Hi Brian, I appreciate learning about "Invisible Children." Reviewing some of the material is discomforting. I appreciate even more your introduction of the broad topic of children's rights. Where are the words to articulate words that are not said yet, such as the global ideological struggle for the hearts and minds of children, many of whom, when you look at the demographics in terms of age and socio-economic status, have no place to go. I am looking forward to reading some of your work.
Thank you Brian, an interesting account, I have not seen the video or ever heard of the Charity. I will look at some of the links.
I do not DETEST anybody but the politics of some groups is very imperialist by its nature. americans are like all people, simply human beings and by no means worse and certainly not better than others.
Well Brian, although I am one of the right-wing Evangelical Christian Republicans you so detest, I think we can agree on a very basic principle here...
Don't get sucked in by flashy videos or compelling tweets. Do your own research on where you want your money to go and how close you want it to get to a core problem. Find out WHO is doing WHAT for WHOM in the region you want to impact.
I'll leave it at that.
It has been done Kim. Roughly 30% of their income goes to all of African work. Jason Russell certainly has a fat salary plus 'other incomes' from sponsors - all very right wing, evangelical groups with strong Republican ties. The people looking at this closely I trust are NOT investigative journalists but people like myself who are anthropologists, development specialists and the like and all of us have had long, long experience as either trustees, directors or senior officers of charities in a number of countries including the USA. I know exactly how expensive investment into aid and human rights is after around 40 years of being part of that world. IC are far more concerned with converting young people to their type of Christianity, wherever they are, and less with bringing justice to victims of gross human rights abuses. That makes what this film claims disengenuous at best. Then consider the film began to be made in 2003, was entirely wound up in 2005 at about the same time as Joseph Kony left Uganda which is what prompted the 'victims' of LRA's actions to throw rocks at the IC people during a showing of the video in Northern Uganda a few days ago. They wondered what it has to do with the present situation where they have gone fron LRA atrocities to Museveni's soldiers doing similar things to them with the exception of forced child soldiers. IC have never and do not mention the 'official' government's misdeeds and indeed were discouraged from doing so by State Department officials. The more my friends and I look, the deeper the dirt. I would discourage anybody from giving a cent to IC. Save the Children and other charities on the ground who are doing real work could make far better use of that money than it is at present going toward. I have no vested interests and do not campaign on single issues like this but this one galls me and I am joining others in trying to get real things going for Ugandan children and not some young American Christian entrepreneur's bank accounts.
The best way to determine what a US charity does with their money and who they give it to is to get a copy of their 990 tax form. Sometimes you can find it through Google but you can always find it through www.guidestar.com. I think you just have to register on the site in order to access the forms, but there should still be a free membership.
The three things to look for on that form are:
1) the section that lists the executives and their salaries -- are they in line in comparison to the amount of money raised?
2) The expenses section -- how much on travel, promotion, meals and transportation?
3) The section showing how much money is given in grants to other organizations. This is the critical key to finding out who they are affiliated with and how close or far away the charity is from the point of service.
If you were moved by the video to do something to help the Ugandan children, I believe that there are other groups on the ground who are much closer to the problem than Invisible Children, Inc. Some high-profile people in the US like Tony Robbins have been checking into this and saying, "Let's look before we spend."
Rolled into all this is the labyrinth of fraud hidden in both US and UN foreign aid policies. My friend Michele is in London today to launch her documentary HAITI: Where did the money go? She has American Red Cross officials and officials from other UN NGOs on film saying how much money they have spent to rebuild Haiti, and then she tracked their expenditures to a luxury hotel, a fleet of Land Rovers, and high end restaurants. Meanwhile, one camp with over 5,000 people has 6 latrines which have not been cleaned or maintaind in over 20 months. Unraveling the policy is impossible for the average person. Who has that kind of time???
Be sure to do some investigation before you donate your money anywhere. A slick video, or a long-lived institution is not always as close to the problem as they would like you to believe. Doesn't mean that the kids who started IC don't care or don't have a big heart, but they are not providing feet on the ground.
http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/?fb_source=bookmarks_apps&ref=bookmarks&count=0&fb_bmpos=1_0
Take a look at the latest on Invisible Children and decide if all is well?
US Africa Command (AFRICOM) are already there to protect 'American' interests and it would only require any instability on the part of dictator for life Museveni for reinforcements to be sent. The USA and UK have had vast economic interests there for many years and way back to the days of Idi Amin military support for those investments has been present. But that is a distraction from what is happening to innocent people under the eyes of AFRICOM whose main task is really to ensure China does not get a foot too firmly in the door. Children are of little concern when put up against money.
Agree. IC has a dodgy reputation for where it's donations go. Also, if Kony is not, in fact, in Uganda, what's the point. I hear American people screaming to INVADE Uganda.
Raising awareness of something, but under false pretences, or something that no longer takes place really grates on me. All the do gooders in the world, fighting for the wrong cause.
It's just like the dogs as sharkbait on Reunion Island, and all the racism that draws for the French.
for anyone who has not seen it, basically, there's charities collecting money, and petitions to the French Govt, to call for the banning of using dogs as bait on the Island of Reunion, this actually happenned about 15-20 years ago, and has since been stopped, but, as I said, people are so quick to jump on the "raise awareness" bandwagon. Look at all the false amber alerts being plastered all over facebook by ignorant time wasters.