Ugandans’ Reaction To Kony 2012

By on March 16, 2012 in News 20

Nearly 70 million people have watched Kony 2012, but almost none of them have been Ugandans, since internet access in their country is spotty. Thus a charity held a public screening so that actual victims of the civil strife could see the video. The reaction? Extremely negative, as the viewing began with eager anticipation and culminated with people hurling rocks at the screen in disgust over the video’s self-congratulatory nature, its focus on a white American and his young son, and its perceived use of Ugandans as props in a promotional campaign for Invisible Children:

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  • DeepCough

    To sum it up for y’all right quick–the Ugandans threw fucking rocks at the screening.

    • Nerf Herder

      Shocker.  Oppressed people don’t like videos of them being made to promote a smoke screen agenda.  I’m surprised the video didn’t include the “U MAD BRO?” at the end.

    • Calypso_1

      They should have shown the ‘Jesus Film’ first.

  • Andrew Rentel

    I think its funny the videos features so many white people….its a WTF world.  Hoping it ends soon.

  • Jin The Ninja

    no surprise that ugandans don’t take well to neo-colonialism.

    • Hadrian999

       doesn’t matter, all you need to do is find one greedy one and make him the president

      • Jin The Ninja

        just like everywhere, which i suppose could be a compelling anti representative politics arguement.

    • Ali

      Unless it’s evangelists coming in to make sure gays and lesbians are hunted down. They LOVE that shit.

      • Jin The Ninja

        the effect of missonaries on any society is also neo colonialism. i would say the vitriole from these right wing missionaries has a tendency to create greater social tension than there would be under sovereign conditions.

  • Calypso_1

    “..it’s connected to a really deep, thoughtful, very intentional, and strategic campaign.”   [Read: AFRICOM PSYOP]

    • Ceausescu

      Inorite ? The guy looked like a psycho too =) or at least a rapist.

      • Calypso_1

        …how little did we know what truth those words would hold – now that he’s run amok, shooting his ‘invisible children’.

  • Faylinameir

    Honesty Im not surprised. I think it was shady photography. Now don’t get me wrong, I support ending the killing of children, but the guy who runs it all is shady.

  • DressedInRags

    As much as I despise a mad, murderous warlord… I kind of see where the Ugandans are coming from.

    I was pleased that someone was trying to spread awareness of this horrific man, but I remember being so angry at the video. How the HELL did Jason Russel get it into his head that his video was appropriate?

    The use of a bit of judicious editing to set the right sombre tone is fine, but what he did was almost obscene. He didn’t just use facts, figures and firsthand accounts about the situation, he didn’t merely say “Here’s our charity and some others who are trying to stop this from happening”.

    NO, what we got was 30 minutes of footage. Most of it was self-celebratory, pointlessly emotive NOTHING, peppered with shots of the things that matter i.e. What Kony actually does, what he’s already done, and how to stop him.

    The remainder was just insulting. Russel crammed the video with shots of his own son for no reason other than an apparent assumption his audience would be emotionally retarded, and would need to see a safe, secure, middle-class white kid having a safe, secure, middle-class life in order to care about the plight of the Children Kony has damaged and killed.

    The opinions and comments of experts on the situation were pushed aside for feelgood montages showing masked berks running round cities in time to some dubstep, because apparently a shot of a few people holding a banner with the charity’s name on it or something wouldn’t be artificial and pointless enough.

    It astonishes me that Russel seemed to believe that his self-aware slick editing and a load of completely irrelevant, constructed shots of things that are of no concern to the situation in Uganda were necessary. It amazes me, that he genuinely seemed to be labouring under the impression that anything he could come up with would rival the horror of what he was supposedly trying to raise awareness of. It’s unbelievable, that a man who is supposed to represent a charity would think it was appropriate to make most of his message concern things that are only of interest to HIM and not the people he’s meant to be helping. It’s mind-boggling, that someone, somewhere, took the time to sort out some actors, get wardrobes together and construct CGI shots of not only the earth spinning (because apparently even charity promotion needs to have stunning FX sequences) but also to make the images of the situationm appear to move before our very eyes.

    It should come as no surprise to this berk that Ugandans despise his video. Apparently, Russel was unaware that stuffing a load of two-dimensional hollywood bullshit into his video only cheapens the message.

    Here we had a video intended to promote awareness of something awful, and Russel felt obliged to stuff it full of footage of how awesome the charity is, how adoreable his little kid is, how cool it is to be a hip, fashionable members having feelgood get-togethers and rallies in time to upbeat music to totally, like, heal the world!

    How fucking offensive.

    • Ali

      You didn’t see how he used his own life to remind us all of how easy we have it here? The dichotomy had to be placed there, and to be offended because it was pointed out to you is kinda douchy. As a mother the impact of his child being educated on this monster was Incredible – I have a 5 year old, and I couldn’t imagine having him exposed to such atrocities; this is the impact that video was meant to have. If you don’t have kids, then it wasn’t really talking to you and that makes sense. Don’t trash the video for that though, just because you weren’t the target demographic in those minutes. 
      The “two-dimensional hollywood bullshit” was in there for a reason – a polished video appeals to the lowest common denominator. When you want to reach as many people as possible, that is where you aim. Clearly this is a new concept for you, so I hope I’m laying it out in a way you can easily understand. 
      Having a documentary would have turned off over half of those 7.6 million viewers, and that was not the goal at all – obviously they did something VERY right, because we’re talking about this video instead of the horrible events happening in Brazil right now. Just because it didn’t appeal to you doesn’t make it offensive. What’s offensive is $300k ad spots for our presidential elections. What’s offensive is the fact that so many people in this country care more about their fantasy football lineup than what’s happening in our schools. What’s offensive is that people are attacking a very good cause for no reason other than the presentation.

      • Anon

        yes…because it’s presenting itself as the whole truth, and it’s not. that is also offensive. they tied in “activism” with consumerism very well.

      • DressedInRags

         I never attacked the cause, MERELY the presentation.

        Oh, and then there’s fact that the video’s attempts to promote the cause relied on outdated facts.

        The reason I find this offensive isn’t because I dislike the cause, I support any effort to capture a murderous warlord and I have no qualms about military intervention in a situation like that. I dislike the video because it actually obfusciates the real issue, it’s equal parts misinformation and pandering. Russel could have made a 10-minute video showing the horror, the expert opinion, the facts and then the names of charities who were working to stop it that people could support.

         Instead, he stuffed it with self-promotion, pointless FX sequences and hamfisted attempts at emotive filmmaking which only took money and time away from the actual campaign and made the whole thing look more like an excersise in happy white people having fun than an attempt to promote awareness of Kony’s crimes. I’m pretty sure he could have at least replaced the endless shots of “Look at me and how awesome I am and how great my job and my life is!” with something that people, y’know, should actually give a damn about. Maybe if he didn’t film those parts and instead used the time to include some more facts, figures and real-life accounts of those tragedies, then maybe the video might come closer to being a solid and reliable account of the facts.

        I’ve never seen another charity promotion that works so hard to trip itself up. Invisible Children seemed more concerned with dishonesty grabbing people’s attention and money than about informing and educating them about something awful. but I’m not about to start bitching about greed or consumerism, because at the end of the day they are, at least, trying to help people. Even if they think the only way they can do that is by appealing to our desire to have a bit of feelgood fun…

        We don’t need any goddamn juxtaposition. Knowing that the atrocities occurred IN THE REAL WORLD is enough. Misleading people in the name of a good cause is STILL MISLEADING PEOPLE.

  • Marklar_Prime

    Here’s an idea for stopping Koney. Fire him and withhold his CIA retirement benefits.

  • Tourist666

    ‘KONY 2012′ Recruiting misinformed youth to promote a campaign with a
    back end religious agenda isn’t a revolution, it’s evangelism.