I woke up this morning to find that Facebook has gone KONY mad.
Watch the video. It’s thirty minutes long but worth the time. It is worth the time both for the story behind it, and to understand the rest of the thread.
I’ve spoilered my opinions because I don’t want to introduce any bias before you watch it.
I highly recommend spending thirty minutes watching this video before commenting. Not just to participate in a discussion, but because the story within it needs to be told, however it is told.
I also know it’s bad form to post a link to a video with no explanation, so grudgingly here’s the TL:DR version:Some American guys went to Uganda in 2003 and were horrified to learn about the unspeakably awful crimes of the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony. They befriended Jacob, a child victim. They started a campaign called Invisible Children to raise awareness of the LRA issue in the US, in order to put pressure on US politicians to send military advisers to assist the Ugandan government in chasing him down and eliminating him. They have had speaking tours where they brought Jacob over, and various protests. To do this, they propose putting up fake “KONY” campaign posters, and various social media activities. They also suggest buying an action pack from them.Even as KONY was going viral, a backlash had already started, so by the time I saw the first campaign there was a counter-campaign stalking it.One negative response. In summary despite having 501(c)3 status, Invisible Children isn’t completely transparent with its books, and only 31% of funding goes directly to Uganda - a lot more goes on travel expenses and filmmaking. It’s a slick campaign and has apparently claimed successes that can’t solely be credited to Invisible Children. It supports military intervention via the Ugandan government, and the Ugandan government doesn’t exactly have its hands clean.Here’s what I think:[spoiler]No matter the nature of the organisation, they’ve done a better job than any other organisation in history in getting the horrific story of the LRA out to ordinary Joe Soaps. I’m a news whore so I’ve known about the LRA for years - and of course have done nothing to help, though I’ve posted about it several times on the SDMB - but I’d imagine of the 15 million people (it was only 10 million about three hours ago) who have now watched the video, a substantial proportion didn’t know anything about these bastards beforehand.
Even if Invisible Children eat kobe beef and caviar with golden cutlery every night, they have done a hell of a lot more good than me - or their critics - ever have.
They are trying to f**k up the LRA, and anyone who does that has my support - though perhaps I will think twice before they get my money.[/spoiler]