Kickstriker would make The Yes Men jealous.
Created by three NYU students — two of whom I spoke with — the website labels itself as “a funding platform for activists and engineers working to resolve global conflicts,” then goes on to suggest projects one might fund — Kony 2012, a DIY Drone Strike, arming Tibetan militas to fight back against China, and a mobile black site/interrogation van.
After reaching out and making 100% sure the thing wasn’t for real, I had the following exchange:
EF: Who first thought of the idea?
Mehan Jayasuriya: The three of us were all in one of Clay Shirky’s classes together (“Political Uses of Social Media”), discussing the Kony 2012 campaign when James had a moment of inspiration: “What’s stopping a group like this from just hiring Academi (aka Blackwater) and sending in a private militia to capture this guy?” I then asked why not take it a step further and create a crowdfunding platform that would allow people to directly fund private military interventions in various conflicts? After we all stopped laughing and cringing, we realized that we couldn’t not build the site.
EF: What kind of discussion led up to the project? Were you guys more concerned with framing the idea, did you talk about — say — David Cameron’s TED talk, where he pretty much discussed devolving sectors of government to an idea like that, the way citizens in Vancouver used social media to track hockey rioters down, or … ?
MJ: Our starting point was Kony 2012. We all really liked Teju Cole’s piece in the Atlantic (“The White Savior Industrial Complex”) and were talking about what James has called the “commodification of altruism”. Our initial idea was to use the project page for Kony to take that idea to its logical, ghoulish conclusion. From there we came up with the DIY drone idea—since we’re all DIY technologists of a sort, it was easy for us to imagine a project that would appeal to many geek sensibilities (open-source! Arduino!) in a way that would pull people in, despite the terrifying implications of putting something like this out into the world. And from there we just started spitballing ideas for projects—whatever made us laugh the most made it in to the site.In terms of issues, we hope that people who land on the Kickstriker page will walk away thinking about the privatization of warfare, the long-term ramifications of ‘clicktivism,’ and the somewhat unique sense of entitlement that we, as Americans, feel to prescribe solutions to conflicts that arise in other countries.
EF: Okay. An impossible question as a follow up: given that this is an awfully good, almost Situationist-y satire: what do you think constitutes an elegant, non-discordant application of power? Mossad’s intelligence work before The Six Day War, perhaps?
James Borda: Hey, Evan. This question was passed on to me, though I haven’t the slightest idea how to answer. “Elegant” and “application of power” are not two concepts that I’ve ever considered putting in a single sentence. And my knowledge of the six day war is limited to what I just read on Wikipedia.
I suppose the most elegant application of power I can think of is encapsulated in Lincoln’s quote: “Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?”
Few conflicts are intractable when you get the bigots and ideologues out of the picture. Therein lies the rub.
-
At 7:15pm, the low buzz of a drone was heard overheard. Seconds later, an enormous explosion engulfed the area, destroying the boat and several nearby homes. Sources say 46 Watertown residents were killed in the missile strike, including 12 children.
—A hypothetical narration of a drone targeting the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in Watertown by an American Facebook user based in San Francisco, has gone viral amongst Pakistani Facebook users. Within 24 hours the post was shared more than 5000 times and generated hundreds of comments.
What if Watertown was Droned?
(via globalvoices)
(via globalvoices)
-
In Focus: North Korea Puts Its War Machine on Display
Despite massive international pressure, North Korea has been moving ahead with its long-range missile and nuclear ambitions, launching a rocket in December and conducting a nuclear test in February. International sanctions tightened in response, and even China, a longtime ally, stepped up inspections of North Korea-bound freight. Responding to the crackdown, North Korea’s government has been issuing new threats of war nearly every day over the past month, cutting ties to South Korea and ordering military units to prepare for attack at any moment. Over the past month, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea’s official media division, has been issuing a stream of images of military exercises, soldiersk in training, and, of course, supreme leader Kim Jong Un inspecting and inspiring the troops. (At least one of these images appears to be digitally manipulated). Gathered here are recent KCNA photographs of North Korea’s war machine, as the country wishes the world to see it. The photos were distributed by Reuters, AFP, and AP as a service, and cannot be independently verified or authenticated.
See more. [Images: Reuters/AP/Getty]
-
![inothernews:
So is North Korea worse at camouflaging their nuclear weapons or their soldiers?
(Photo of North Korean soldiers doing their best to terrify us but instead making us laugh, heartily by KCNA [the state media of North Korea] via Reuters / The Wall Street Journal)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/ab4a66e1012d391956b564698a53870c/tumblr_mjj1b0HOW21qz82gvo1_1280.jpg)
So is North Korea worse at camouflaging their nuclear weapons or their soldiers?
(Photo of North Korean soldiers doing their best to terrify us but instead making us laugh, heartily by KCNA [the state media of North Korea] via Reuters / The Wall Street Journal)
(via journalismfestival)
-
North Korea threatens to cancel Korean War cease-fire
AP: North Korea has vowed to scrap a ceasefire with the South that has been in place since the 1950-1953 Korean War over new sanctions meant to punish Pyongyang for its latest nuclear test.
North Korea’s Korean People’s Army Supreme Command made the statement Tuesday amid reports that Washington and North Korean ally Beijing have approved a draft of punishing resolutions that is expected to be circulated among UN Security Council members this week.
Photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects a gun during an artillery firing drill of the Korean People’s Army (AFP/Getty Images)
-
-
See More from In Focus: Rockets Over Israel and Gaza
[Images: Reuters, AP]
-
A dumbed-down, but forthright article on why US drone strikes are not necessarily OK.
US drone strikes ‘raise questions’ - UN’s Navi Pillay
US officials defended the policy after al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi was reportedly killed in a drone strike earlier this week.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said that the US would “continue to defend ourselves”.
…
Controversial tactic
Ms Pillay said she had suggested to the Pakistani government that they invite the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Summary or Arbitrary Executions to investigate some of the incidents.
Ms Pillay said drone attacks were beyond civilian or military control.The US has also carried out drone strikes as part of military operations in Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan.
But correspondents say drone strikes are highly controversial as significant numbers of innocent bystanders are killed along with intended targets.
The policy has contributed to a recent worsening in relations between the US and Pakistan.
One controversial aspect of drone attacks in Pakistan is that they are not conducted by the US military - which is expected to comply with the laws of armed conflict - but by the Central Intelligence Agency, whose operations are far from transparent, the BBC’s defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus reports.
The legality of the operations is also brought into question by the fact that Pakistan, unlike neighbouring Afghanistan, is not a zone of armed conflict, he adds.
Also, Thursday’s BBC Global News report discusses the simple act of sending in drones to other countries, like Yemen, or Pakistan. People have to live with foreign drones constantly humming over their heads, never knowing when or where it will strike. What sweet freedom…
-
A Chat With Kickstriker:
-
-
Anthony Shadid, 1968-2012
good:
Shortly after David Hoffman, then the foreign editor of The Washington Post, overcame all of his better judgement and decided to send my 23-year-old intern self to Baghdad, he told me to go talk to Anthony Shadid, who was in Washington on book leave. It’s safe to say this prospect terrified me more than the actual trip to Iraq.
GOOD managing editor Megan Greenwell remembers Anthony Shadid, who taught her how to write about the war in Iraq when they were colleagues at The Washington Post.
