Looks like Jason Russell's fame as creator of the "Kony 2012" video has gone to his... errr... head. Or perhaps he thought he hadn't yet received enough publicity. In any case, Mr. Russesll was "detained" by San Diego police in San Diego yesterday for allegedly being drunk in public, masturbating in public and, ummm, vandalizing cars.
Notice our careful use of the word "allegedly". Mr. Russell is presumed innocent. Unless, of course, there should be something -- like a video -- that would prove his guilt.
Oh.
Showing posts with label Jason Russell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jason Russell. Show all posts
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Screeners of "Kony 2012" stoned in Uganda
The African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET), a Ugandan activist group, thought it would be a good idea to organize a community tour for the now-infamous "KONY 2012" video, to let the people of northern Uganda see what all the fuss is about.
Joseph Kony's "Lord's Resistance Army" has been more active in southern Uganda, and residents of other parts of the country don't seem to know much about it. Thus the idea was to educate them, and maybe make a few shillings for the African Youth Initiative Network along the way. Good idea, right? Errr, wrong!
The first screening, held this week in the northern town of Lira, provoked such a furious reaction that the tour has been cancelled. Imagine the scene -- the video projected onto a white sheet, held up by crude metal rods, in a dusty town park, with 5,000 Ugandans watching with curiosity, then bafflement, then anger. People began shouting abuse, then throwing stones, forcing the crowd to scatter and the organizers to flee in terror.
Turns out the local people were more than a little PO'd by Jason Russell's call to "make Kony famous" by putting his image on T-shirts and posters. Why should we give celebrity status to a killer, many Ugandans asked. Others said the video brought back painful memories of a war that had ended in Uganda in 2006 when the LRA was chased out of the country.
A Ugandan blogger, Rosebell Kagumire, was amongst those who survived the screening. "There was chaos, we had to run away," she tweeted. Many people were disappointed and angry, she said. "They have had enough of money makers!"
Geoffrey York, the Globe and Mail's man in Africa [following Ugandan events from nearby South Africa? Ed.] writes that after the screening, callers to local radio stations demanded that no T-shirts of Joseph Kony should be allowed into the region.
Victor Ochen, a director of AYINET, says he is worried that the video will waste money that could be better spent on helping the victims of the LRA -- like his brother and his cousin, for instance. According to York, Ochen wrote on his website "Raising potentially false expectations such as arresting Kony in 2012 will not rebuild the lives of the people in northern Uganda. Restoration of communities devastated by Kony is a greater priority than catching or killing him."
Walt has been unable to find this disclaimer on the AYINET website or anywhere else, but agrees with the general sentiment. Just one thing though. If ravaged communities are indeed to be restored, the work should be done and the money raised by the Ugandans themselves. The Lord's Resistance Army was and is a Ugandan thing, not something for which Westerners should feel any guilt or responsibility.
Joseph Kony's "Lord's Resistance Army" has been more active in southern Uganda, and residents of other parts of the country don't seem to know much about it. Thus the idea was to educate them, and maybe make a few shillings for the African Youth Initiative Network along the way. Good idea, right? Errr, wrong!
The first screening, held this week in the northern town of Lira, provoked such a furious reaction that the tour has been cancelled. Imagine the scene -- the video projected onto a white sheet, held up by crude metal rods, in a dusty town park, with 5,000 Ugandans watching with curiosity, then bafflement, then anger. People began shouting abuse, then throwing stones, forcing the crowd to scatter and the organizers to flee in terror.
Turns out the local people were more than a little PO'd by Jason Russell's call to "make Kony famous" by putting his image on T-shirts and posters. Why should we give celebrity status to a killer, many Ugandans asked. Others said the video brought back painful memories of a war that had ended in Uganda in 2006 when the LRA was chased out of the country.
A Ugandan blogger, Rosebell Kagumire, was amongst those who survived the screening. "There was chaos, we had to run away," she tweeted. Many people were disappointed and angry, she said. "They have had enough of money makers!"
Geoffrey York, the Globe and Mail's man in Africa [following Ugandan events from nearby South Africa? Ed.] writes that after the screening, callers to local radio stations demanded that no T-shirts of Joseph Kony should be allowed into the region.
Victor Ochen, a director of AYINET, says he is worried that the video will waste money that could be better spent on helping the victims of the LRA -- like his brother and his cousin, for instance. According to York, Ochen wrote on his website "Raising potentially false expectations such as arresting Kony in 2012 will not rebuild the lives of the people in northern Uganda. Restoration of communities devastated by Kony is a greater priority than catching or killing him."
Walt has been unable to find this disclaimer on the AYINET website or anywhere else, but agrees with the general sentiment. Just one thing though. If ravaged communities are indeed to be restored, the work should be done and the money raised by the Ugandans themselves. The Lord's Resistance Army was and is a Ugandan thing, not something for which Westerners should feel any guilt or responsibility.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
DON'T send me the Kony video!
Memo to all Agents, followers, readers and (especially) guilt-ridden white liberals. Please do NOT send me the video about Joseph Kony's atrocities in Uganda. I'll give you three good reasons.
1. It's old news. This is not the first time we've been told that Kony is responsible for killing 1000s of children and kidnapping more 1000s to be used as sex slaves and/or soldiers in his misnamed and misbegotten "Lord’s Resistance Army". The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (amongst others) has been covering this story for ten (10) years.
And hey... Walt told you about it last October! In "Another dumb war America can't win", I called attention to Al Obama's plans to send American soldiers to join in the hunt for Kony. Did it happen? Don't know. Was Kony caught? Definitely not.
Besides, in the context of African politics in the post-colonial era, this is nothing new. The Mau Mau terrorists did it in Kenya even before the British left. (Most of the victims of that nasty little war were blacks, not whites.) The black terrorists in Rhodesia did the same to overthrow the Ian Smith government, and will do it again, if necessary, to keep Comrade Bob Mugabe in power. It's hard to think of a sub-Saharan African country in which children have not been victimized.
2. It's not going to make any difference. This is just another of those Worthy Causes that come to the attention of celebs like Piers Moron, who jump on the bandwagon for the publicity value. Remember Haiti? Has all the international attention and well-meaning donations done any good? No!
Dear readers, please learn and remember the old African acronym: MAWA. Mother Africa Wins Again. Even "Invisible Children", the producers of the video, say that the only way Kony will be brought to justice (African style -- i.e. killed) is if the Ugandan army does it. That would be the same Afghan army that put Idi Amin in power, and only slightly less ogrish Milton Obote both before and after Amin. Don't expect an end to tyranny and slaughter from those guys. In the end, MAWA.
3. The motives of Invisible Children are more than a little suspect. Call me cynical, but I question what will happen to any money you might donate. (And soliciting donations is the whole point of the video.)
Human Rights Watch points out that Kony’s army is down to a few hundred and hasn’t been in Uganda for years, a fact which the documentary leaves out, due to time constraints no doubt. They ask why, this late in the game, the film is being promoted and the begging bowl passed through the social media,
Visible Children has some answers. They say Invisible Children is a controversial activist group operating on a not-for-profit basis. They raise money by selling merchandise like those stupid bracelets.
Last year, the blog claims, Invisible Children spent $8,676,614, of which only 32% went to direct services. Much of the rest went to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. Another case of folks -- white folks -- doing well out of doing good.
Film maker Jason Russell responds to the criticism by saying "That is the old way of thinking. We stand by our use of a third of our money going to our film budget so we can build a real-time website of sightings of Kony’s army."
The key word there is "we", which means Jason Russell and his non-Ugandan friends and Ugandan hangers-on. Is that who you really want to help? If so, send your guilt money to Walt. I'll see that it gets into the right hands. Yeah... sure...
1. It's old news. This is not the first time we've been told that Kony is responsible for killing 1000s of children and kidnapping more 1000s to be used as sex slaves and/or soldiers in his misnamed and misbegotten "Lord’s Resistance Army". The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (amongst others) has been covering this story for ten (10) years.
And hey... Walt told you about it last October! In "Another dumb war America can't win", I called attention to Al Obama's plans to send American soldiers to join in the hunt for Kony. Did it happen? Don't know. Was Kony caught? Definitely not.
Besides, in the context of African politics in the post-colonial era, this is nothing new. The Mau Mau terrorists did it in Kenya even before the British left. (Most of the victims of that nasty little war were blacks, not whites.) The black terrorists in Rhodesia did the same to overthrow the Ian Smith government, and will do it again, if necessary, to keep Comrade Bob Mugabe in power. It's hard to think of a sub-Saharan African country in which children have not been victimized.
2. It's not going to make any difference. This is just another of those Worthy Causes that come to the attention of celebs like Piers Moron, who jump on the bandwagon for the publicity value. Remember Haiti? Has all the international attention and well-meaning donations done any good? No!
Dear readers, please learn and remember the old African acronym: MAWA. Mother Africa Wins Again. Even "Invisible Children", the producers of the video, say that the only way Kony will be brought to justice (African style -- i.e. killed) is if the Ugandan army does it. That would be the same Afghan army that put Idi Amin in power, and only slightly less ogrish Milton Obote both before and after Amin. Don't expect an end to tyranny and slaughter from those guys. In the end, MAWA.
3. The motives of Invisible Children are more than a little suspect. Call me cynical, but I question what will happen to any money you might donate. (And soliciting donations is the whole point of the video.)
Human Rights Watch points out that Kony’s army is down to a few hundred and hasn’t been in Uganda for years, a fact which the documentary leaves out, due to time constraints no doubt. They ask why, this late in the game, the film is being promoted and the begging bowl passed through the social media,
Visible Children has some answers. They say Invisible Children is a controversial activist group operating on a not-for-profit basis. They raise money by selling merchandise like those stupid bracelets.
Last year, the blog claims, Invisible Children spent $8,676,614, of which only 32% went to direct services. Much of the rest went to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. Another case of folks -- white folks -- doing well out of doing good.
Film maker Jason Russell responds to the criticism by saying "That is the old way of thinking. We stand by our use of a third of our money going to our film budget so we can build a real-time website of sightings of Kony’s army."
The key word there is "we", which means Jason Russell and his non-Ugandan friends and Ugandan hangers-on. Is that who you really want to help? If so, send your guilt money to Walt. I'll see that it gets into the right hands. Yeah... sure...
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