Throwing Capitalism/Imperialism at a problem won't work.

US Aid as it currently situated is broken. It doesn’t work. Dumping tons of rice on a population does nothing but create a cycle of dependence. Because what happens to the local rice economy when free rice is dumped on people, the local rice seller/grower now has nothing, his/her lively hood is now destroyed because how can he compete with free? So, in the end he/she will eventually give up and wait on a handout. US Aid must be used to build up local industries not by giving contacts to US corporations and food drops but by training locals to tackle their environment and develop industries best suited to their world.

And that brings me to the Invisible Children mission. So, they pretty much want the US to play police of the world and go and give advice to the Ugandan army to catch Kony. Now, tell me how well did the US advice go over in Afghanistan in the 1980’s? I remember a certain guy with a beard was given all the US advice and weapons to get the Russians. Point two the campaign is set up as a doomsday scenario, if they don’t catch Kony by December 31, 2012 its all over are they going to abandon Uganda (boy am I glad the civil rights movement didn’t have an expiration date), this part alone seems like a ploy to sell their hipster action kits to well meaning but well removed first world citizens who have a lot of bourgeoisie guilt (or white guilt if you must but I am not a racialist I believe divisions are more prevalent along class lines). If you want to use arms to catch Kony, I say arm the masses, not the army not special forces but the masses who were affected by Kony. Because only the masses can set themselves free, no outside power can do that (Big ups to Tunisia and Egypt Masses).

And for those who really feel they must give money to help whatever cause, make sure you do your research (don’t just listen to a cute 5 year old) and give to groups that actually give more than 31% to helping.

It’s time for a different approach to foreign crisis’. Throwing Capitalism/Imperialism at the problem has never worked and will continue to fail.

Comrade Richie