and we don’t want bombs dropped. We want him alive and captured and brought to justice”. 

I would love to do what ever I can to support Kony 2012. I beleive we need to get the word out to people about this so people will also support Kony 2012.