This
document contains a list of criticisms aimed at Invisible Children Inc and the
Kony 2012 initiative, as well as the official and my own responses. I compiled
it as part of my mission to find out whether to support the Kony 2012 campaign
or not, and here I offer my own research and tentative conclusion as a help to
others in the same quagmire.
The
critiques are listed in bold as the headlines for each section. I’ve done my best
to include sources whenever possible.
8
March 2012
Finance
Only 32 % of Invisible Children’s revenue
of the Fiscal Year 2011 went towards ”direct services”
Invisible
Children (IC) has a ”three fold goal”:
”1) Document and make the world aware of the LRA. This includes making documentary films and touring these films around the world so that they are seen for free by millions of people.2) Channeling the energy and awareness from informed viewers of IC films into large scale advocacy campaigns that have mobilized the international community to stop the LRA and protect civilians.3) Operate programs on the ground in the LRA-affected areas to provide protection, rehabilitation and development assistance.”
In the
Fiscal Year 2011, 80.46 % of the organization’s expenses went towards the program,
16.24 % went towards administration and management, and 3.22 % went towards
fundraising.[1]
It
would appear that the 32 % to ”direct services” which commentors have latched
on to is only little more than 1/3 of the total expenses towards the program—specifically
the portion that went to ”goal 3)” as I understand it. IC aren’t squandering
money; they’re distributing it across their three-fold goal. The only
unanswered question I have about this concerns the approximately 16 % towards
”management” costs. Apparently, the founders of IC spend magnanimously on
themselves, their equipment, and their travels. Perhaps this is a
misunderstanding on my behalf, but it’s what I get from perusing their
financial statement.[2][3]
The founders earn $85,000+, approximately
1 % of the total expenses, a year each
As far
as I’ve been able to find, this objection remains unanswered. My friend
suggests that the founders’ salaries make perfect sense because establishing
the Kony program is expensive in many different ways, but I’m hedging my bets
and would like an official response.
Invisible Children only has a 2/4 stars
score for ”Accountibility and Transparency” on Charity Navigator
”Charity Navigator gives our Programs its highest rating of 4 stars. Our Accountability and Transparency score is currently at 2 stars due primarily to the single fact that Invisible Children does not have 5 independent voting members on our board of directors—we currently have 4. We are in the process of interviewing potential board members, and we will add an additional independent member this year in order to regain our 4-star rating by 2013. We have been independently audited by Considine and Considine, since the fiscal year end of June 30, 2006 and all of our audits have resulted in unqualified opinions on the audit reports.”
Apparently,
there’s no cause for concern; IC’s Charity Navigator Accountibility rating is
being pushed down by a technicality, and the organization is actively working
towards rectifying it.[4]
Invisible Children refuses to cooperate
with the Better Business Bureau
”Participation in BBB’s program is voluntary— we are choosing to wait until we have expanded our Board of Directors, as some questions hinge on the size of our Board. The current Board is small in size and reflects Invisible Children’s grassroots foundation. Invisible Children has now reached a juncture of success that has astonished even its greatest supporters. While it is important to retain a presence on the Board that reflects Invisible Children’s early beginnings, we also are working to realign the structure this year.The best researched paper supporting the policy position of the KONY 2012 campaign can be found here, drafted by Paul Ronan of Resolve: http://www.theresolve.org/peace-can-be—3.”[5]
It
seems IC’s administration isn’t all too worried about this piece of criticism
but is still taking steps towards ”realigning structure”, which may entail BBB
cooperation in the future. The important thing that I get out of this is that
IC isn’t skirting around the criticism and that actual thought has gone into
the decision not to participate in the BBB at the moment.
For
me, the fact that all of the organization’s financial statements are public and
independently audited, that its Finance rating on Charity Navigator is
62.39/70, and that its Overall rating is 51.52/70 serve to anasthetize my
worries.[6]
Campaign
The founders of Invisible Children were
photographed posing with guns along with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement
(SPLA/M)
”A story told by Jason Russell: 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.”[7]
It
would seem that IC declares no official cooperation with the SPLA/M (who the
Internet tells me has a chequered history of warring and murder and rape
accusations), and that the circulated picture is an incidental joke stemming
from a peace talk gathering, no less. Also, the picture is several years old
and doesn’t appear in any way connected to the Kony 2012 project.[8]
One
blog post describes IC as wanting to ”flood Uganda with guns”, accompanying the
claim with this picture. I was one of probably many people who read that post
and was taken aback by the realization that these self-avowedly
well-intentioned humanitarian filmmakers were actually belligerent, ignorant Western
brats who just wanted to turn Africa into their own first person shooter. Upon
further examination, this seems like a complete misrepresentation of the
founders and their motivations, and I can only hope that it wasn’t deliberate.[9]
Invisible Children supports the
Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) despite Uganda’s history of human rights
violations and the fact that the LRA is no longer active in Uganda
”We do not defend any of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Ugandan government or the Ugandan army (UPDF). None of the money donated through Invisible Children ever goes to the government of Uganda. Yet the only feasible and proper way to stop Kony and protect the civilians he targets is to coordinate efforts with regional governments.”
I
think the above is an important quote, as is this:
”Jedediah Jenkins, the "director of idea development for Invisible Children", responded to the concerns about working with the Ugandan government by stating that, "There is a huge problem with political corruption in Africa. If we had the purity to say we will not partner with anyone corrupt, we couldn’t partner with anyone."”
IC
seems to be saying that partnering with the Ugandan army to bring down Kony and
his LRA is the lesser of two evils. This makes sense to me, especially
considering the fact that the Ugandan state is a member of the UN and can
therefore be subjected to political and economical sanctions if they don’t play
by the rules, whereas a paramilitary group of insurgents such as the LRA can’t.
Regarding
the strategy of enlisting the UPDF for support despite the fact that Kony left
Uganda years ago, IC states:
”The LRA left northern Uganda in 2006. The LRA is currently active in Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan. Invisible Children’s mission is to stop Joseph Kony and the LRA wherever they are and help rehabilitate LRA-affected communities. The Ugandan government’s army, the UPDF, is more organized and better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries (DRC, South Sudan, CAR) to track down Joseph Kony. Part of the US strategy to stop Kony is to encourage cooperation between the governments and armies of the 4 LRA-affected countries. The LRA was active in Uganda for nearly 20 years, displacing 1.7 million people and abducting at least 30,000 children. The people and government of Uganda have a vested interested in seeing him stopped.”
This
piece of criticism is levelled at IC as though the organization were somehow
concealing Kony’s current area of activity, despite the fact that the Kony 2012
video actually mentions that the LRA has moved out of Uganda and stresses that
this does not mean the group is inactive and does not need to be stopped or
brought to justice.
By the
way, one article I came across (which I can’t find again for some reason)
listed the above quote as the response to the criticism that the UPDF have
several human rights violations on its conscience when in fact it’s the
response to the point about the LRA having left Uganda. If this wasn’t the
product of a simple misunderstanding, it seems dishonest to me.[10][11]
Invisible Children exaggerates the
proportions of Kony and the LRA’s crimes
This
section of the Kony 2012 Wikipedia article neatly sums up both the critique,
which has been widely circulated, and the response:
”In November of 2011, while the Kony 2012 film was in production, Foreign Affairs magazine published an article that stated that Invisible Children had "manipulated facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders" and was "portraying Kony — a brutal man, to be sure — as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil". Resolve, one of Invisible Children's "partner organizations", responded to the article, saying that the accusations were a "serious charge ... published with no accompanying substantiation." These criticisms of how Invisible Children has been acting to raise awareness and the statements that were made in the film resurfaced when Kony 2012 was released. Jenkins responded to the new criticisms by saying that they were "myopic" and that the video itself was a "tipping point" that "got young people to care about an issue on the other side of the planet that doesn’t affect them".”[12]
I also
find it worthwhile to note that the Kony 2012 video—to my memory—mentions only
30,000 child abductions without specifiying that this is the number for Uganda
alone; the total number of child abductions by the LRA is in excess of 66,000.
The objection that IC exaggerates the issue seems stupefyingly idiotic,
irrelevant, and unfounded to me. What is ”a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil”, and
why would it matter whether Kony is one or not? If the word ”evil” is to mean
anything at all, it must apply to Kony. So what if he’s not Hitler or the
fucking Antichrist? His crimes speak for themselves.[13]
Goal
This
is what I consider the stated goal of Invisible Children Inc and Kony 2012:
”We are advocating for the arrest of Joseph Kony so that he can be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a precedent for future war criminals. The goal of Kony 2012 is for the world to unite to see him arrested and prosecuted for his crimes against humanity.”
Also,
”For more than two decades, Kony has refused opportunities to negotiate an end to the violence peacefully, and governments of countries where Kony has operated — including Uganda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Central African Republic — have been unable to capture Kony or bring him to justice. This is because regional governments are often not adequately committed to the task, but also because they lack some of the specific capabilities that would help them do so. The KONY 2012 campaign is calling for U.S. leadership to address both problems. It supports the deployment of U.S. advisors and the provision of intelligence and other support that can help locate and bring Kony to justice, but also increased diplomacy to hold regional governments accountable to their basic responsibilities to protect civilians from this kind of brutal violence. Importantly, the campaign also advocates for broader measures to help communities being affected by LRA attacks, such as increased funding for programs to help Kony’s abductees escape and return to their homes and families.”[14]
Intervening in the political affairs of
Central Africa may solve the Kony problem but in the long run will only result
in further civil war and insurgency
This
is what I call the ”backfire argument”, and it’s an important moral argument often
used against humanitarian intervention in developing nations.
The
argument goes: ”If we rush in and stomp all over the domestic politics of this
or that nation, we risk destroying its opportunity to develop on its own terms
as our Western nations have and also of creating the appearance of imperialism,
thereby engendering hostility towards international political powers.”
The
objection reminds me of Daniel Dennett’s ”Three Mile Island effect” whereby
something that seems like a moral catastrophe in the short term may have
unpredictable, positive consequences in the long term. The backfire argument is
basically an appeal to the inverse of that.
In
sociopolitical contexts, the sheer number of factors involved which may
determine the future outcome of any given action is just ball-shatteringly gargantuan.
However, it seems silly to me to refrain from moral action merely out of a fear
of a possible unpredictable backfire in the long term. The solution I’d propose
is to anticipate and be prepared for the possible eventual backfire of the
humanitarian intervention and seek to suppress it or navigate it in the best
way possible when or if it does
arise. Cross that bridge, you know.
There
is also the counterargument that the real, underlying significance of the Kony
2012 initiative is to demonstrate or perhaps gauge the Internet’s potential as
a worldwide political force. If the campaign causes the Internet to mobilize
and strive towards activism, it’s actually successful, whether ”Africa is
saved” or not—or so some claim.
Conclusion
So in
conclusion, should you and I support Kony 2012? Despite some of the
organization’s financial hiccups, it seems to me to be the moral thing to do, based on the information that I have
acquired. Do your own research and draw your own conclusions. But wouldn’t
it be fucking amazing if we did this? If the
Internet, of all things, did this? Yes. Yes, it would.
Sources
[1] Invisible Children responding to
criticism: http://invisible.tumblr.com/,
sections: introduction and ”RE: FINANCIALS”.
[2] Invisible Children financial statement
FY11: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/financials,
page 6.
See:
”Production Costs” and ”Travel and Transportation”.
[3] Invisible Children on Charity Navigator:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12429,
section: ”Compensation of Leaders”.
[4] Invisible Children responding to
criticism: http://invisible.tumblr.com/,
section: ”RE: CHARITY NAVIGATOR RATING”.
[5] Ibid, section: ”RE: BETTER BUSINESS
BUREAU (BBB)”.
[6] Invisible Children on Charity Navigator:
[7] Invisible Children responding to
criticism: http://invisible.tumblr.com/,
section: ”RE: THE PHOTO OF THE FOUNDERS WITH THE GUNS”.
[8] South Sudan army accused of killing and raping civilians in C. Equatoria:
[9] Should I donate money to Kony 2012 or
not? Blog post: www.vice.com/en_uk/read/should-i-donate-money-to-kony-2012-or-not?utm_source=tumblrpage
[10] Invisible Children responding to
criticism: http://invisible.tumblr.com/,
sections: ”RE: UGANDAN GOVERNMENT HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD”, ”RE: THE STRATEGY TO
SECURE KONY ARREST”, and ”RE: WHY WORK WITH THE UPDF IF LRA IS NO LONGER IN
NORTHERN UGANDA”.
[11] Wikipedia’s article on Kony 2012: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kony_2012,
section: ”Criticism and responses”.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Wikipedia’s article about the LRA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRA, section:
introduction.
[14] Invisible Children responding to
criticism: http://invisible.tumblr.com/,
sections: ”RE: STOPPING KONY” and ”RE: THE STRATEGY TO SECURE KONY ARREST”.
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