Kony 2012.... Again

So I know I already did a post about Kony 2012 and about how I dislike it, but that one was based almost entirely on emotion and feeling. Well I finally had time tonight to sit down and do some research about the organization and everything around it.

So before anyone can take what I say here and construe it into a different light, I do think that Josephy Kony is a bad man, there is really no doubting that. So my ranting and raving goes out to the organization Invisible Children. Also as another note, I am going to try really hard not to just re-hash all of the other arguments out there against them. 

Since they are a non-profit organization, their finances are public record. Being the curious type, I looked through them to see what they are spending their money on. Since I am not an accountant, for the most part it escaped me, but there was one thing that did catch my eye. According to them, in a two year period, they spent  $351,412 on "video and camera equipment" (if you want to see it for your self, its on page 12). That's a lot of money. Period. But that's a HELL of a lot of money for equipment... To put it in prospective, Nicolas Winding Refn's semi biographical film "Bronson" was filmed entirely for $230,000. That is all of pre-production (so the script, the meetings, the director and above the line personal, ect...), production (so equipment, cast, crew, directors, producers, sets, etc..) and post, was all done for more than $100,000 less than what Invisible Children spent on EQUIPMENT for two years! So if you then add in the cost of their computers for editing, and their transport costs it totals: $800,840! For equipment and transport of equipment alone, that's not the cost of the actual filming, the editing, or the distribution costs (which I am sure were HUGE). So if we were to extend these figures out for the length of their existence (6 years) you get almost 3 million dollars, and all they have to show for it are 12 short internet videos and one, 55 minuet long documentary.

I guess its really not the Kony 2012 movement, or Invisible Children in general that bother me, its peoples blind faith in it. I don't care what you believe, but I think that everyone needs to know why they believe it. For instance, I don't care for Invisible Children, because based on the research that I have done, it sounds like a group of college aged guys who are in desperate need for attention, and they are willing to use the pain and suffering of a nation, as well as the "White Man's Burden", to get it. But if someone can show me some good solid evidence to support a different claim, then I would be willing to listen. But if all you have done, is watched a 29 minuet long documentary, produced by the organization its self and are now a firm believer in what they have to say. Then either keep your bigoted, one sided opinions to your self... Or better yet go do some god damn research and make your own opinion, not the one they tell you to make.

Kony 2012

Just watched the Kony 2012 video (if you havent seen it search Kony 2012) and i think that the ideas behind this are brilliant. Not because of what it is doing, but because of how it is doing it. They are making it so that we can have a revolution with out doing anything. What are the three things it asks you to do at the end? Sign a petition, wear a bracelet, and donate some money. These are all actions that can be done with out you having to change anything. The whole issue of why nothing has been done already comes down to the question of boredom or apathy. While apathy is the condition of not caring, bordom is just a slumber one can be roused from. This short doc takes the stance that we as a society have become apathetic. How can we stop Kony? Well you don't really have to do anything besides wear a bracelet, or sign a petition, or share the video. And that is exactly why the way that they are doing this is brilliant. They know that if they tried to do anything more extreme or caused people to be more daring than putting up a poster that no one would do it. This allows us to feel as though we are revolutionaries with out making us really do anything. Before people start reading this and interpret what I am  saying in the wrong way: No I am not saying what they are doing is a bad thing. No I am not defending Kony, he is a manipulative, vile, evil man who does indeed need to be stopped. I am simply commenting on the social commentary that this film brings up. Now that you have read my ramblings I want you to ask your self something. Apathy or Bordom? Even if you look at this in a broader prospective, there are so many problems that plague us right here in the U.S, problems that people constantly talk about. But why have we not done anything about it?

Apathy or Bordom?