Credit to the real white knight

Only when there is fun shit to be criticised do I emerge from whatever hole I've been hiding in for the past however long its been.

So the internet is going absolutely mental with chatter on Invisible Children's "Kony 2012" campaign. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're obviously the only person in the world who still uses Myspace instead of Facebook.

And I'm not going to bother repeating all the arguments that have already been eloquently addressed by others such as:

- IV is not so transparent
- The information provided by the video is somewhat exaggerated
- This is just another instance of the White Knight required to save the poor Africans
- The founders are a bunch of twats:
The founder Jason 'Radical Russell said in an interview: "If Oprah, Steven Spielberg and Bono had a baby, I would be that baby." 

and this is them posing like gangsters, yeah, nice advocacy work
Photo credit

I am instead going to focus on one serious detail.......the fact that they tried to steal another great man's thunder.....taking away from his success, and profiting from it. That man of course is non other than, Sam Childers, The Machine Gun Preacher.

Those of you who have read my blog in the past have always known that I am a huge huge fan of Mr Childers. That is why it absolutely breaks my heart to see that a bunch of preppy dickheads have tried to benefit from Mr Childer's achievements, namely, convincing the US government to deploy US forces to Uganda to help train soldiers there to hunt Kony. 

As Joshua Keating has rightfully pointed out, the IV's video suggests that their campaign is merely trying to make sure that Obama does not withdraw those soldiers.....even though no one has mentioned that they were planning to do so. 

It was the Machine Gun preacher movie that got the US government interested in the issue, which resulted in the initial deployment of forces in Uganda. 

The way I see it, these kids spent too long editing their movie (don't try to compete with Hollywood) that they could no longer take credit for the US deploying the troops. Nor could they make their cause about putting pressure on the US government to deploy troops. Instead, they had to come up with this desperate reasoning of keeping the troops there. 

So if there is an organisation you want to support, I would strongly suggest supporting the Machine Gun Preacher's organisation, Angels of East Africa (NO, DONT ACTUALLY DO THAT, I AM JUST JOKING!!!!!)

But seriously, if there are white folks to be thanked, it really should be Sam Childers and Gerrad Butler......lets throw Prendergrast in there too (he might be a twat, but at least he's my twat). 

P.S.

As with any internet fad, absolutely shameless humour always ensues.....here are some highlights mainly from 4chan and Canvas:

Famous and hated

Stabilisation in oil revenues and diversification in revenue sources to ensure macroeconomic stability and sustained growth

Nah, just kidding. This is actually just another post about why I hate Prendergast.

In introducing our favourite humanitarian disaster, Stephen Colbert said this,

"....and your group helped push the referendum that led to the creation of South Sudan"

In which Prendergrast replied with a.....

(nod, nod, nod)

Now before I go ahead and criticise Prendergast for not correcting Colbert for such a claim, I thought it would only be fair that I first spoke to those involved in the referendum to see whether this point may actually be true.

So I hoped on my magic donkey and went to see my bro Bashir to get his views.

"Prendergast?! Dude with feminine long hair? He is somebody? I think that hippy was George Clooney's drug dealer or personal assistant. But no, he do nothing to push referendum.....it was all Clooney. He told me I get to be in his next movie with Matt Damon.........Kim Jong Il is going to be so jealous"

Anyone else out there tries to take credit away from the people who truly struggled to reach this independence will know my wrath. I will write many blog posts using the most juvenile of insults to bring shame upon you and your genetic existence.

Organisations that merely raise awareness for a bunch of self-righteous American college students who then go and host parties to raise awareness amongst themselves in a self-gratifying circle jerk gets no credit.

Clooney on the other hand gets mad props. Respect brother.

Full video:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

And yes, I am being petty. But you see, Prendergast to me is like what airplane food is to a failing comedian. When I have no material to write about, I can always rely on Prendergast for inspiration just as a comedian can turn to airplane food in times of desperation.

So despite my inherent hatred towards him, he is pretty much the foundation of my blogging career.

Khartoum: "Take your carrot and shove it!"(Updated - I was wrong)

Alex Thurston on Christian Science Monitor (with some editing by me):

Yesterday President Barack Obama released a statement praising a peace
agreement in Abyei, another Sudanese border region, and condemning the
violence in Southern Kordofan.....

"...With a ceasefire in Southern Kordofan, alongside the agreement to deploy peacekeepers to Abyei, we can get the peace process back on track. But without these actions, the roadmap for better relations with the Government of Sudan cannot be carried forward, which will only deepen Sudan’s isolation in the international community....."

This statement highlights one of the biggest potential leverage points Washington has with Khartoum: the “carrot” of normalized relations. Yet as author Bec Hamilton wrote on Twitter, the perceived value of this “carrot” may be disappearing: “That’s no longer leverage since Khartoum doesn’t believe it will ever happen (and they are probably right).”

Read the rest of the post, he raises an interesting question at the end of it.

Setting aside my disdain of Khartoum's current military policy, I think that they have every right to no longer trust those American carrots. I've previously discussed the failings of enticing Khartoum with the prospects of removing it from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List. Insignificant Block also has a post covering more examples of American Carrots that lie.

The track record of the carrots is basically; the US asks Khartoum to do something and promises to normalise relation if Khartoum completed the task. Khartoum does that thing. The US doesn't normalise relations and decides to up the ante on what it wants from Khartoum. While Im totally in support of getting your carrot's worth, there really is only so far you can push it.

With US carrots becoming more and more redundant, China's role has become more significant than ever. That is why I don't think this is a fantastic idea:

"The United States should press China to rescind its invitation for Bashir to visit China and dispatch a senior administration official to develop joint diplomacy in support of a peace deal, including pressures and incentives to leverage that agreement."

Guess who? Yup..... .....Prendergraaaaaaaaaaast!!!!

At this point, if China is willing to do what it can to bring an end to this conflict it can't risk associating itself with the US camp.

Update:

He also reiterated that the successful experience of Sino-Sudanese relations should be attributed to mutual respect and non-intervention in each other's internal affairs.

"China does not intervene in the internal affairs of others. The success of Sino-Sudanese cooperation has encouraged African countries to search for their real and loyal partner."(China Daily)

Oh how naïve I was to think China would act otherwise.

OK...New plan. Give Prendergrast, Clooney, the Machine Gun Preacher and Ninja in Afghanistan anti-air missels to shoot down Bashir's plane on the way back.

Tomorrow: Sticks.....can that also be shoved?

Clooney's Satelite

P: No, Im Batman. You be Robin
C: What?! No way, Im Batman, I have more experience.
P: Exactly, you were Batman before, and you were shit at it. So this time I am Batman and you're Robin



In case you haven't seen, here is Batman (Clooney) and Robin's (Prendergrast) latest flash of genius...
Using public access satelites (from Google) to monitor military activity. If your interested, you can sign up and follow their twitter page* to be updated on genocide as it unfurls. Now you can be the cool kid at the table who is up to date with how many women and children were killed and raped as it happens!

Although while this is rather amusing on so many levels. I would just like to geek it for a second and talk about how exciting it is to see increasing usage of public satelites for a variety of reasons. In the case of South Sudan, this is not even the first time......this was. It was when Jane's Defense Weekly used commercial satellites to track down the cargo of tank from the hijacked MV Faina in 2008.



*there is no twitter page to follow, I made it up. If there is actually one.....2011 i going to be a very sad year

The conflict minerals debate

After having my fair share of attacks (and here) on Enough and John Prendergrast, I felt that I shouldn't make any comments or (even) acknowledgements towards the ongoing debate surrounding the conflict minerals legislation. So I'm just going to link to Wronging Rights succinct summary and show some love to their excellent argument:

"Campaigns centered around telling the public that their yuppie-consumer-goods are full of rape and murder are, fundamentally, aboutdisengagement, not engagement. This kind of advocacy tells consumers that the problem is their connection to the conflict via the minerals in their phones and iPods, and that the solution is to break that connection.

That's not a recipe for ongoing engagement, it's an invitation to withdraw further from an already-remote problem."

Nice......

Also, respect to Texasinafrica.