What I have learned from the KONY 2012 Campaign.

If you have been anywhere even remotely near the internet over the past two days, you will have seen something of the viral phenomenon that is KONY 2012. Like Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’, the views of this video has been shared throughout all social media platforms, leading the trending topics on Twitter to be flooded with variations of “KONY 2012”, “STOP KONY” and “CHANGE THE WORLD”. Facebook has been swarmed with posts about KONY, and shares of the video made by the charity Invisible Children. However, unlike Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’, it has been accompanied by pleading from viewers and sharers to pass this along, to do something and to rescue the Ugandans from the tyrannical rebel leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army. What I’ve learned is the reactions to a video such as this, made to tug at peoples heartstrings and stir up emotions and consequently action, actually shed light on our sheltered, Western way of living, bringing back the heroic missionary who goes to ‘save the natives from themselves’.

Don’t get me wrong, awareness of any world issue is important, but this is what I mean. A sheltered, middle class person watches this video. They are touched, and become overwhelmed with this urge to “save those poor Africans”, a western-centric belief that only they, as privileged middle to upper class white people, can do anything about this issue. THIS blog article, which I highly recommend reading, discusses the problem with pouring money into a situation in which money can do little good and encourages countries to live off western aid. By using money as a substitute for action, an expectation for aid is developed, and while certain people become richer, people still suffer because rather than fixing the problems, people just have more money. Meanwhile, back in Westonia, those privileged middle to upper class people can sleep easier on their nice, clean beds.

Here is where my problem lies. After watching the video on Joseph Kony, I sought to find out more about this situation. I looked at documents from the ICC and how the UN and the ICC both dealt and differed in their attitudes towards international criminals. I read about Joseph Kony, in the same way that I researched Muammar Qaddafi, Osama Bin Laden and the conflict in Syria. I did this because I need to, for myself. I need to know everything there is about a situation before I have an opinion, so it can be educated and I can back up my thoughts with fact. So, having done my research, I shared the KONY 2012 video with my Facebook friends and Twitter followers. What I neglected to do, however, is read up on the organisation that is Invisible Children. This is what most people neglected to do: research. Not only Joseph Kony and the LRA, but also the state of Uganda and the Invisible Children charity. To a large majority of viewers, Joseph Kony became KONY 2012. The real and actual issues of Uganda became “Stop this bastard prick KONY from killing and raping kids. Save those children!” This is the problem. If the world views the issues of a country as one thing, when in reality there are a myriad of different and varied problems making the country the way it is, what sort of aid can come of it? It’s like trying to stop internal bleeding with a band-aid.

After sharing the video, I began to find out more about Uganda and Invisible Children. Of Invisible Children’s 2011 Financial Report, they raised $13,765,177. Their expenditure was $699,617 for Film making, $2,310,488 for awareness programs (including conferences, media and web design), $850,050 for awareness products (such as armbands, bracelets, clothing and DVD’s) which totals up to $3,860,155. Management and fundraising expenses total $1,731,245. That leaves the money designated for Central Africa programs, which total to $3.,303,228 (this is the money that goes to schooling programs, aid, radio systems etc.). This makes their net income $4,870, 547 (according to their financial report for 2011). This organisation-heavy distribution of money has earned IC a rating of 2/4, which in comparison to other charities is not good. However, as a tool for raising awareness, Invisible Children does very well. Awareness is the first step towards change, although some may question Invisible Children’s effectiveness past raising awareness.

I understand the psyche of the Western world concerning those less fortunate. For some there is a genuine guilt that they were born into privilege where others were not. For others there is a love and passion for other people, perhaps in a certain situation, but perhaps just as a whole, and others still become overwhelmed by the thought of living in such a terrible world, and become paralysed by the immensity of it all. What I have learned from KONY 2012 is what people choose to do with information. Without research, people view this video, become touched at the misfortunes of the Ugandans, and do what little they think they can do. Being touched by the plight of others is not a bad thing. What is a bad thing is that people are placing more emphasis on KONY 2012 the campaign than on Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA. KONY is gaining more and more traction in the virtual world, but like most world issues, the tragedy and trauma that is actually happening is too much to comprehend. This atrocity will, in most viewers minds, not go much deeper than compassion. This means that after donating money to Invisible Children, most will feel as if their part has been played, their conscience may rest easy now.

There may be a small percentage that understand the intentions of Invisible children and the role of the U.S Military, and may question whether supporting direct military intervention is the most useful methods, considering Joseph Kony’s army and personal guard are made up of children. The same children that people want to protect and save, being at the forefront of military conflict, in which many may lose their lives (remember Osama Bin Laden, and the people that died simply from being a part of his shield? Now imagine they were all children). This is what the KONY 2012 campaign neglects to mention. This is what people are inadvertently campaigning for by promoting this method of stopping Joseph Kony: the direct military confrontation of Joseph Kony’s child army. The problem with this is that most people don’t know, and don’t understand what the KONY 2012 campaign aims to do.

When I shared this video, I came from a perspective that this is another issue in our world that people should be aware of. I value awareness and knowledge, and I have been known to share, on a regular basis, videos and articles that deal with racism, misogyny, politics, equalism, and world affairs. To share this video was not going outside of my regular patterns. What viral attention has done is open peoples eyes to the issue in Uganda. What people have done is forgotten that right now, Syria is burning. Right now, in your cities, people are also sleeping in mass shelters, homeless and destitute. Right now, war strips countries bare, children everywhere are suffering. Right now, the world’s attention is focussed on the issue in Uganda, but right now, people are ignorant.

The solution to ignorance is not throwing money at a problem. Money from privileged countries often does more damage than not. In an article by Jonathan Glennie at The Guardian, Glennie discusses that the impact that foreign aid brings to disaster stricken countries is as complex as the problems themselves. Glennie states that “Aid has mixed impacts, can harm as well as help development and takes the focus away from other more important things rich countries should be doing to spur development. African governments should set out medium-term plans to reduce aid dependency, while rich countries need to switch from traditional forms of aid-giving to supporting global goods (like clean energy, vaccinations, security) in new ways”. Instead of encouraging countries to become self sufficient and adapting our own countries trade schemes to assist them in doing so, the conscience of the West pours aid into their economies, so much that a large percentage of government budgets consists of foreign aid donations.

In the editors review of William Easterly’s book ‘The White Man’s Burden; Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good’, in Bloomsberg Businessweek’s magazine, both Bloomsberg and Easterly confront the issue of intentions when it comes to aid, “In fact, he [Easterly] says he's allergic to anything smacking of ambitious planning. The fatal flaw of big aid initiatives, he writes, is that they derive from rich Westerners' utopian agendas rather than input from the needy. Another problem with broad, collective goals is that no one agency bears responsibility for achieving anything concrete”.

This opens up big questions of the effectiveness of Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign. Yes, awareness has been raised, Joseph Kony has been singled out as the new Qaddafi, the new Hitler, Stalin or Bin Laden. The west is so desperate for a typical ‘movie bad-guy’ to take out that they forget that there are more issues in the world apart from Joseph Kony. The evil in this world won’t stop at his death like it does at the end of a film. This concern for the welfare of the world population has to be sustainable, as to avoid the cynicism of the West as global conflict arises again and again. What the KONY 2012 campaign has done is reminded us all that if the public cares enough, action will happen, but each of us has to be aware of the consequences of those actions. Information creates responsibility, but with responsibility comes the need for knowledge. Knowledge of the situation, knowledge of the plan of action, knowledge about the impact you will be making by being involved. And once you know, then decide whether the consequences are something you can live with.

So what needs to be done now?

Don’t just watch this video once. Watch it twice, three times. Research the charity that you are giving into. Think, have you ever encountered Invisible Children in your world of charitable giving? What if you haven’t, or don’t regularly give to charity? Well, first find out about the charity. Before you give your money to an organisation, find out what it supports, where its money goes to. This lack of research as to where our money goes is a big concern. You wouldn’t go to a new restaurant without reading up on its reviews online, so why should you give your money to an organisation that you know nothing about?

Things you should read before giving your money to a charity.

Their Website. Find out what they support, and how they do that.

Their Financials. How much they earn per year, how much money goes to aid, to combat, to their founders and CEO’s, to their campaigns. If they value campaigns over aid, they are basically an advertising firm, and you can give your money to another charity.

Their Wikipedia page. Find out things that the charity’s website may not say. Whilst not a reliable academic source, Wikipedia usually provides information in a concise format. See if there are citations and actual facts to back up what you’ve read. Follow some links. Read some more.

Look at any news articles on their operations, how they do things. See if there is any linked conflict or corruption in their organisation.

Above all, find out if what they stand for and what they do aligns with your personal beliefs. Don’t yet know what your personal beliefs are? Don’t give away your money then. Always make an informed decision, because acting in ignorance could cause more harm than good.




EDIT.
For some other articles on the matter,
The Punch, ICB: Playing Heroes and Villains with KONY 2012 by Tory Shepherd
Visible Children, a Blog about viewing KONY 2012 critically
The Independent, Stop Kony, Yes, But Don't Stop Asking Questions by Musa Okwonga