Trayvon 2012

The tragic story of Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old child killed while walking home with some candy and tea to watch a basketball game, is getting a lot of press. (See my previous post for details.)

People are asking for justice, meaning that the murderer should be put to trial. He admitted to killing the child and all the evidence suggests he isn't lying.

My response is to ask why we are focusing on Trayvon and not the candy he was eating. The truth is that most black children in America will die from a heart attack or cancer and it will be caused by poor eating habits including eating too much sugar. The candy didn't kill Trayvon Martin but it will kill most of his peers in 40-50 years.

I also wonder why people are simplifying the issue. This isn't something that can be explained in a 500 word news story. If the case goes to trial the transcripts will run for pages and pages as evidence is presented over a number of days. This is a complicated issue and even a 30 minute documentary would not do it justice. I'm tempted to write a blog post titled "Trayvon Martin fought back and other complicated things..."

The truth is that the family is using the death (to sound objective I will henceforce refrain from using "murder") to emotionally manipulate audiences. He was 17 but they refer to him as a child because of the emotional appeal.

The ordeal and presentation reminds me a lot of Kony 2012 except it was about one child and about thousands, which makes it more important.


Note: This post is satire.

Trayvon Martin

A 17 year old boy, Trayvon Martin, was shot and killed in cold blood near his father and his fiance's house a few weeks ago. I heard about it on the Internet shortly after it happened but the story has finally taken off in the mainstream media.

What makes the story interesting is that the man who admitted to murdering Trayvon claimed he did it in self-defense and in Florida, due to an inept and willfully negligent police force, that's enough to avoid a trial. Yes, you can admit that you shot and killed an unarmed child walking around the neighborhood after being directed by police to stay away from him, and as long as you pull some shit about it being "self-defense" the incredibly inept police officers won't arrest you.

Some say this is because of a law passed around the time I left Florida that says you can defend yourself and if someone dies then so be it. The thing is, all states, to my knowledge, have laws to that effect. Florida's law just codifies what is often unstated.

The truth is that the murderer got off because the police are morons.

That shouldn't surprise anyone who lives in Florida. The state gives out more tickets per capita than any other, only in part because of the immense number of morons on it's roadways. (Note that it's worse than it sounds since parking is cheap and abundant: the vast majority of those tickets are moving violations.)

I called 9/11 once in my life to report that my home was on fire. I said it was a small fire on the carpet that was growing rapidly. They asked if I was out of the house. (a) No, how would I be calling you? and (b) Who gives a fuck just send some firefighters! But that wasn't the worst of it. For some reason the dispatcher decided to first send a cop with a small extinguisher and then not tell the firemen to show up ready to put out a fire. They didn't have their bunker gear on or their hoses ready. I'd estimate that another 25% of my house went up in flames because they didn't show up ready to go. If I knew then what I know now I would have just tried to put out the fire myself with a garden hose.

The irony is that Florida's focus on handing out tons of tickets and spending as little money as possible on fire and police services is probably what caused George Zimmerman, the murderer to start his "night watch" to protect his community. The cops didn't do their jobs so he would do it for them. Now the tables have turned, he is the criminal, and he is getting away because they continue to not do their job.

What happens when you're a dick

Update: This commentary on the subject is probably a better use of your time. Return after you read it.

People are social animals. I try not to be bothered when a driver gives me the finger, when someone attacks my character because of my beliefs, or even when people spread rumors or make false accusations. But it gets me to like anyone else.

I'm not important enough to receive hate (e-)mail or death threats, but I suspect Jason Russell did. He got barraged with a lot of negativity the past few weeks. Some of it was respectful and reasonable. Most from reasonable people was asinine ("Joseph Kony is not in Uganda . . ." is not complicated) and most of it from gullible people was false ("Invisible Children has never been audited"). The vast majority that I read was either mean spirited, moronic, or driven by jealous.

I can't imagine what hundreds of thousands or millions of people saying nasty, untrue things about you feels like but I suspect most people would crack under the stress like Jason Russell did under those circumstances. I hope he recovers. I hope his family copes and gets the support it needs. I hope Invisible Children can continue operating programs that a lot of people depend on while Jason recovers.

I also wonder why people describe his behavior as "bizarre." Every person that I am close to I have seen break down and each person does it in their own way. Some people just cry and beg to be taken "home" or where they feel safe. Some people cry and demand revenge on the people they blame their problems on. Some people, like me, just break things, demand rectitude, and have a short fuse. Many kids, including me, run a few blocks from home and scream. Many people just try to bury their sorrows in alcohol and cry themselves to sleep. Others just don't sleep and lay awake in fear for nights on end. Others don't eat. A few take their own lives. And Jason Russell ran down a street in his underwear. Was it really that bizarre?

Hate Crime of the Day

A while back I blogged about some douche that put a camera in his dorm room and filmed his roommate kissing another guy. If I remember correctly he then uploaded the video on the Internet to embarrass the roommate and the roommate decided to jump off a bridge (and died).

Slate reports that the douche was convicted of invasion of privacy and a hate crime.

The moral of the story is not to be a dick to your roommate. Being a dick has consequences.

Why I am leaving the empire

Darth Vader is leaving the Empire because it lost its way.

Some guy at Goldman Sachs also quit his job.

Chris Blattman isn't as big of an asshole as you thought

I used to like Chis Blattman's blog. I've linked to things I've found on his blog and to the blog, but recently his tone and excitement about being quoted as an expert on why not to get into development and not to care is discomforting.

My discomfort with Blattman, as with many self-proclaimed development experts, has been the worry they take themselves too seriously. There is a long-winded explanation behind that statement, with caveats and provisos and elaborations required. One day I’ll write that up, but not today.

To give credit where it is due, scratch beneath the surface, and Chris Blattman's views are quite simplistic and easily stated. His self-defense is here, and it’s unbearably long-winded and poorly written but comprehensible. Also, my (admittedly limited) knowledge of his finances is that he donates some money to good causes from time to time, maybe even more than the average American with his income. The plugs for his brother in law's charity are nepotistic and disheartening, but you could do worse than to donate by, for example, spending the money on booze.

I would feel more comfortable with Chris Blattman if I saw him, somewhere, explaining that his key findings include the shocking conclusions that "[m]ilitary service [in the LRA] seems to be a poor substitute for schooling [and p]sychological distress is evident among those exposed to severe war violence." If I’ve missed it, help me out.

In the end I don’t think it matters. Many African governments are corrupt and incompetent because the political institutions support that equilibrium, and the West is likely to continue to respond by providing help that offends Chris. I would like to be wrong on this, but I fear Kony will kill again and again, and in 2013 Chris will move to Columbia and continue write more papers no one reads.

Most of what I have written is unduly cynical and trivializing. For all of his weaknesses, Chris Blattman has been more effective than any of us at sanctimonious academic blogging, and someone might have learned to be sensitive to elite African's political identity issues as a result. He can get better, and I hope in time he does.

What’s amazing and obvious is that Kony 2012 might lead us to what Chris admits is "the least worst action" After years of writing rants on unimportant subjects, Chris helped reporters stop burying the lede on Kony 2012 more than four or five paragraphs (example here).

This entire post was a satire of Chris' "defense" of Invisible Children which rephrases what he wrote to apply to his blog.

Kony 2012

Another video from Invisible Children.

I watched the original Invisible Children movie in 2007 and I've kept up with their blog and story since, mostly at a distance. When we showed the movie at my high school back in the day people said all the same things they are saying now. The founders are getting rich off the organization, they don't audit their funds, they waste most of the money, they don't have a plan to end the war, the most is expropriated by dictators so I've looked into most of the criticisms before. This is what I know.

They have been audited independently since at least 2007. The two founders still with the organization make about $90,000 which less than Ophelia Dahl at Partners in Health makes. Most of the rest of the staff used to live pretty cheaply, sharing rooms in some houses IC acquired in San Diego and making, if I remember correctly, under $30,000 each. Whether they "waste" money is hard to answer. If I were running a charity I wouldn't spend as much money on education and videos as they do and would spend more on health. But I didn't go to USC Film School. I know that, despite claims to the contrary, none of their money goes to Museveni who anyone at IC will tell you kind of sucks and is no friend of the Acholi.

I think the best criticism of IC is that they don't have good answers on how to "end the war." They don't but I don't think anyone does. Look at this paper by Chris Blattman and his wife, who are supposed experts on the LRA, and you get he sense that like with most military interventions there are a lot of unknowns and anyone claiming otherwise is full of shit. That said I do think they have a coherent model. They believe that if you get people talking about Kony in the streets it will get people talking about Kony in D.C. and from that discussion some good policy will emerge. I don't see anything glaringly wrong with it.

It's sad some people always respond to IC with scorn and that most respond with temporary interest, but I like to focus on the positive. Tens of thousands of people have responded by spending at least ten hours of their time for this cause and that's great.