KONY 2012: Making The Invisible Visible
Invisible Children founders check up on how their money is being spent. Photograph by Glenna Gordon - click image to visit her site.
DISCLAIMER FOR LIBERALS: We at DemandNothing do not support the actions of the LRA or Joseph Kony. We have no objection to the principle of highlighting the activities of groups such as these, which are often overlooked in the western media.
Invisible Children released a video, KONY 2012, that called for the raising of awareness of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda across the world. In their video they seek donations so that they can continue their project to bring US advisors in to work with the Ugandan military in finding and apprehending Joseph Kony. Their ultimate wish is for their supporters to agitate for an armed military intervention to stop Kony by raising awareness and confronting policymakers. The US has already deployed a small contingent of armed forces to advise and assist the Ugandan military but Invisible Children would like to see more pressure put on governments to give the Ugandan military more money, technology and foreign military advisers to push the fight on. They are effectively calling for an armed intervention in Uganda.
Armed interventions in Uganda to find and kill Joseph Kony have been tried repeatedly over the decades with no success. Each push scatters the LRA to civilian areas with terrible costs to those who live in those areas. For example, Operation Lightning Thunder, which was a joint operation with the involvement of the US, resulted in the abduction of 700 people and the deaths of 1, 000 civilians.
One of their partners and donators is Chase Community Giving who awarded them $1million as a prize for winning a contest that was mired in controversy and accusations of fraud. This organisation is part of JP Morgan Chase Foundation who are also listed as one of Invisible Children’s network of supporters. This organisation is also owner of Chase Military, an organisation that offers loans, mortgages and insurance to soldiers that are to be deployed abroad. JP Morgan have also used foreign military interventions in the past to secure investment opportunities such as in Afghanistan with the full support of the US Government. Further ties with Uganda include their recent investment in Ugandan agribusiness and their ties as broker and adviser to Heritage Oil, whose operations are expanding into the border of Uganda and the Congo where the LRA are currently based. You’d be forgiven for thinking that, when situating these operations with their support of Invisible Children in the past year, JP Morgan are very interested in Uganda’s assets and are looking for means to foster business-friendly awareness of Uganda’s problems for their own benefit. Military intervention would do nothing but bolster JP Morgan’s profitmaking opportunities in the region.
This increase in funding from JP Morgan also coincided with Invisible Children’s “Fourth Estate” program. This program was designed to foster a youth-oriented grassroots movement by the controlled manipulation of youth culture, social media, and youth activism. It is to this end that their video was released, which ties into their ventures with the music industry, which concentrates specifically on popular youth bands like Mumford & Sons and Frightened Rabbit, and their Fourth Estate activism education conference in August 2011. Between 2010 and 2011, resources spent on media creation rose from $463, 666 to $699, 617. Similarly, the amount of money that they spent on media awareness rose from $133, 600 to $301, 000 in the same span of time. At the same time, only a little over a third of the money that they raise is spent on their programs. The rest goes to awareness, management, and their product line. In fact, spending on programs went down from $3, 752, 435 to $3, 303, 218 in spite of their overall increase in funding.
Invisible Children’s actions are tied heavily into the promotion of a false consciousness type of activism that glosses over the complex history of the region that they purport to support and ignores the myriad of crimes the Museveni government is embroiled in or the Ugandan People’s Defence Force’s (UPDF) checkered history with profiteering, the use of child soldiers, and rape. The LRA is not even based in Uganda anymore and this has been the case for many years now. Their business-friendly awareness campaign is exemplified by their championing of predatory microfinance initiatives in Uganda, which are offered by CARE International, a charity that is also sponsored by JP Morgan.
It should come as no surprise that the US government and an investment firm like JP Morgan would show such interest in the work of an otherwise unknown charity. If crowd-sourcing activism in this way was always so successful then we would expect larger movements such as Occupy to have also made similar headway into governments. That is simply not the case though, as the interests of corporations and government run explicitly counter to those in Occupy. This is not to say that Invisible Children and its members are out there to explicitly profiteer or that this is some kind of shadow conspiracy. What they are is an effective propaganda-making organisation whose interests have happened to coincide with the rich and powerful who are seeking to exploit the massive mineral wealth in Uganda, and the conflicts in the country, for their own profit. It’s a lot easier to make a video viral when you have millions of dollars worth of resources at your disposal.
Pushing this rhetoric through the sponsoring of charities such as Invisible Children helps people to believe that what they are doing is for some nebulous “good“ when, in reality, they are sponsoring those who aim to exploit the people of Uganda and armed intervention against child soldiers . The last thing that is needed is well-meaning, energised students committed to action without any real understanding of where their money is going and what their actions are committing them to.
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.
Really? Disclaimer to liberals? Go fuck yourself
http://demandnothing.org/what-is-neoliberalism/
you people just piss me off they are trying to bring awareness to a good cause. STOP HATING!
all your going to do is hurt the cause you idiots
i think you missed the point in the article. military intervention is not a good cause.
did you even read the point of the article? The article is education, the video IC has done is emotion.
Uhh…hurt the cause? Did you comprehend anything in this article? Read it again. Then stop and THINK about what you just read. Then come back and post an intelligent comment.
Well said with every good cause comes the opportunists. When most people see a devastating car accident they cringe. Most people are thankful saying “Im are glad it isn’t me.” Where as sleazy lawyers look at the same catastrophe and see dollar signs with lawsuits. With all good actions you will at most times have the heartless bottom-liner throw their hat in when it benefits them. I do want to say that the occupy movement wasn’t nearly as concise as this. There was a lot of anger and fury but no focused strategy you had the socialist next to the tea party next to the anarchist next to the liberal next to the conservative. The Occupy movement could learn a lot from a campaign like this. You seem skeptical about the money and I think that is important. Every non profit needs to be transparent with how and why and where they are spending their money. You aren’t hating, it seems like you are cautious. What happens after he is captured do they trade a ruthless dictator for ruthless corporations? Sweat shops and mine shafts are still now way to have a childhood.
[...] redundant to add another one: Visible Children were very quick off the mark with their response, and Demand Nothing offered one of the first radical responses looking at how the Invisible Children …. For anyone who really wants to read up on the subject, whydev.org have a pretty extensive list of [...]
Off course, this military intervention causes victims. But the current situation has also this effect. We could just help the kids over there by sending money and give them a save place. But this save place will never be guaranteed if Joseph Kony is still around. I think that no matter what we do, it will cause victims.
So I think it’s a good cause to take the epicentre of this terrible situation down, which is Joseph Kony. And off course it will cause victims. But this will also happen if we don’t do a thing. I think we have to save the futures of these kids. Even if we have to hard measures.
Did you miss the part where the article made it clear that the LRA are not in Uganda and haven’t been for some years. They are already defeated organisation. Apart from anything else this campaign is at least 5 years too late.
Is it not rather arrogant to assume that Western intervention will definitely make things better compared to local measures? Especially considering recent history – Iraq, Afghanistan, even Pinochet.
I don’t think you understand- Kony is not the “epicentre” of child abuse in Uganda or central Africa. He is one of many rogue military leaders and war criminals exploiting and terrorizing civilian populations and fighting for dominance. Taking him and the LRA down would simply lead to a similar group becoming more prominent. Resolving this situation requires a more nuanced approach than “Kony bad, get rid of Kony by military intervention”. Especially since the groups IC support are responsible for crimes that approach Kony’s level of evil.
Even if you were donating to Amnesty International, would you still be confident that the money was going to the right hands, without someone taking a little off the top for their troubles? This group came straight out of left field (no pun intended) and has a ton of support with no history or credibility. You arm the people to take down Kony and give them our training and our technology and what happens when we leave? We risk creating a more horrible monster than the one there now.
When did invisible children ever say they are calling for an armed intervention? Hm?
When there are already 100 US military personnel in Uganda and the possibility of more to come, what else do you imagine’s going to happen? An airdrop of friendly policemen to go down and arrest him?
http://demandnothing.org/what-is-neoliberalism/
Laura, why don’t you pick up a gun and go over there yourself? What hard measures do you have to take? Petition your congressman to send our soldiers over there to risk their lives? What a sacrifice on your end.
This is no military intervention. Maybe you should watch the video…
Oh, and please stop this madness against them. I don’t see you trying to help anyone… Just cause discord…
The best way to cause discord is to initiate a military intervention, which IC are clearly trying to achieve.
No military intervention? Are you paying attention? Clearly not.
I can’t help but be reminded of the equally questionable NATO intervention in Kosovo, which did nothing but further destabilize the region and lead to the deaths of even more civilians. Appeal to emotion is the most dangerous type of manipulation, since it helps cloud the reason. Don’t let yourselves be manipulated so easily, that’s exactly what the powers that be want you to so that they can continue exploiting you.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those that have opinions and those that act. Both have their problems. To act is not easy and may lead to mistakes, to have opinions does not lead to anything. This article is very useful in giving good information and asking people to think with their own minds and be critical and not to be manipulated. What it does not give is an alternative or solution. If you do not agree with the ideas and actions of the organization, then do something else, find an alternative route. Don’t just sit and have opinions. It does not lead to anything.
the problem with this line of thought is that it is unfortunately true that literally *doing nothing* actually has a better outcome for uganda than supporting invisible children.
I admire those who have genuine compassion and take the stance to act. I dislike those who used these kind of people’s movement to fulfill their own agendas. I also dislike those who come up with excuses, critics (or get someone else to do it) to justify themselves so they can continue their normal life guiltless and shameless of not doing anything.
Fact:Joseph Kony is alive. Fact: He is still armed and fighting, either alone or with 100 bodyguards. Fact: Regardless of where he is, he still cause people to suffer (either 1 village, or 1 small province). Should we stop our effort to capture him even if he only kills, rapes, or abducts 1 person a day? Is 1 village not worth being rescued from tyranny?
Someone that suffers from many diseases will not be cured with just one medicine, but that medicine can cure 1 disease. This movement will not cure Uganda’s problem, but will definitely save or heal those currently oppressed by Joseph. We are also living in a real world where everything we do require money. Their movies may not contribute financially to the cause, but informs many others and brings up more prayers among the nations. Do we still believe in prayers?
My first impression of this movement is that their idea is to spotlight every leaders who violate human rights, yet no government cares. If this succeeds, it will make other leaders think twice. This doesn’t mean no more injustice, but will discourage many knowing that we are living in a world with free-flowing information. This is the cause they are fighting for (or at least those that have genuine heart and join the cause). Haven’t we been longing for such system in the world?
I admire those who have the heart to warn people not to fall into scam, but I also encourage everyone to be wise in looking at both sides of a coin. Every opinion counts and stir people into action. Every idles and decision impacts those living in Uganda. Sometimes, saying nothing is much better, when we don’t know the better solution.
The LRA are not operating in Uganda.
http://www.lracrisistracker.com/
So does anyone know what the armed interventions is supposed to achieve if Kony and the LRA are not operating in Uganda anymore?
Invisible Children is only talking about Uganda. Sounds like neighbouring countries are far worse off if that’s where Kony is now.
Silly american do-gooders. Rid us of ignorant saviors, oh G-d! Kony is one of hundreds, and the problem of child soldiers and terror overlords has arisen from a combination of exploitation of African resources by Western and increasingly Chinese companies, and the natural human tendencies towards greed and domination. Simplistic emotional solutions like the invisible children’s only create more problems. I wish they weren’t backed by nasty bankers like JP Morgan- no one would have heard of them! I don’t see them educating young Ugandans in the skills of film making and helping in the film production, for example. Self righteous positively blinded i-pad fondlers.
Have to agree with most comments regarding the the privatizing of this new “war” in Uganda. Similar to Bin-Laden. Killing one man does not solve the problem. There will be more and we will stay as advisors, pour money into it, and big business will profit on exploiting the resources and people of their country. It is the shock doctrine that we have deployed in similar situations since the early 60′s. If we could, just once, do something to really solve a terrible problem without already having a plan in place where investors and billionaires will fund and profit from, I will forever be grateful.
I do believe in this cause. However, has anybody wandered why this is a 2012 only initiative and only to capture one man? Could it be that once over, everyone is “unlinked” from the cause and private industry takes over? Will we lose our unification and oversight on the aftermath that may happen in Uganda? Hmmm.
The numbers are off on how much this article says Invisible Children spends on programs. You can go to this link and it breaks down everything that they spend their money on. http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html
Thank you Neil for your quick response. I also want to thank you for the links you have posted. The Huffington Post article was even more insightful since it was calling foul on The Isha Foundation and not Invisible Children. Even better the fake Isha members only likes were chase banking. So this only weakens your stance that Invisible Children are in cahoots with J.P. Morgan since clearly Chase wanted them too loose according to this article. Now onto the New York Times article. It was posted before the contest was won, and it had to deal with three groups that were disqualified due to their names, Those names including the word Drugs, Marijuana, and Abortion. Nothing was noted about voter Fraud.
If you like posting articles that go against what you are trying to prove, more power too you. I just highly advise that you read the articles before citing them in the near future…
Also I’m a bit puzzled that you removed my comment for questioning the validity of your article. Really makes me question your integrity
Have a wonderful weekend,
Aaron
I don’t know, the article pretty well states that they’re not “in cahoots”, but that there’s just a coinciding of interest? Maybe you should take off your tinfoil hat and read The Words. Also, Neil has not been the one purging the boring liberalism from our comments.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Joseph Stalin
I read the article and he used an article to further is point that the two groups as you said had coinciding interest. Problem is that said article
huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/fraud-in-facebookchase-co_n_433928.html
talks about how the IC was almost defeated by a small out of no where group that used phony Indian names and were friends with chase bank. I advise you to read that article since it crushes all validity to the point of this article.
Also I hate to tell you that I’m a conservative, not a liberal. I just want straight facts and not opinions that people base off of other blogs and there own opinions. Because when you do that, then you are assuming something. All that does is make an ass out of you and me.
I fail to see how it does. A coinciding interest in no way means a collusion of interests. We in no way state that the competition was rigged in IC’s favour, and nor does it become a crucial pivot point within the article. Nor is that the “point” of the article, which is that the KONY campaign’s interests and JP Morgan’s interests coincide and that JP Morgan and others would stand to gain from the exploitation of the situation the desires of KONY2012 would develop. As Neil stated in his follow up article:
“Our analysis is intended to show the coincidence of interests and aims of Invisible Children with a material analysis of its partners. It does not show direct, deliberate collusion with Invisible Children at all – only that there is an overlap of interests.”
We aren’t trying to imply there is a shadowy cabal of JP Morgan dudes in suits manipulating IC. It starts to seem that you haven’t read the article at all, or are scribing your own weird assumption of what we’re trying to say onto it.
And i’m afraid conservatism is another rancid manifestation of liberalism, combabe.
It is absolutely essential to put charities under proper scrutiny. Where else in public life could a million dollars in funding be determined by a easily-riggable facebook voting campaign, for instance? If a publicly accountable body or a political party raised it’s money in such a hap-hazard way, there would be an outcry. It would not be tolerated. We believe this is an example of a common problem the with fundraising activities of charities and NGO’s, a lack of financial transparency
Nowhere in this article does it state, or even imply, that Invisible Children did anything whatsoever in the funding process, just that the funding process itself was clearly inadaquet.
The lack of proper financial oversight and scrutiny is one of the things makes these sorts of charities so popular with wealthy investors, they are not held to the same standards of accountability that we would expect from other organisations involved in similar work.
I hope you have a terrible weekend. because you are a conservative, and therefore the Traditional Class Enemy.
Can someone elaborate on this point more? “Military intervention would do nothing but bolster JP Morgan’s profitmaking opportunities in the region.”
Did you actually read the article? “This organisation is also owner of Chase Military, an organisation that offers loans, mortgages and insurance to soldiers that are to be deployed abroad. JP Morgan have also used foreign military interventions in the past to secure investment opportunities such as in Afghanistan with the full support of the US Government. “
In the 2005 animated children’s comedy Madagascar, a group of idealistic and naive animal rights activists cause a group of zoo animals to be returned to their ancestral homeland – placing them in greater danger and suffering than they ever endured at the zoo. Can the same not be said of the ridiculous liberal charity Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign?
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