The world has woken up to the crisis in central Africa. This is a great thing. And that’s the main point. Millions around the world want their governments and themselves to take action to end Africa’s longest running war and one of the world’s most brutal conflicts.

And then there is keyboard contrarianism, an unfortunate modern malaise, brought into more focus by the Kony 2012 campaign. Healthy and informed skepticism should of course be a useful evaluation tool, but uninformed and misrepresented criticism can be as harmful and uninformed action. The criticisms of the film have come from various sources, but those sources and motivations are always worth considering. The four main points we’ve seen are:

1. The film misrepresents that the war is active in Uganda when it is not. At 15:02 in the film a map explicitly shows how the war has progressed from Uganda to the current conflict zones of The Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan. Moreover, the reason that most actually have access to information as to where the most recent attacks have been and are taking place is because of the investment of Invisible Children and Resolve in the LRA Crisis Tracker www.lracrisistracker.com, a first of kind as-close-to-real-time-as-technologically-possible reporting mechanism on the situation, so the irony and misrepresentation of those criticisms is, let’s face it, careless and unfounded at best, disingenuous at worst.

2. Invisible Children doesn’t spend enough money on the ground. Invisible Children has a different model, they are self-admittedly and explicitly not an aid organization. Their goals are threefold; to produce media that raises the profile of the crisis, to organize a movement to promote advocacy and action, and to invest on the ground to assist in disarmament, reintegration, rehabilitation and recovery. They invest approximately 1/3 of their money in each of those three areas, and frankly, do so with greater success and efficacy than most.

3. The film oversimplifies the crisis. Invisible Children has produced something like 9 films, and other organizations including ourselves have produced many others as well. More nuanced films that attempt to explore every intricacy tend to get a few thousand views. A purposeful effort was made by IC on KONY 2012 to make Joseph Kony famous in order to inspire millions to encourage the world to take action. Mission accomplished. The armchair critics and Monday morning quarterbacks who feel they could have done a better job in accomplishing that goal or that it should have been done differently, please post a link to your campaign or video that has similarly accomplished its stated goals with such success so that we can all learn from your expertise.

4. The film overstates the size and impact of the crisis. Invisible Children uses the same numbers used by Human Rights Watch and every other respected organization tracking the crisis. They are the generally accepted numbers. But again, we’re talking about a crisis that has gone on for 26 years, Africa’s longest running war, one of the world’s most brutal conflicts, and one that has gone largely ignored by the world until now. Criticism that says the makers of the film have overstated the severity of the conflict may, again, seem ironic in the worst sense and ridiculous to you. It should.

But more than addressing the specifics, it’s perhaps worth taking a look at the contrarian phenomenon as a whole. On the one hand, envy and a desire to tear down motivates some online. One tour through the YouTube comments on any, really any, popular video out there makes that pretty apparent. There’s literally almost nothing you can do in this world that can not draw criticism. That’s life. And there are some that make their living as critics, either in title or actuality…there are those who draw attention, readership, viewership and often thus a paycheck by taking contrarian views. Sometimes, not always, the validity, integrity and sincerity of those expressed and publicized views can be outweighed by the advantages, both professionally and personally, of simply making them publicly. Unfortunate but true. And it’s no secret that all of this gets augmented by the interweb and the land grab for attention. Even on an individual basis, the desire to be first, informed, witty, snarky or intelligent in one’s news or Twitter feed drives many to post quickly about the new thing, or just as quickly about the contrarian view, or just as quickly about the counter-contrarian view. And with all that comes perhaps the concomitant feeling of engagement, of action taken. And that is the trap to be careful of. We all have the power to use our voices and our actions to improve this world. Keep questioning, let’s have informed debate, but let’s keep it informed, and more importantly, keep taking action. Don’t take that responsibility, or your own voice lightly.

Speaking for our organization and for myself, I can tell you that this is not written from the standpoint of a blind defense because a partner organization we work with closely is in the spotlight. We have much more than a passing newscycle-length interest in carefully evaluating and scrutinizing the organizations we align ourselves with in our attempts try to amplify the voices from the ground who have been working for more than two decades on ending this war. The individuals who have committed themselves and their careers to fighting this crisis at Invisible Children that we have worked alongside of are first rate, competent, committed, intelligent, effective and of the highest professional and personal integrity. That’s coming to you first hand. And just on a personal note, there’s a choice that we all have to make for ourselves in our lives, whether we’re going to try and change the world, or be one of those who simply comment on and criticize those who are trying to change the world. I would urge you to be the former. I have always loved this quotation:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. -Theodore Roosevelt.

So I will say something obvious to many, let’s stay focused on the actions ahead from here. We as a world community have an unprecedented chance to help end this war. LRA troop strength is down to approximately 250 fighters, surrenders and defections have been taking place for some time now at a rate that could finally help bring an end to this conflict. Thank you to all who have taken action on this issue, and to those who have supported us or our partners, and most importantly the people of northern Uganda, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan who have lived this crisis day-to-day. And also to those who are working in their own way or on their own causes to try and make positive change, to make a difference. It’s often not an easy fight, we know that, and we salute you, but we also know in doing so that it is regardless of this that you have garnered for yourself the quiet assurance and resolution that neither abides the vagaries of the feckless nor requires the salutations and adulations of approval, because yours is the pride that comes with fighting the fight.

Hunter Heaney
CEO
The Voice Project