The LRA was designated a terrorist group by the US state department following the 9/11 attacks cite: state dept
US advisors were sent to Uganda in 2008 to help drive out Kony. They were not successful. cite: nyt
In 2010, Obama signed a law passed by both houses of Congress called, “The Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act.” This law sets out the US commitments to bring LRA leadership to justice and to assist in humanitarian efforts to recover from LRA activities. cite: the bill
In Fall of 2011, Obama authorized deployment of about 100 military personal to the region to help track down LRA operations and lead resistance against them. cite: wapo
In response to the above, Rush Limbaugh claimed that Obama was sending troops to kill Christians in Uganda. He posted a transcript of his statements on his website, in fact: cite: transcript. He few days later he said he’d heard that the LRA was accused of awful stuff like child kidnappings and murder and said he’d look into those claims. cite: media matters
So the US has been cautiously attempting to roust Kony for six years. Kony himself and the LRA has been on the radar for a decade. If this all leads to increased efforts to help Uganda, then that’s a good thing. It will be interesting to see who stands up for Kony and the LRA, this time.
My daughter (14) wants to contribute to this campaign, using our credit card of course. I can’t watch the video from here. From what she told me last night I believe she wants to order a poster or something for $5. Good idea?
I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I think it’s especially nice for young people to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, and for a good cause. This seems like a noble thing to be a part of.
And if this campaign is successful at getting Kony arrested, then maybe all these people that got involved will see “getting involved” as a worthwhile thing. Maybe next time they’ll even get involved to a higher degree.
Leaffan I don’t think $5 is going to hurt, and I think it would be a very good thing for her to get involved in something that is a non-partisan issue (one of the people in the video is a Republican senator [? congressman ?]). She should be aware that this specific movement involves pressure for military action.
It might beneficial for her to research other charities that are more hands-on in helping the victims of the LRA though. (Sample 1, sample 2, sample 3, sample 4.) That could be useful for developing her critical thinking about an issue that (if my FB friends are to be believed) seems very black and white in its initial presentation.
One of the criticisms of the group is the amount they have in computer and film assets. I say well duh, that’s what they do. They’re ‘raising awareness’ with that budget - and somehow in these past three days they’ve managed to achieve that spectacularly.
There’s a difference between a scam and a bad charity. This might not be a scam, but based on the spending issues and the way they’re evidently shading the truth and proposing bad solutions, it doesn’t look like a charity worth supporting over other organizations.
What are the spending issues? That they spend 2/3 of their money on PR and travel? They *admit *that their organization is primarily focused on getting exposure for this cause and Kony, which they seem to be doing very well.
Isn’t this campaign pretty much about old news by now? I mean, I heard about this a decade or so ago, and after the US Congress has acted on something, it’s practically fossilized.
Watch Facebook for my new campaign against slavery in the Confederacy. I’ll call it “Invisible Empire” – no wait, that’s taken. Anyway, I’ll do these guys one better: one hundred percent of the funds raised will find their way south of the Mason-Dixon line.*
*I live in Virginia.
I know of a reputable and successful philanthropic organization which is quite involved in Africa issues. That organization has made at least one grant to Resolve Uganda, which, by association, I presume to be a reputable organization as well.
Turns out that Resolve Uganda has partnered with Invisible Children and Enough Project on the KONY 2012 campaign. I’m not sure to what degree that legitimacy may be transferred, but it seems that the issue of scam/not scam may not be a simple answer. I will do some digging.
Technically, but Invisible Children just hit on a very successful marketing strategy.
Anyway, after having read about this a little I’m slightly more informed now. I won’t knock Invisible Children given that their primary goal is creating awareness, but I think that they have less need for additional funding. The other thing is that direct donations are usually more efficient than purchasing a product (though it offers no memorabilia other than peace of mind). Finally, it may be a little harsh to put it in these terms, but now may be the time to have a discussion on Utilitarian terms about whether aiding the victims of atrocities or sufferers of malnutrition is a better use of money. It’s entirely possible you decide on the former, but millions of children still starve to death each year.
In fact, it’s entirely possible that those two options overlap. As far as I’m aware, no registered charity funds military intervention so providing basic care is the most obvious option.
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That may be true. Is there another organization we can support that is attacking this particular problem?
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The US government (and the US military)? IIRC, we sent nearly a hundred special ops forces into the Congo region to train (and probably equip) local forces and help hunt this guy down in like 2009 or 2010. The best thing that could come out of this (I don’t think it’s a scam btw, though as Marley23 says above that doesn’t mean you should donate to these folks either) Invisible Children thing is to get the US more involved in eliminating the problem and providing support by increasing public awareness of all of this, and causing folks to put pressure on the government to Do Something™.
This site doesn’t show how much the guys at the head of the charity are paying themselves. My understanding is that it’s close to six figures.
Good idea.
We can only hope, but really, fundamentally all this charity is doing–however much it might raise awareness among those who normally don’t give a damn about Africa–is exploiting the nature of FB, which isn’t really at all about the kind of critical thinking that is necessary to really understand this whole situation, so simplistically portrayed here.
Well, I’d like to make 95K for my FB mastery, too. I certainly wouldn’t send them any money, myself.