KONY 2012

[Darkaxis]

Lastly, I don't want to sound like a dick, but why can't African countries ever handle their own shit? Motherfuckers gonna cry oppression and shit from Europe and then when they get it, their countries fall to shit and there is literally no infrastructure at all in place (partially Europe's fault, partially <African Country's> fault). Then civilised countries have to come in and stop whatever retarded atrocities are happening with our money that we don't have just so something worse or similar can happen again in a different country a few years later? It's fucking stupid and I find it really really hard to care about Africa as a whole anymore, but I'm already pretty cynical as it is.

Man, what you just said was wrong in so many ways. Partially because Africa doesn't have money or support. Why? Because no country wants to help it. It's true that they end up with some lost things here and there, but isn't sacrifice what humanity is about?

Humanity is something we all should have. But that guy has none of it.


Look, I ain't supporting that guy, but have you found a better source to raise awareness? You guys are saying awareness does nothing. But awareness helps people understand how fucked up the world is. If you want them to send a letter to a congressman or something how would they find about if no other media other than the internet is raising awareness? I don't see any news of african deaths anywhere. Awareness leads to action.

They find out now, THEY CARE NOW. If they don't find out how do they not care?

 

[Renosaur]

What an obnoxiously hipster attitude. There are finally enough people doing something about this to maybe have an impact and you dismiss it because it is 'trendy'? You are coming up with excuses for being apathetic about this, would it it kill anyone here to take 5 minutes out of their day to do the absolute least they can to help?

Spreading the video, donating, or even participating in April does not in any way exclude anyone from also caring about the world's many other problems. The internet is shaping out to be a powerful activist tool and things like Stop SOPA, the 99%, and the Invisible Children help all causes by proving that organization on this scale can be done, that people can be heard. By all means start your own movement if something is more important to you.

They mention in the video that the LRA has since moved out of Uganda. You might actually benefit from watching it before parroting that fact as if it meant that the issue was resolved.

I am not necessarily dismissing the issue at whole but I am also not defending the fact it isn't a result of a 'trend'. The whole thing really is blown up when issues which are ( I believe) are equal an matter still persist around the world. There's always been enough people to solve those issues. I think the main reason I am annoyed is the fact people spread the video thinking they are taking serious action (kinda like what cookie posted before). Sure, the video is spreading awareness but from what I've seen there's kinda like a large scale bystander effect going on.

At the end of the day I will be buying a bracelet and there will be a protest movement going on in my local city but I won't be there parading the fact the issue has been around for a while / think the issue is beneath me because it's only recently recognised.

 

[Mastadi]

So even if we deal with Kony, what about all the other militia leaders in Africa and other regions of the world who do pretty much the same thing? The video seems to make people think that it's a single, isolated incident, while in fact, it's quite the opposite.

 

[Alan]

Man, what you just said was wrong in so many ways. Partially because Africa doesn't have money or support. Why? Because no country wants to help it.

Are you insane or just dumb? Millions, billions of dollars in terms of actual cash and resources (labour and actual goods) is given to Africa every year. Every. Single. Year. Countries pay out the ass to keep it afloat, but the corrupt leaders squander it and ruin their countries' economies in the process. (See: Zimbabwe, Libya, etc) Organisations like WHO, Doctors without Borders, and the Peace Corp are pretty much all over the continent funded primarily by first world nations. Africa is the quintessential child who has everything handed to it and takes everything for granted.

 

[Darkaxis]

Are you insane or just dumb? Millions, billions of dollars in terms of actual cash and resources (labour and actual goods) is given to Africa every year. Every. Single. Year. Countries pay out the ass to keep it afloat, but the corrupt leaders squander it and ruin their countries' economies in the process. (See: Zimbabwe, Libya, etc) Organisations like WHO, Doctors without Borders, and the Peace Corp are pretty much all over the continent funded primarily by first world nations. Africa is the quintessential child who has everything handed to it and takes everything for granted.

what I meant is that they just sned the money and thats that. I'm not saying that there has to be militar interference but more support for them. You mentioned some organizations but come on America can do better than that.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

I still stand on my point that we should just take direct military action. In which case awareness of Kony would push polititians to vote on doing so, seems like a solid plan.

 

[OVERGRO]

http://vimeo.com/37119711

http://youtu.be/Y4MnpzG5Sqc
(^Same video, but loads better on youtube)

Guys please watch this video.
For those of you who don't know, it's about Joseph Kony, a man who runs a rebel army in Uganda.
For three years he has committed heinous crimes against humanity.
He abducts children from their homes.
Forces them to kill their parents.
Then trains them to be in his army that aims to create total chaos in the world.
They cannot refuse. Or they will die.

The video is 30 minutes. If you can, please take the time.
If not, just search up "Kony 2012" on youtube to find shorter videos.

Spread the word! It's up to US to make the change.
The US sent a grand total of 100 troops to Uganda for this guy in the past 3 years.
They spent almost $1 trillion looking for Bin Laden, not to mention tore up countries.

Share the message!!

 

[OVERGRO]

Unless we get the military in there, catch him, and try him in The Hague, we can't stop this guy.
Sad but true fact.
This guy should be more wanted than anyone.

 

[yond]

I am not necessarily dismissing the issue at whole but I am also not defending the fact it isn't a result of a 'trend'. The whole thing really is blown up when issues which are ( I believe) are equal an matter still persist around the world. There's always been enough people to solve those issues. I think the main reason I am annoyed is the fact people spread the video thinking they are taking serious action (kinda like what cookie posted before). Sure, the video is spreading awareness but from what I've seen there's kinda like a large scale bystander effect going on.

At the end of the day I will be buying a bracelet and there will be a protest movement going on in my local city but I won't be there parading the fact the issue has been around for a while / think the issue is beneath me because it's only recently recognised.

The whole point is to make it a trend so that the message gets spread around and people who do care will hear and donate / help.

its not hip to be a hipster anymore

 

[danilo]

someone was telling me about this in class today. i honestly thought it was bs
then i watched the video... now i feel obliged to help. i will helppp

 

[cookie]

Are you insane or just dumb? Millions, billions of dollars in terms of actual cash and resources (labour and actual goods) is given to Africa every year. Every. Single. Year. Countries pay out the ass to keep it afloat, but the corrupt leaders squander it and ruin their countries' economies in the process. (See: Zimbabwe, Libya, etc) Organisations like WHO, Doctors without Borders, and the Peace Corp are pretty much all over the continent funded primarily by first world nations. Africa is the quintessential child who has everything handed to it and takes everything for granted.

Yes, a lot of money goes to Africa, but understand that in a continent so rife with corruption you can't just throw money at their problems and expect them to go away. You need to be intelligent with improvement there, and I think this is where a lot of first-world organisations are failing. Having said that, you might have a point in that the overall culture of Africa isn't conducive to development, as it doesn't have a history of it - for the reasons outlined in Guns, Germs and Steel. I feel like it's cliché referencing that book but it is incredibly balanced and objective in treating a topic that could quite easily spiral into racism, and makes some good points.

 

[THE_IRON_...KENYAN?]

Do horribly unethical things and cause an expected backlash

KONY

 

[6-Dimension]

spreading awareness is just another way to say "i want to be seen as a good person but am too lazy to actually do anything"

I found the video sorta filled with things that seemed like half-truths in order to appeal to peoples' emotions, as is any commercial/"documentary" made to devote people to a cause, and I honestly wasn't a huge fan of that. I feel like if they really want this to gain ground they have to make people care because it matters, not because their emotions are being prayed on.

That said, it's a noble cause, an issue that I was unaware of, and something that does need changing in the world.

Spreading awareness just isn't the way to do it.

EDIT: upon reading the rest of the thread, some things about the legitimacy of the organization have come up, and whether or not the reports are credible, I am hard pressed to agree with them based on operation of other advocacy organizations

 

[Joeyboy]

ordered my package, gunna blanket Charleston.

 

[cookie]

acquire soviet-era weapons, feel like a king despite being being a jungle bunny

KONY

 

[v]

build a child army, maraud through uganda for decades

KONY

 

[waterwarrior]

Leave Uganda (for the most part) six years ago, makes everyone support getting rid of him there.

KONY

EDIT: ok :(

 

[v]

no more

 

[waterwarrior]

I think I raised a perfectly viable point.

Everybody wants dis nigga dead but nobody wants to do it I got news for you bracelets won't kill him.

Ignoring the n word comment...

As said about 1,000 times in this thread alone, just killing Kony really won't do anything. Someone will just take his place. Did killing bin Laden completely end terrorism, and the world is safe once more?

And also, if you want to go into the middle of god-knows-where in Africa, hunt Kony down, break through his child bodyguards, having to kill some along the way, go ahead, be my guest.

On an unrelated note, Kony 2012 just plain sounds the name for a convention of some sort.

 

[Surgo]

I'm really jaded with the people who always cry out "but there are sooooo many other problems out there!!!" every time something like this comes along.

I have news for you. There is a neverending supply of problems that need solving. That doesn't make this one less of a problem, or less important.

Amusing sidenote: when this video first went around, and I hadn't watched it, I thought to myself "I don't know who this guy is or what he did, but it can't be worse than, say, the Lord's Resistance Army." Then it turns out he's the head of that. Oops.

 

[idiotfrommars]

I recommend reading this.

 

[waterwarrior]

You also have to laugh at the fact that they're comparing him to Hitler. This guy had 30,000 soldiers, and killed about the same amount over 25 years. Hitler not only had all of Germany under his foot, but a large portion of Europe as well being almost slaves to the Nazi regime (which puts him just a tad over 30000 kids under his control), killed 13+ million in the Holocaust, and millions more in World War II.

Propaganda is the shit, yo.

Edit:

Invisible Children has two stars, Jenkins said, because the charity has only four independent board members instead of five. He said it is currently interviewing for a fifth position.

BWAHAHAHSHAHAHAHA!! Oh my god, that is just TOO funny. Well, the 2/4 is on transparency as well, now that you look at it...

 

[B-Lulz]

To be honest, i'm more impressed at how the video is a lesson in how you just can't take things at face value. The whole 'bringing Kony to light' shindig is all well and fine by me, and his tyranny has gone on for way too long. However, the fact that it completely misinterprets information and misleads the viewer into thinking so many false or misleading things about Kony, that really you can't take the video seriously any more. It took me the second view through to see most things, however (maybe i'm just a naive person).

I don't really doubt the purpose of the video wasn't genuine, but then again with the amount of false stuff in it how can you put all your eggs in one basket and say it is? I'm kind of hoping this sheds light on some of the other problems Africa faces with tyrannic leaders, such as Robert Mugabe. A long shot I know, but after what happened with the middle eastern countries last year, not impossible I think.

 

[vonFiedler]

Yeah this is slacktivism. This is a lot of people doing very little in order to feel good about doing something. That matters. That is progress. Most people don't have the means to affect major change themselves. Most people when faced with the idea that there are problems in the world that they could be trying to stop themselves feel overwhelmed and just shut down. They make up excuses that "it isn't their role" or "there are too many problems", and if I'm addressing you then this should sound awfully familiar but everyone has thought these things at one point in time. But turns out you don't have to do nothing. Slacktivism is a huge start, and many people will take that good feeling and then do more with it. After getting hooked on change.org I've started organizing my own petitions, and even though it'll be some work it sounds like it will be fun to help blanket my home town on the 20th.

All these allegations of shadiness, from everything I've read, are just more excuses. Great detective work figuring out their expenses, when they list them on their website. They make a good salary which amounts to 3% of their organization, but I guess if they aren't martyrs they just don't get to be activists (not that their salary is even extraordinary among organizers of charity, it can turn into a very legit career). Every "smoking gun" I see is something IC is totally transparent about.

 

[Jebus McAzn]

yeah you're definitely missing out

watch the whole thing

also the alleged sketchiness of the charity (which i'm not wholly convinced by the reports of) does not make their cause any less genuine or valid

http://tumblr.thedailywh.at/post/18909727859/on-kony-2012-i-honestly-wanted-to-stay-as-far

it kinda does make it less valid

instead of donating to a charity which supposedly only donates 31% of the funds they receive to actually helping anyone, why not donate to a charity which is more reliable and will help more? a charity which doesn't support giving money to the Ugandan dictatorship/national army to fight the LRA? a charity which doesn't make Kony seem like the kingpin of the entire child soldier movement? he's not.

"Killing Kony won’t fix anything, just as killing Osama bin Laden didn’t end terrorism. The LRA might collapse, but, as Foreign Affairs points out, it is 'a relatively small player in all of this — as much a symptom as a cause of the endemic violence.'

Myopically placing the blame for all of central Africa’s woes on Kony — even as a starting point — will only imperil many more people than are already in danger.

Sending money to a nonprofit that wants to muck things up by dousing the flames with fuel is not helping. Want to help? Really 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."


so yes, it's great and all that IC is spreading the word and spreading awareness. donating money to them, however, is not the best decision at all. most people are becoming involved in this "fauxtivism" because they want to make themselves feel good and because they're bored.


people are misinformed
people are succumbing to peer pressure
people are crawling all over KONY 2012 like a herd of sheep