The following is a guest post from an OhInternet correspondent
Back when I was a child, I recall an evening where I’m sitting in front of my family’s living room television watching Full House or something like that, when all of a sudden a commercial break comes. During this commercial break, I was blasted by pictures of small black children with flies buzzing around them wandering a desert and mudhuts with a speaker that kept reemphasizing that these children had little to no food, little to no clean water, little to no clothing, little to no education and that we should send money to help. I recall springing up to my mother and saying “Let’s send them money, mommy!” I also recall my mother’s response, “Chances are none of the money we can offer up would ever actually get to those children.”
At that time, I don’t think I understood what my mom had meant. Nowadays, I’m using that line a lot. I refuse to give a dime to many organizations. The majority of the African help funds are shams that spend more money for personal gain than helping, Salvation Army is selective on the famalies it will help (gotta meet their standards), hell, I won’t even buy from Chick-Fil-A because they spend some of their funds towards anti-LGBT groups and policies. Being as skeptical as I am (or stingy, since I’m sure some of you think I’m overly skeptical or something), I knew Invisible Children, the filmmakers behind the popular viral sensation “Kony 2012,” was a pointless waste after losing thirty precious minutes (which, arguably, wouldn’t have been spent on anything better).
After watching that video, I sit there and think “Well, that’s going to be a failed campaign.” Then I find that before the hour is up that my Facebook wall looked like Invisible Children threw up all over it. I go into these discussions and posts and critique the very thing they support: the Kony 2012 video. First, I’d point out how a good portion of the video is nothing but self aggrandizement. “We did this,” “we did that,” “we’re so great but we still need help!” Secondly, the video’s narrator is seen talking about Kony to his child. He wanted to show off that even a child can recognize that Kony is evil. There’s one problem with the way he goes about it: he out right calls Kony “the bad guy” before telling his son anything else. If you know anything about children, you know that they are easily impressionable, especially from their own parents. Third, they constantly vier off from some great story or explination to further say ”Invisible Children wants to stop these atrocities.” This compelling witness Jacob is never allowed to tell a story. I think the most you hear from him is two or three sentences. The only real thing you get from the kid is him breaking down into crying. Jacob’s entire story is left up to the narrator to tell, which is very stupid. It’s like me telling you the story of Chris Benoit: Benoit was a hero of mine, so if I told you his story, he would appear as this great man who had accomplished amazing feats within his sport; yet I’d probably swerve away from mentioning how he killed his son and wife out of cold blood.
As one could imagine, I was often times ignored or told I was looking “too deeply” into the video. So, I decided to hit up Google with my free time in regards to Mr. Kony. I ended up finding that Kony and his LRA weren’t even in Uganda anymore. They left for the greener pastures that are Sudan, Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. Furthermore, I learned that Invisible Children spends more on film making than it donates to Africa and what they do donate goes to the Ugandan military which has been accused of raping and pillaging, sometimes just as bad as Kony.
Founders of Invisible Children looking like hipster warriors
What am I getting at here? These people who are supporting Kony 2012 and giving their money to Invisible Children are no different than when I was five and felt like the commercial on the tv is exactly as it claimed to be.
You want to stop Kony? Stop supporting Invisible Children, they’re only going to lead to a higher death toll of children (remember, it’s a CHILD MADE army that’s pretecting Kony) and more hardships to innocents.
Yes, Kony is bad, but you shouldn’t ever pick the lesser of two evils; unlike the USA’s presidential elections, going the third route won’t be a waste.
For further reading:
Invisible Children’s self-reported Financials
Educate yourselves. Stop being a tool. Invisible Children only wants to feed its own coffers.
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