This time I won’t be getting up at 4:30 AM to beat the Phnom Penh heat wave, struggling behind the Uganda People’s Defence Force in Gulu, or running up the Kassioun in Damascus under the watchful eye of soldiers, but, if all goes well, I am still hoping for a great challenge!

I am aiming to run between 53 and 88km a week over 18 weeks. My training will be split between the Hague (late May to August) and Montreal (August to September). If you find yourself in either place, feel free to join me.

This year, I will be fundraising for the Canadian Cancer Society. All donations welcome via this Crowdrise site.

As for the details, the new Canadian law will now allow Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada who are victims of terrorism, as well as others if the action has a real and substantial connection to Canada, to seek redress by way of a civil action for terrorist acts committed anywhere in the world on or after 1 January 1985. It has been suggested that this date was chosen to allow the families of the victims of the 1985 Air India bombing to sue those responsible (with the Air India bombing being “the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history”). But before one can sue a foreign state in Canada for supporting terrorism, the state in question must have been listed by the Cabinet in Ottawa, following a recommendation by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in consultation with the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. The basis for listing a foreign state is that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the state in question supported or supports terrorism, and there will be no ability for a listed state to challenge that listing in the courts. Additional amendments provide for the attachment, execution, arrest, detention, seizure and forfeiture of property belonging to a listed state that is located in Canada and used, or intended to be used, to support terrorism.

And another article from Opinio Juris on the Alien Tort Statute in the US:

In an article I published in 2006 in the Columbia Law Review, I stated the view that the Alien Tort Statute had nothing to do with universal jurisdiction; it was, I argued, a pragmatic measure enacted by the First Congress in September 1789 to let aliens sue in the federal district courts for money damages in the event of harm to their persons or property when the United States had expressly or implicitly promised the aliens that no such harm would come to them. The ATS both provides a right of action and original jurisdiction in federal district court to aliens injured under circumstances implicating U.S. sovereign responsibility; it is therefore a federal law for purposes of Article III arising-under jurisdiction. Translated to a modern context, the ATS would plausibly be available to “extraterritorial” tort actions by alien detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and non-combatant aliens harmed in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Yemen in the current war on terror. Such actions would be subject to immunities under the Federal Tort Claims Act, an after-enacted statute, with respect to most U.S. official defendants. And so the answer to the Supreme Court’s question about the extraterritorial application of the ATS is “whenever there is a tort occurring in the territory of a foreign sovereign the commission of which was the result of U.S. sovereign action or inaction when the United States had a duty under international law to prevent the injury to the alien plaintiff.”

… Although it is only a statute, the ATS is a very special statute: it is a part of a historic enactment by the First Congress that forged the courts of the United States. (Of course, this does not vest it with infallibility—recall that section 25 of the same Act was struck down by Chief Justice Marshall inMarbury v. Madison.) The ATS was a commitment to something important, and, whether as judges, scholars, or as Americans, we should try to understand as best we can what this commitment by the founders of this country was. So far, the prevailing understanding has been that it was a commitment to international law qua international law, and more abstractly, the idea that the United States had opened its courts up to hear the grievances of any victim of international law violations anywhere in the world. This ambitious and imperialistic view of the ATS has raised the ire of many foreign governments and peoples, even those hospitably inclined to international human rights. I think that it is pretty clear that this idealistic view, however admirable, is not an accurate understanding of what a militarily weak, revolutionary tobacco republic would have desired to for its virginal national courts. Rather, the ATS reflected an importantly different principle: the United States should open its courts to redress injury to the person or property of foreigners it has a responsibility under international law to give basic physical security and safety to. Basically, the right principle of the ATS is “we should do no harm to others” not “everyone should do no harm to others.”

… Why is this conversation about journalism and advocacy, simplification and complexity happening now?

We’ve seen a rise in the ability to create media and advocate for your cause and your viewpoint over the past decade. And there’s been a massive rise in content available to all of us – and an accompanying rise in ability to choose what we pay attention to – over the past two decades. The result is an increasingly fierce battle for attention. We may be able to find and publish information much more easily, but we’ve still got a limited number of hours in the day to pay attention to different topics, and advertisers, advocates, journalists and every cranky academic with a blog (and yes, I’m pointing to myself here) is demanding that scarce attention.

These questions about attention are what led me onto the odd academic/critic/activist path I find myself on today. It began with an activist question: “How do we get people to invest in technology businesses in sub-Saharan Africa?” That led to an academic question: “Why is so much news from Africa about conflict and so little about positive developments?” That led back to activism with Global Voices and back to academe with questions about how Global Voices could be more effective in amplifying voices and changing media narratives.

I’m wondering if stories like Mike Daisey’s mark a shift in this conversation about attention. The conversation has involved web publishers, advertisers and activists all asking how we compete successfully for small slices of attention. With stories like Daisey’s and Kony 2012, the conversation switches from the practical question of seizing attention to the ethical questions of attention. What’s fair play in demanding attention for a story or for a cause? How far can you simplify a story to gain attention? How much can you speak on someone else’s behalf? Perhaps the reason these conversations get so passionate is that they’re not just about the rules of different professions but about the basic question, “What can someone demand I pay attention to?”

We tried to address some of his final questions in a recent seminar at the Faculty of Law (which you can view here.)

From Wikipedia:

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon. After realizing that a woman was running, race organizer Jock Semple went after Switzer shouting, “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers.” However, Switzer’s boyfriend and other male runners provided a protective shield during the entire marathon.The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines, and Kathrine later won the NYC marathon with a time of 3:07:29.

Who are you in this story? The harbinger of progress and equality? The rallying troops willing to stand up for what’s right? Or just another Bull Connor, aggressively fighting against integration and inclusion?

Since joining the marathon and ultra-marathon races, women have made greater progress in less time than men. Race over 30 miles, and now it’s coin toss which gender will win. Long distance running evens the playing field. So pull on your favorite kicks, and hit the road to celebrate what we have in common!

Thanks Mikhala for sharing.

… But I disagree with the approach taken by Invisible Children in particular, and by the White Savior Industrial Complex in general, because there is much more to doing good work than “making a difference.” There is the principle of first do no harm. There is the idea that those who are being helped ought to be consulted over the matters that concern them.

… And I also write all this as a novelist and story-writer: I am sensitive to the power of narratives. When Jason Russell, narrator of the Kony 2012 video, showed his cheerful blonde toddler a photo of Joseph Kony as the embodiment of evil (a glowering dark man), and of his friend Jacob as the representative of helplessness (a sweet-faced African), I wondered how Russell’s little boy would develop a nuanced sense of the lives of others, particularly others of a different race from his own. How would that little boy come to understand that others have autonomy; that their right to life is not exclusive of a right to self-respect? In a different context, John Berger once wrote, “A singer may be innocent; never the song.”

… And we also agree on something else: that there is an internal ethical urge that demands that each of us serve justice as much as he or she can. But beyond the immediate attention that he rightly pays hungry mouths, child soldiers, or raped civilians, there are more complex and more widespread problems. There are serious problems of governance, of infrastructure, of democracy, and of law and order. These problems are neither simple in themselves nor are they reducible to slogans. Such problems are both intricate and intensely local.

How, for example, could a well-meaning American “help” a place like Uganda today? It begins, I believe, with some humility with regards to the people in those places. It begins with some respect for the agency of the people of Uganda in their own lives. A great deal of work had been done, and continues to be done, by Ugandans to improve their own country, and ignorant comments (I’ve seen many) about how “we have to save them because they can’t save themselves” can’t change that fact.

And an article from Norbert Mao, a lawyer and politician in Northern Uganda. I think the following extract is particularly pertinent:

Having said all that, I still view the release of Kony 2012 as a positive development.  To those critics who say that the video was propelled by less than savory aspects of western media culture that perpetuate the mentality of the white man’s burden, I say that western advocacy matters and can make a difference. From the anti-slavery struggle to the anti-colonial struggle, voices from the West have been indispensible. The key is for Africans to influence the direction of that advocacy. We cannot stop it, but we can redirect it. So how do we respond to this video that has convinced the world to bear witness to the untold suffering of Northern Uganda? We can complain about the gaps, but we also have to celebrate the fact that at least part of our story has been told. And told powerfully.

I will be co-hosting an event on “Ethical Engagement” on Wednesday, March 21st, at the McGill Faculty of Law. It’s now full, but if you want to watch via live stream, please click here. Here’s the event notice I sent to participants:

The goal of this event is to prove a teaching and learning environment where participants can contribute and learn from each other. To facilitate this process, I have included in this email resources to help fuel the discussion.

• I would strongly recommend reading this short blog post from Peter Eichstaedt, watching a video blog on the Kony 2012 move by Rosebell Kagumire and viewing this short documentary on a school for ex-child soldiers in northern Uganda. George Clooney also recently released this video from the Nuba mountains in Sudan, which may provide another point of comparison.

• I have written a series of blog posts which provide some background on the Kony 2012 movie, and a list of resources for more information on the LRA and the country generally (attached PDF).

• I have attached a concise article raising interesting questions on partnership, trust, gatekeeping and other key ethical issues in the NGO sector: “Accountability, motivation and practice: NGOs North and South” (attached PDF)

• Finally, you could browse the questions listed under “Section 2: Ethical Questions and NGOs, A Classification” of the book Ethical Questions and International NGOs: An Exchange Between Philosophers (see Section 2 here).

Additionally, we have prepared a list of questions which will help guide the discussion. This list is not exhaustive, but is intended to provide some direction to the conversation. While the Kony 2012 movie has inspired this critical discussion, our goal is to address the broader issues it raises:

1. What does “engagement” mean in our increasingly connected global community, for individuals, NGOs or international NGOs, and the media?

2. What ethical concerns does such global engagement give rise to, and what questions should we be asking ourselves?

3. What motivations lie behind awareness and advocacy activities? Behind development programs? Behind individual involvement in such work?

4. How legitimate are these ideas among stakeholders and affected communities versus the general public? What impact can and do these ideas have in practice?

5. What basic responsibilities do individuals/NGOs/media have towards others on a global scale?

6. How can international and local civil society actors forge a real partnership to achieve a common objective in the future? What needs to change?

… The I.C.C. was intended as an instrument for delivering peace. In this respect it has not been a success. It will continue to falter because its current methods go against the experience of many places in Africa and around the world where peace has been delivered through political negotiations and reconciliation efforts, not the imposition of international justice.

… In Kenya, where one the court’s most high-profile cases is taking place, the I.C.C. has focused on bringing to trial those accused of inciting post-election violence in 2007-8. This risks fueling divisions in a country where tribal loyalties and factionalism still dominate politics. Kenya, often seen as a great African success story, is now heading toward a dangerous impasse. The court’s determination to bring to trial several defendants accused of fomenting violence has enabled Prime Minister Raila Odinga to call for the arrest of his main political opponent, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, son of the country’s founding president, who now faces I.C.C. charges.

Mr. Odinga and Mr. Kenyatta are both leaders in a coalition government that came together with the support of the international community precisely in order to reconcile Kenya’s opposing political and tribal groupings. Yet the I.C.C.’s intervention is increasingly likely to drive this government and the country further apart, allowing a political leader from one ethnic group to try to remove an opponent from another ethnic group from the scene. This is particularly perilous when the root of the post-election violence in Kenya is tribal conflict.

Read on.

If we ‘zoom out’ from the #StopKony debacle, I think there are a number of important questions emerging. In particular, I think we need to take stock of our individual role in the global community and what meaningful and ethical engagement looks like or should look like. I think we all recognize that sharing a video on Facebook and Twitter is not enough. Buying posters, t-shirts and bracelets from Invisible Children, particularly when inspired by a vacuous marketing campaign, is not enough. Being touched by a Hollywood-like movie, but not the very real footage of killings, is not enough.

It’s undeniable that we are living increasingly interconnected lives. How do we want to shape these relationships? What kind of responsibilities do we want to assume when we begin to engage and interact with communities around the world? What kind of critical questions should we always be pushing ourselves to try and answer?

I keep thinking of the individuals who took the time to comment on my previous post on the film and say, “Well, at least they are doing something.” I may have a particular worldview, but like I’ve said before, I don’t think it’s enough to stop there. The fact that Invisible Children can galvanize so many people on such a film is disconcerting. I’m not saying the very notion of raising awareness is bad – I am the first to say that thinking about issues that are not an immediate concern to you, lending support to people outside your friends and family is admirable. Rather, how can we make this process of awareness and learning really count? How can we ensure it’s not damaging and that all persons can participate in an ethical and equal way?

To be honest, I don’t have any clear answers for any of these questions. The questions themselves are unclear. These are questions that I have asked myself as an individual covering human rights stories in other countries. These are the same questions that I have asked myself as an individual who has walked by a young person asking for money on the street in the middle of a Montreal winter. How do we conceive of our responsibilities to others?

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I am organizing a small event at the McGill Faculty of Law to try and start brainstorming some collective answers. If you want to join, please see the event notice here.

[...] Ordinary Ugandans are worrying about other things. The government needs a strategy for assessing its capital needs by sector. Should Uganda build an oil refinery or forgo the profits and send crude to Kenya for processing? And if it’s Ugandan children in peril you’re looking for, there are those suffering from “nodding disease” — an unusual neurological disease that’s killed hundreds of children in the very region Kony once terrorized.

In an earlier post I wrote about the Ugandan government’s gay-bashing as a smokescreen for other issues facing this society, especially governmental corruption. The Kony video is a similar distraction.

In Kampala last month, I met Hadijah Nankanja, the local director of Women of Kireka, a collective of women touched by Kony’s marauding violence. This was my second encounter with the group, which makes and sells jewelry made from paper beads, pooling savings among the women. Last March, I had spent an afternoon with 20-some artisans, happy to have income-generating activity to banish thoughts of past terror. A few women have since splintered off looking for more lucrative work.

Hadijah and I tried to come up with a way forward. Food production? Without refrigeration, distribution would be a problem. Tailoring? The investment in sewing machines was too great. Hair salons? The market appeared saturated. And so forth. We didn’t come up with a concrete plan, but opening a small restaurant seemed to be the front-running proposition.

Our informal brainstorming session took about the same time as does watching “Kony 2012.” I dare suggest that time spent marshaling such reserves of imagination, communion and capital to support jobs for displaced victims is far more helpful than this sort of advocacy. The kinds of problems Hadijah is trying to understand and solve are less sexy than the horror stories trailing behind Kony. But they are the nut worth cracking.

Unfortunately, the mundane march of progress in poor countries is what “awareness” campaigns often miss. And when, as in this case, success is determined by action from outside the region, cries of a new imperialism should be taken seriously. Few international NGOs working in Africa define success properly — as putting themselves out of business. Invisible Children seems no better.

Let’s not amplify and reproduce another narrative of Africa in crisis when Ugandans themselves are moving on.

What’s a single story? What’s the danger of a single story?

Chimamanda Adichie, an incredible Nigerian author, has an easy to follow TedX video speaking about the danger of a single story. Check it out here.

Rosebell Kagumire, a fearless Ugandan journalist, has posted a video blog and speaks about the issue of a single story and agency (see below).

What’s this notion of “agency”? Why is “human dignity” important?

TMS Ruge has a great post on why he thinks agency is important. You can read it here. Project Diaspora, more generally, has always aimed to post informative, realistic, but also positive stories.

I recently wrote a short article on this program called Villages in Action. It was started by TMS Ruge, his mother and the Kikuube community (a small village outside Masindi). The goal of Villages in Action is provide a platform for the “beneficiaries” or “stakeholders” in aid and development to speak out on a wider scale.

On a more theoretical level, Martha Nussbaum have spoken and written extensively about the importance of human dignity in development. This is a great, short introduction to Nussbaum’s approach to human rights and capabilities. Here’s a short video of her speaking. Amartya Sen has also written extensively about this. I find his work a bit less accessible, but here’s a wiki extract of a book you could pick up “Development as Freedom.”

Now that you have more information on why the Kony 2012 video is controversial, you can learn more about the issues it does attempt to raise:

The situation in Northern Uganda

Start with this background article from Mahmood Mamdani.

There is an interesting article from 2010 on Kony and the LRA here (thanks WhyDev).

Alex de Waal weighing in on how Invisible Children’s campaign is dangerous.

A brief and informative blog post from Glen Pearson, Co-Director of the London Food Bank.

Human Rights Watch is a legitimate and easy to access source of information. Here’s there Uganda page.

The Refugee Law Project has written extensively about human rights issues in Uganda and the region. In particular, they provide good information on the situation of internally displaced persons and on traditional justice. I find their research to be quite concise and accessible. However, there aren’t many recent papers, so this is good for background reading.

The letter written by Invisible Children to the Obama Administration is also worth a read and it offers some interesting context. I fail to understand how the video and the letter were produced by the same organization.

The Guardian UK, as usual, is doing a great job at rounding up resources. See “Reality Check with Polly Curtis.” Also, I love the Guardian’s development section. High quality human rights & development reporting you will not find elsewhere.

Uganda (general information)

You can get regular news from Uganda from the Daily Monitor, the Independent, the New Vision, and the Observer.

Some journalists have their own blogs, and I would recommend you read some of Rosebell’s stories (particularly on maternal health care) here. Ssozi Javie, another excellent blogger, posts his articles here. He posted a blog on the Kony video here.

Jackee Batanda, who recently published a response to the Kony 2012 video in Foreign Policy, blogs here.

The International Criminal Court and the indictment of Joseph Kony

Doug Sanders draws the link between Kony, ICC and the Kony 2012 campaign. Mahmood Mamdani’s article, also cited above, also gets into selective justice at the ICC.

Radio Netherlands International has a brief article on the impact of Ocampo’s association with the film. Also, a great website for following international justice issues.

When the ICC indicted Joseph Kony, a huge debate flared on the peace versus justice debate. Justice in Conflict recently posted some observations on this debate in an easy to read blog post. You could also check out this working paper (published in 2005 though) from Refugee Law Project on this issue.

Human Rights Watch has a briefing paper on Uganda’s International Crimes Division which is a division of the High Court with a mandate to prosecute genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. One case has been in front of the ICD involving Thomas Kwoyelo, a member of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group, and the commission of war crimes.

Blogs, blogs, blogs

Why Dev has listed some of the major blogs not only discussing the Kony video, but also provide really interesting information on issues in Uganda and across the continent. Check it out here.

Boing Boing has provided an excellent list of African activists, writers and more talking about the Kony video. Many of them are also bloggers. Check that out here.

I want to engage. What’s the best way to go about it?

A great list of questions to ask yourself first.

Check out the How Matters blog for reflections on what needs to change in aid advocacy post-Kony 2012.

Also, here is a reply I wrote for someone asking this question:

Now, for the more important point! “You can’t expect everyone who is now aware of the issue to suddenly get on a plane to Uganda…” This is the LAST thing I – or anyone in development or aid for that matter – would want! First of all, Uganda is not how it was portrayed in the movie, so the difficulties faced by the country go far beyond an immediate humanitarian disaster in a conflict zone (which the average person, including myself, do not have the experience to assist with, nor should we try). The war is over and Gulu, in fact, is overrun with NGOs to the point where – at least from what I saw in 2008 – coordination between similar programs becomes imposible, truckloads of volunteers come in when school lets out and perform jobs that local persons need more, and an artificial NGO economy flourishes (among other problems).

You have asked me about organizations accepting field volunteers. Now, I don’t want to discourage people from volunteering when they do so in a smart and informed way. Instead of suggesting organizations right away, I would like to point you to a blog called Good Intentions are Not Enough. I think reading through some of the author’s older posts will give you an idea of the potential pitfalls of volunteering, and what kind of a negative effect it can have in communities. It’ll also give you an idea of the kinds of questions you should be asking about organizations accepting volunteers. Here’s a good post to start off with: http://goodintents.org/staffing-or-employment/voluntourism-what-could-go-wrong. A few other good posts for background reading: http://goodintents.org/staffing-or-employment/how-to-get-involved-in-aid and http://goodintents.org/in-kind-donations/donating-shoes-aid-fads.

This is not to say that you should not try to find an organization in Uganda – or elsewhere, including in your own community – where your particular, individual skills are required and would be useful. However, the background reading is important. And, as someone who made the mistake of jumping into a volunteer spot without doing this initial reading the first time I worked in Gulu, I truly think it will help.

With that said: actually, helping and getting involved in these issues in a smart way from the US, or wherever you are based, is probably far more necessary and useful in the context of the post-conflict situation in Gulu. It would, if done well, also do less damage. Here’s an example: A couple of years ago, I worked with a small NGO in Northern Uganda that brings internet and other ICT tools to rural areas outside Gulu (BOSCO Uganda). One of the programs was a ‘cyber’ science exchange between a school just outside Gulu and a school in the US. Students worked on mapping and water testing and shared their results online while using wikispaces to discuss their findings. This is brilliant and the kind of high-impact initiative that does not take jobs from local teachers or involve exporting and distributing used t-shirts from the US. This is something you could organize with your former high school or another educational institution in your neighbourhood with some help.

Once again, and I really want to make this clear, the last thing I want to do is dissuade people from caring about other individuals and communities and dedicating themselves to the improvement of humanity as a whole. However, just like any other industry or sector in the world – and yes, charity is an industry – getting involved does require some leg-work. Charity is not simple. In fact, it affects people’s lives intimately and thus requires even more care and thoughtfulness.

I would also check out Ssozi’s bullet points in his response to the Kony video as they apply to charity/aid/development.

Other business, organization and NGOs to look into:

• TMS Ruge suggests investing with the expectation of a return on your investment. UMPG (which Ruge founded) and located in Masindi, Uganda, has several investors already. The company is growing purely on sales and now employs 3 full-time staff and is in the process of expanding in order to meet demand.
• A few years ago, I helped found a small women’s cooperative called Women of Kireka. Hadijah Nankanja, an amazing Ugandan woman who has volunteered her time with Women of Kireka since Day 1, recently stepped up as country director. She was quoted in the New York Times today. I would urge you to contact her via our website if you are interested in getting to know her and the Women of Kireka.

You want to help people learn how to be critical of advocacy efforts?

I have been receiving questions about information that high school students and young activists can read in order to better inform themselves on the Kony 2012 issue and beyond. A few highlights (a lot is embedded in the above sections):

• A workshop you can download from the Liu Institute’s Africa Canada Accountability Coalition (scroll down to the workshop link). I think this is appropriate for people with a background in these issues and who want to run a similar workshop but don’t know where to start (in particular, see their nuanced conflicts minerals case study).
• An awareness and fundraising video by a school called Hope North for ex-child soldiers in Northern Uganda. If assigned with the Kony 2012 video, I think comparing and critiquing the two can raise some interesting discussions. The video is excellent. It is simple, but tells a far more complex story than Kony 2012. It also transports you entirely into the Hope North school campus: football, sun, soccer, smiling, dancing and – yes, the hard stories.