For vs Against Kony 2012

The Kony 2012 campaign has become world wide! The promotion video has been viewed over 30 million times and is creating lots of talk. There are two opinions; for vs against the Kony 2012 campaign.

According to the Visible Children blog these are the three major concerns:
(http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble)

"Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal for an issue which arguably needs action and aid, not awareness, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they lack an external audit committee. But it goes way deeper than that."

"The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s a photo of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission. These books each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending."

"Still, the bulk of Invisible Children’s spending isn’t on supporting African militias, but on awareness and filmmaking. Which can be great, except that Foreign Affairs has claimed that Invisible Children (among others) “manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony — a brutal man, to be sure — as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil.” He’s certainly evil, but exaggeration and manipulation to capture the public eye is unproductive, unprofessional and dishonest."

The Invisible Children website confronts all of these concerns.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html

Visiting their website I found that they confront most of the viewers concerns. For example the photo of the the founders of the invisible children.

"A story told by Jason Russell: 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"

They also have all there financial statements on this website. Personally, the financial statements do not look like they have only 32% of finances going to direct services. Unless, you consider awareness programs not a helping source!

Truthfully, the third issue I haven't seen any responses on the website. About how Kony is certainly evil, but exaggeration and manipulation to capture the public eye is unproductive, unprofessional and dishonest. Though the website is taking questions on twitter of the viewers concerns. If you really wanted to know the websites opinion on this issue you can tweet them.

With these concerns in mind,  I believe in the Kony 2012. They are making lots of awareness of an issue that is happening somewhere where the habitants can not fight it without outside help. I feel that the finances are being used properly, because the money that goes towards awareness products, media and film creation, fundraising, and awareness programs was used to grab the worlds populations attention. It helped bring the United States military to Uganda which will be an outside force to help the people who can not fight! The photo is just a juvenile mistake and I find not a big issue. I know that if I had a chance to hold a bazooka I would! I would probably just not put the photo on the internet though. I found the film very moving and informative. I did not find it unproductive, unprofessional, nor dishonest.

This is one of the biggest campaigns that the world has been well informed of. I think our class should participate by making our neighbourhood well known of the Kony issue on April 20 by putting up posters.