Kony 2012

[Silver Seren]

Watch this video.

Yes, I know it's long, but watch it anyways.

Joseph Kony is one of the few people on this planet that you can term as pure evil. From the killing of thousands to the abduction of children to the selling of the girls as sex slaves, he is someone that the world needs to deal with.

Unfortunately, our (the US) government doesn't want to deal with it. So it's up to us to force them to take action. We're the ones that can make a difference. And we're the only ones that will.

Like it, blog it, share the video. Just get the word out there to as many people as you can, the more the better. If you have the money to spend, buy a few of the posters or maybe even the full Action Kit, and put them up in your town.

We'll show the world that, if all of us, the people, work together, we can accomplish anything.

[Luca Fox]

Not even remotely interested.

[bigro]

Not even remotely interested.

Then don't post in the thread?

Anyhax, love the cause and all, just don't have the major motivation needed to do anything, maybe drop a link here and there but that's about it...


Known about this guy for a while though, so myah "heard it all before" "head stuck firmly up my rear end" "inconsiderate jerk" and the likes.




Where did the good news go?

[Silver Seren]

@bigro: Isn't it that sort of thinking that makes it so that he's never going to be caught? Because people are so apathetic about actually doing something.

[Sebbie]

Disclaimer: I have done zero research of my own into this topic, so I make no claims on any side. I only post this because one of my Facebook friends posted it on his wall and it seemed appropriate: http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/.

[Silver Seren]

Disclaimer: I have done zero research of my own into this topic, so I make no claims on any side. I only post this because one of my Facebook friends posted it on his wall and it seemed appropriate: http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/.

The only viable argument in there is the one about arming the Ugandan military. In my opinion, getting rid of Kony is the first necessary step, then we can focus on fixing the corruption in Uganda. If we try to do it before, they're just going to argue that they need to be armed to fight Kony. One step before the other and all that.

As for the financial expenses, i'm not entirely sure how the kid on that Tumblr is doing his math to end up with only 32% spent on program expenses, because that's very, very wrong. If you look at the financials, you can see that they spend 8,894,000 per year, 7,163,000 of which is spent on program expenses and 1,444,000 is spend on paying employees and other stuff like that. Now, unless my calculator is lying to me, that means that 80.5% of their expenses go into making their program, lobbying, and all of the required stuff, with the leftover money going to pay for the people working there.

I see nothing wrong with 20% spent on employee pay, that's completely average for a charity, if not below average.

As for manipulating facts, neither the student nor Foreign Affairs specifies what exactly is being fabricated. From what i've looked up on the subject, they're actually understating what's going on in Africa. For example, they say 30,000 children were kidnapped by Kony within some time period. But the World Bank actually estimated that 66,000 children were kidnapped by him in that time frame.

And i'm not even going to argue the White Man's Burden part, that's just stupid. And, funny enough, by trying to apply this to the organization to show they're racist (if that's what they're trying to portray), that Yale professor is actually being the racist one.

We're all people. It has nothing to do with race. And to try to stop us from helping someone by saying that helping them is perpetuating some sort of race stereotype is one of the most ignorant things i've ever heard.


But, yeah, there's my counterargument. I wish some newspaper would print that version and stop listening to this Tumblr student who clearly didn't do his research.

[Ravenous222]

I haven't done a TON of research on this, but I have actually worked with these people in the past. The thing that kind of bugs me right now is that this is JUST now getting to the mainstream, when this project has been going on for almost 9 years now. And now anyone who posts this video on facebook is suddenly the greatest humanitarian that ever lived. Not to say this isn't a good cause, or that people shouldn't support it, but the way they're going about it just doesn't sit well with me I guess.

[Silver Seren]

They were kinda forced to change their tactics since their previous actions over the past nine years have only been moderately successful.

And it's quite clear that their current campaign is actually working.

[FurryForlife]

Good cause. I've stepped up and donated, and I plan to do what ever I can to help.

[Ryusen]

To play devil's advocate, here is a post about Why the Kony documentary and Invisible Children are one-sided. I've not been keeping up much with the goings on in Uganda, but this post does seem to make some good points.

[TinyVoices]

Unfortunately, our (the US) government doesn't want to deal with it. So it's up to us to force them to take action. We're the ones that can make a difference. And we're the only ones that will.

Dilemma.

I want this dude to burn. But if the US gets involved, won’t that mean another war? Of some kind?
But then a stern talking to won’t solve the issue, and we can’t say “he’s bad! UN/other country(ies), sick ‘em! We’ll watch.”


Either way, everyone in my group at lunch was talking about the video today, so the word is getting out. Even if apparently very late.

[bigro]

@bigro: Isn't it that sort of thinking that makes it so that he's never going to be caught? Because people are so apathetic about actually doing something.

because I want to donate my money to yet another vaguely dubious charity that wants to saaaaave Africa. I have my own problems that drain my money tyvm.
It has one idea though, make him infamous. Which is good, I'll do that, hence drop links here and there. I like this bit, get other people to do the donating bullcrap I can't. It feeds my laziness. I like this. Good idea. Old idea but good idea.


Related note, saw this on le TV today. Going somewhere?

[Luca Fox]

People will forget about it in a week. It'll be right up there with their new year's resolution to quit smoking or to go to the gym more often. It's really none of our [censored] business anyways. The US has numerous problems within its own borders it needs to give more attention to.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/03/ ... story.html

[AlfaWskyDlta]

People will forget about it in a week. It'll be right up there with their new year's resolution to quit smoking or to go to the gym more often. It's really none of our [censored] business anyways. The US has numerous problems within its own borders it needs to give more attention to.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/03/ ... story.html

I totally agree. Its just not our place to intervene. People in the US are so quick to assume that we have some kind of responsibility to "help" everyone else all the time when the truth is that we have our own problems that we need to deal with. We need to stop getting into everybody else's business and mind our own for a while.

[Twippit]

People will forget about it in a week. It'll be right up there with their new year's resolution to quit smoking or to go to the gym more often. It's really none of our [censored] business anyways. The US has numerous problems within its own borders it needs to give more attention to.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/03/ ... story.html

I totally agree. Its just not our place to intervene. People in the US are so quick to assume that we have some kind of responsibility to "help" everyone else all the time when the truth is that we have our own problems that we need to deal with. We need to stop getting into everybody else's business and mind our own for a while.

Very true. Also, CNN’s got a whole series of articles on Kony 2012, most of them criticism of the idea (also worth noting is that only the first eight articles are recent, and the rest are from 2011, mostly about Obama sending in 100 troops “to help ‘apprehend and remove’ the elusive Joseph Kony”). I don’t know much of anything about this particular issue, but I opposed Libya and I oppose this for just the same reason; Let’s stay home and fix and protect the interior before there’s no interior to protect.