"Kony 2012" is weak and lame compared to IJM...

[Darren Dirt]

I don't know what motivated me to post this, but a funny thing happened during my random lunchtime internet travels, an unexpected discovery of IJM.


"Invisible Children" has gotten some attention as a result of the "viral" success of "Kony 2012".


But, instead of seeking funding and awareness, IJM has been actually DOING SOMETHING about injustice for 15 years:

http://www.ijm.org/content/celebrating-15-years
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCMddMOrcn4

one satirical comment on Youtube says it all:

This looks much better than Invisible Children. But it lacks that disingenuous feel. Doesn't have trendy editing, young hipsters with big glasses, a cute white kid Americans can feel for, Underground yet Mainstream (yes i know it's a contradiction) street artists. It doesn't look like an iPhone commercial. To sum it up, doesn't have that corporate sales model.
Skad8erateher 1 week ago

Yeah, less time spent on manipulative productive values and shiny spit and polish, more time spent on taking action. I'm good with that.


http://www.ijm.org/our-work/what-we-do

IJM seeks to make public justice systems work for victims of abuse and oppression who urgently need the protection of the law.

Collaborative Casework Model

IJM investigators, lawyers and social workers intervene in individual cases of abuse in partnership with state and local authorities.

By pushing individual cases of abuse through the justice system from the investigative stage to the prosecutorial stage, IJM determines the specific source of corruption, lack of resources, or lack of good will in the system denying victims the protection of their legal systems. In collaboration with local authorities, IJM addresses these specific points of brokenness to meet the urgent needs of victims of injustice.

IJM seeks 4 outcomes on behalf of those we serve:

1. Victim Relief
IJM's first priority in its casework is immediate relief for the victim of the abuse being committed.

2. Perpetrator Accountability
IJM seeks to hold perpetrators accountable for their abuse in their local justice systems. Accountability changes the fear equation: When would-be perpetrators are rightly afraid of the consequences of their abuse, the vulnerable do not need to fear them.

3. Survivor Aftercare
IJM aftercare staff and trusted local aftercare partners work to ensure that victims of oppression are equipped to rebuild their lives and respond to the complex emotional and physical needs that are often the result of abuse.

4. Structural Transformation
IJM seeks to prevent abuse from being committed against others at risk by strengthening the community factors and local judicial systems that will deter potential oppressors.

"when laws are enforced, the violence stops" (then the victims can be healed, impowered, and the cycle of violence and abuse can stop, hope can be experienced and shared with future generations)

Awareness isn't enough, since eventually it all blurs together with all the other "travesties of justice" in some other distant country or continent and becomes a "way over there, out of sight out of mind" problem.


That is all I have to say, now back to our First World Problems we go...

[Thorin]

My kids were exposed to Kony 2012 by their teachers, and they were trying to think up ways to stop him.  One of the things that came up was the recent Kony Signs campaign, where people around the world were supposed to put up posters and signs of Kony so that everyone would recognize him and stop dealing with him.

I'm glad that the teachers help expand my kids' minds by exposing them to items such as this, as I don't want to be my kids' authoritative voice on what is and is not right in the world.  I would rather that they question it and are skeptical.

At the same time, though, I'm dismayed that the teachers haven't bothered talking about the only way to stop Kony from doing what he's doing - a bullet through the brain (or heart, or other vital organ).  Honestly, no amount of signs in Tokyo, London, and New York are going to stop him from building jungle fortresses and abducting and brainwashing children to staff them.  I know my daughter was quite aghast at the suggestion to kill him, but even if people learn who he is and don't deal with him so he can't get food and weapons anymore, he'll just send out the unknown lieutenants to get the supplies (which he probably does already).

[Lazybones]

Kony has been in hiding apparently for some time before this, as other efforts had diminished his control.

Someone put it this way, Kony is like putting osama binladin on everything all over the place, right after 911. Could you imagine people walking around all over the world right after 911 like that?

[Mr. Analog]

It's a weird phenomenon, that's for sure, kinda like putting Hitler on the cover of Time magazine back in the day I imagine.

It just looks wrong in retrospect...

[Thorin]

Sorry, you mean Kony the man is like that, or Kony the campaign to embarrass Kony the man is like that?  Because bin Laden's face was plastered all over the place after 9/11 (hell, he put out videos!), yet he lived for _years_ in houses in Pakistan.

[Darren Dirt]

Sorry, you mean Kony the man is like that, or Kony the campaign to embarrass Kony the man is like that?

I'm thinking that he (and I, with this thread) mean the "campaign". (?)

[Mr. Analog]

I was talking about using the mans face on the campaign, but yeah