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This photo has raised a lot of questions about the charity Invisible Children:
In this interview, the photographer has some interesting things to say.
I hadn't heard of Invisible Children until KONY2012 it was posted on Hubski, so I have no idea whether they're taken seriously or not in Uganda. But to suggest that a group of guys posing with guns is in any way colonial is a fucking joke. This is a group of three 20-somethings around machine guns, RPG launchers and other implements of destruction. You know what I would do in that situation? Fuck around with all of them, too, as would tons of young guys. It was probably fun and funny at the time. For a professor of philosophy to write about it being colonial is to make an academic exercise out of child's play; that's far more dangerous than a couple of kids trying to do their part to change the world for the better. Maybe they're not going about it right. Maybe Oxfam is fucking bigger than three guys. But you know what? A lot of people are paying attention to Africa this week because of them--no other reason. This photographer is a moron if she thinks that their videos aren't up to her standard. She is a journalist and they are advocates. Of course the product is going to be different, because their goals are different. Is KONY2012, a propaganda video? Fuck if I know. Maybe. Probably. But if it works in raising awareness of some terribly plighted children, who cares if its not 100% factually accurate? I don't. If holding guns with soldiers is colonial, then what's the better thing to do? Ignore Africa, because when white people intervene its colonialism and white guild runs so deep that we need to pretend that Africans don't need help solving problems. Maybe these people should go back and remember what colonialism actually is, takeover of foreign lands by powerful governments mainly to exploit natural resources and populations. Funny, the last history book I read didn't say anything about King Leopold trying to stop killing in the Congo. That's fucking colonialism.