via Huffington Post:
"According to the San Diego Police Department, officers responded to reports of a male in his underwear pounding his fists on the sidewalk and yelling incoherently, disrupting traffic in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego. Police said that one caller reported that the man was nude and could have been masturbating, but officers did not confirm that when they arrived."If 'spanking it' in public ain't neocolonialism, I don't know what is.
But wait, big boss man (Ben Keesey, CEO of Invisible Children) comes to Mr. Russell's rescue:
"The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday. Jason’s passion [Ed. note: Ha!] and his work have done so much to help so many, and we are devastated to see him dealing with this personal health issue."Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. I mean, it must be really hard deciding which pair of expensive jeans to wear each day as opposed to living in constant fear and strife; what choice do we really have here but to rub one out and lose our gourd in public spaces?
But if you really wanted to help Africans, why not just hand Ugandans on the ground the camera and the money and let THEM tell you THEIR story and support THEIR causes? You know, instead of just jerking off outdoors.
4 comments:
Okay, I understand poking fun at a dude who comes off as ten pounds of douche in a five-pound bag, especially when he rubs one out in public. But despite the fact that I haven't paid attention to the news in a couple of years, I know the LRA and what its done, and seriously, everybody, anything that brings public attention to dickbags who have horribly affected literally hundreds of thousands of people is a noble pursuit.
The backlash against Invisible Children seems like an insane case of shooting the messenger, and I don't get it. Perhaps that's because, as I mentioned, I don't keep up on the news and don't fully understand why we need to debate the funding structure and personal lives behind an organization that wants to bring public attention to a brutal and immoral militia of religious zealots.
It reminds of the parable where the only witness to a murder was a prostitute. The prosecutor didn't want to proceed with the case, fearing that the prostitute's testimony would not be believed because of her profession, until a colleague asked him a question: "Why does being a hooker mean that she has bad eyesight?"
I am not bemoaning 'good will towards others', but this whole thing smacks of 'white saviors' swooping in to rescue yet another nation on the 'dark continent', where no one can seem to help themselves. Where are the voices of actual Ugandans in the film? Why no discussion of the role of Western foreign policy, colonialism, and hunger for natural resources which all contribute to the political instability that allow/encourage groups like the LRA to form? Why no mention of the numerous groups in Uganda who have been trying to combat Kony and his army for the last 20 years? Kony hasn't even been in Uganda, by most accounts, since 2006. The film (and by extension, Invisible Children) denies Ugandans their voice and agency in forming their own story and implementing their own solutions.
It is important to listen to the perspective of critics in Africa. In the words of 2 Ugandan journalists:
"How you tell the stories of Africans is much more important that what the story is; because if you are showing me as voiceless, as hopeless [then] you have no space telling my story. You shouldn’t be telling my story if you don’t believe that I also have the power to change what is going on." --Rosebell Kagumire
"Many African critics unsurprisingly are crying neo-colonialism. This is because these campaigns are disempowering of their own voices. After all the conflict and suffering is affecting them directly regardless of if they hit the re-tweet button or not. At the end of the day the Kony2012 campaign will not make Joseph Kony more famous but it will make Invisible Children famous. It will also make many, including P.Diddy, feel like they have contributed some good to his capture- assuming Kony is even alive. For many in the conflict prevention community including those who worry about the militarization of it in Central Africa, this campaign is just another nightmare that will end soon. Hopefully." --Angelo Opi-Aiya Izama
Also this: Obsession with Joseph Kony is Already Ending
And I'd be remiss if I didn't incude this: Kony2012 Highlights?
See slide 18 of 22 for my personal fave..
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