Kony 2012

[InPersonaChriste]

Stop the LRA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

[Jesus_lol]

This video is great, it brings light to a person that needs it shone on them and his victims that need help. but there are a lot of concerns over the organization that made this being a fraud.

the support for the ugandan government was disquieting for me, as if they were anything other than a terrible government run by a tyrannical dictator. If they can catch and bring Kony to justice thats great but i dont plan on supporting them.

[Aloysius]

[quote name='Jesus_lol' timestamp='1331141686' post='2397261']
This video is great, it brings light to a person that needs it shone on them and his victims that need help. but there are a lot of concerns over the organization that made this being a fraud.

the support for the ugandan government was disquieting for me, as if they were anything other than a terrible government run by a tyrannical dictator. If they can catch and bring Kony to justice thats great but i dont plan on supporting them.
[/quote]
Indeed, as is often the case in these matters, Kony is bad but so is the Ugandan government... almost every case of interventionism is like this; yes, you must concede that the one side is bad, but that doesn't mean the other side is good.

still, I prefer interventionism that is taken on real humanitarian impetus to the other kind of entanglements we've been getting into. hope they get the thug. heck, even World War II was like that, the Nazis were terrible but the Soviets were just as bad, if not worse.

Edited March 7, 2012 by Aloysius

[Basilisa Marie]

This is from the daily what, a not so amesome web blog but its article about this offers a different perspective, and I think it's important to help see the whole picture.

[quote][b]On Kony 2012:[/b][color=#444444] I honestly wanted to stay as far away as possible from [/color][url="http://s3.amazonaws.com/kony2012/kony-4.html"]KONY 2012[/url][color=#444444], the latest fauxtivist fad sweeping the web (remember “change your Facebook profile pic to stop child abuse”?), but you clearly won’t stop sending me [/color][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc"]that darn video[/url][color=#444444] until I say something about it, so here goes:[/color][color=#444444]
Stop sending me that video.[/color][color=#444444]
The organization behind Kony 2012 — [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Children_Inc"]Invisible Children Inc.[/url] — is an extremely shady nonprofit that has been called ”misleading,” “naive,” and “dangerous” [url="http://chrisblattman.com/2009/03/04/visible-children/"]by a Yale political science professor[/url], and has been accused by [i]Foreign Affairs[/i] of “[url="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136673/mareike-schomerus-tim-allen-and-koen-vlassenroot/obama-takes-on-the-lra?page=show"]manipulat[ing] facts for strategic purposes[/url].” They have also been criticized [url="http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/children-and-youth/invisible-children-in-san-diego-ca-4469"]by the Better Business Bureau[/url] for refusing to provide information necessary to determine if IC meets the Bureau’s standards.[/color][color=#444444]
Additionally, IC has [url="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12429"]a low two-star rating in accountability[/url] from Charity Navigator because they won’t let their financials be independently audited. That’s not a good thing. In fact, it’s a very bad thing, and should make you immediately pause and reflect on where the money you’re sending them is going.[/color][color=#444444]
By IC’s own admission, only 31% of all the funds they receive [url="http://c2052482.r82.cf0.rackcdn.com/images/737/original/FY11-Audited%20Financial%20Statements.pdf?1320205055"]go toward actually helping anyone[/url] [pdf]. The rest go to line the pockets of the three people in charge of the organization, to pay for their travel expenses (over $1 million in the last year alone) and to fund their filmmaking business (also over a million) — which is quite an effective way to make more money, as clearly illustrated by the fact that so many can’t seem to stop forwarding their well-engineered emotional blackmail to everyone they’ve ever known.[/color][color=#444444]
And as far as [url="http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/"]what they do with that money[/url]:[/color][indent]
The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s [url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-PnDZmngAhM/Sa_KBGNySiI/AAAAAAAAAJY/uBOfiAysghs/s1600-h/IMG_2941.JPG"]a photo[/url] of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of [url="http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17456%3Aupdf-in-kony-hunt-accused-of-rape-looting&catid=78%3Atopstories&Itemid=116"]rape and looting[/url], but Invisible Children defends them, [url="http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/qk0pd/kony_2012_help_raise_awareness_and_stop_joseph/c3ycvhb"]arguing[/url] that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and [url="http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/qk0pd/kony_2012_help_raise_awareness_and_stop_joseph/c3ycvhb"]hasn’t been since 2006[/url] by their own admission. [url="http://books.google.ca/books?id=czMrNdvNuWgC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=UPDF+rape&source=bl&ots=ci63KTOEn7&sig=YrY7g_wWwmmIEb0MmCkk398RhBo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yW1XT-m-MITW0QGywKG6Dw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=UPDF%20rape&f=false"]These[/url] [url="http://books.google.ca/books?id=tVOCIHLqn6wC&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=UPDF+rape&source=bl&ots=QX7Q996i0Z&sig=BuQdCci0vmhaXicxSWqfa88rYJk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yW1XT-m-MITW0QGywKG6Dw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=UPDF%20rape&f=false"]books[/url] each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending.[/indent][color=#444444]
Let’s not get our lines crossed: The [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Resistance_Army"]Lord’s Resistance Army[/url] is bad news. And Joseph Kony is a very bad man, and needs to be stopped. But propping up Uganda’s decades-old dictatorship and its military arm, which has been accused by the UN of [url="http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/UN-Congo-Report-Released-Amid-Protest-from-Uganda-Rwanda-104165814.html"]committing unspeakable atrocities[/url]and itself [url="http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,CSCOAL,,COD,,498806012d,0.html"]facilitated the recruitment of child soldiers[/url], is not the way to go about it.[/color][color=#444444]
The United States is already plenty involved [url="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136673/mareike-schomerus-tim-allen-and-koen-vlassenroot/obama-takes-on-the-lra?page=show"]in helping rout Kony and his band of psycho sycophants[/url]. Kony is on the run, having been pushed out of Uganda, and it’s likely he will soon be caught, [url="http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/the-visible-problem-with-invisible-children/"]if he isn’t already dead[/url]. But killing Kony won’t fix anything, just as killing Osama bin Laden didn’t end terrorism. The LRA might collapse, but, as [i]Foreign Affairs[/i] points out, it is “a relatively small player in all of this — as much a symptom as a cause of the endemic violence.”[/color][color=#444444]
Myopically placing the blame for all of central Africa’s woes on Kony —[url="http://www.wrongingrights.com/2009/03/worst-idea-ever.html/"]even as a starting point[/url] — will only [url="http://chrisblattman.com/2011/11/21/what-you-should-be-reading-if-you-want-to-understand-the-us-and-the-lords-resistance-army/"]imperil many more people[/url] than are already in danger.[/color][color=#444444]
Sending money to a nonprofit that wants to muck things up by dousing the flames with fuel is not helping. Want to help? [i]Really[/i] want to help? Send your money to nonprofits that are putting more than 31% toward rebuilding the region’s medical and educational infrastructure, so that former child soldiers have something worth coming home to.[/color][color=#444444]
[url="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4943"]Here[/url] [url="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3220"]are[/url] [url="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=8392"]just[/url] [url="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=8875"]a few[/url] of those charities. They all have a sparkling four-star rating from Charity Navigator, and, more importantly, no interest in airdropping American troops armed to the teeth into the middle of a multi-nation tribal war to help one madman catch another.[/color][color=#444444]
The bottom line is, research your causes thoroughly. Don’t just forward a random video to a stranger because a mass murderer makes a five-year-old “sad.” Learn a little bit about the complexities of the region’s ongoing strife before advocating for direct military intervention.[/color]
[color=#444444]There is no black and white in the world. And going about solving important problems like there is just serves to make all those equally troubling shades of gray invisible.[/color][/quote]

[Katiebobatie94]

Something NEEDS to be done!

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc[/url]

[marigold]

I just saw this film on a totally unrelated source, and I forwarded it to my sister who apparently had just seen it too. I hope it goes everywhere.

[Ice_nine]

So is that how things work? We forward videos and sign e-petitions and pat ourselves on the back for "spreading awareness"

Not like I have a better idea. I just don't think it's working

[Jesus_lol]

[quote name='Katiebobatie94' timestamp='1331161491' post='2397410']
Something NEEDS to be done!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc[/media]
[/quote]

did you not see the first post? it was at the top of the page, and uploaded the same video as you just did already.

[Katiebobatie94]

[quote name='Jesus_lol' timestamp='1331173932' post='2397530']
did you not see the first post? it was at the top of the page, and uploaded the same video as you just did already.
[/quote]

uummm no i didnt i hit go to 1st unread post lol

[Tony]

[quote name='Jesus_lol' timestamp='1331173932' post='2397530']
did you not see the first post? it was at the top of the page, and uploaded the same video as you just did already.
[/quote]

I think someone merged two threads.

[Basilisa Marie]

[quote name='Basilisa Marie' timestamp='1331156941' post='2397386']
This is from the daily what, a not so amesome web blog but its article about this offers a different perspective, and I think it's important to help see the whole picture.
[/quote]

TLDR summary of my mini docu-dump, because I forgot no one pays attention to those on here:

This may not be the best idea ever, particularly because the three people that run Invisible Children have salaries of almost $90,000 each, and only 32% of all funds actually go towards helping people in Africa (schools, etc). Yes, it's important to stop Joseph Kony, but Uganda's government has also been doing terrible things to its people. The whole picture isn't quite as black and white as Invisible Children wants to make it.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Tony' timestamp='1331175188' post='2397548']
I think someone merged two threads.
[/quote]

yup

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Basilisa Marie' timestamp='1331175893' post='2397553']
TLDR summary of my mini docu-dump, because I forgot no one pays attention to those on here:

This may not be the best idea ever, particularly because the three people that run Invisible Children have salaries of almost $90,000 each, and only 32% of all funds actually go towards helping people in Africa (schools, etc). Yes, it's important to stop Joseph Kony, but Uganda's government has also been doing terrible things to its people. The whole picture isn't quite as black and white as Invisible Children wants to make it.
[/quote]

thank you for the succinct sum-up.

[GeorgiiMichael]

Kony isn't the only problem either.

Don't let your emotions take you for a ride.

[Tony]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEdMw3jvlsY&feature=g-all-u&context=G2cc2207FAAAAAAAABAA[/media]

some interesting points

Edited March 8, 2012 by Tony