KONY 2012

[Catchy]

thing i don't understand is... why's everyone banging on about this now? this type of thing has been going on for YEARS! i mean it's gr8 that it's trying to be stopped don't get me wrong all this exposure is great and might get people on board to donate but what i'm saying is, why has it taken this long for people to be aware of it? it's been goin on yrs

[DPS]

Before you guys jump on the bandwagon maybe you should of really looked into it.

All right, we all know who Joseph Kony is by now and how horrible he is. I admit, I jumped in on the bandwagon and started spreading the word too; but that was until I did a little digging into this "Invisible Children" organisation.

I found that the Invisible Children organisation refuses to be publicly audited of their financial activities and only 32% of their funds go to actual charitable causes not to mention their allegations of fraud. That is only $4,404,857.60 out of $13,765,180 where does the rest go? Jason Russell (the guy in the video) earns $89,669py, Ben Keesey (CEO) earns $88,241, Laren Poole (Co-Founder) earns $84,377 not to mention the organisation has paid for almost everything they own. (Based off stats from 2011)

By supporting this organisation, you would be supporting direct military intervention. Yep, that's a great idea but let's ignore the past several decades of US military intervention and send the military to fight a small terrorist group in a jungle. OH WAIT.

What's worse? The LRA has not been active in Northern Uganda since 2006, by creating awareness for Uganda, it would be like supporting Mexico to kill or capture a drug cartel leader yet he lives in Antarctica. It just wouldn't work. (random anecdote, I know)

"The video itself is a good piece of emotional porn but that's about it.": It's meant to exploit your emotions on a level that we don't often see, this is why it has gained such momentum in the past few days. You people need to realise that things are not always as they seem, we are watching a video about a person [Kony] exploiting children when the video itself is exploiting us. Ironic, isn't it.

1) The Ugandan Government is a dictatorship with Yoweri Museveni as the president since 1986. Among many of its human rights violations the regime tortures prisons, oppresses other political parties and the press and also wishes to introduce a bill that would have 'convicted homosexuals' put to death.

2) In the civil war in which Yoweri Museveni gained power child soldiers were used by his army (National Resistance Army) which is now the army of Uganda but under a different name. ([1] http://www.teachkidspeace.org/doc315.php )

3) The Ugandan army, or rather its high ranking officers have being using 'ghost soldiers' (soldiers who are no longer on the pay-roll) to siphon off funds, making the war even more profitable for them than usual, giving them a vested interest in its continuation. ([2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3514473.stm )

4) (kinda the same point again) War is profitable, especially for large arms economies such as the U.S. and the UK. 'U.S. Military adviser support' may as well say 'we want to US and its arms manufactures /dealers to sell the Ugandan Government **** tons more weapons'.

Sources:
http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/the...-children/
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cf...rgid=12429
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_children
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22...33928.html

But do you need more and even deeper information on this? Try these places:
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/commen...ph/c3yi7d1
http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

Edited by Glitzen (Trialist Forum Moderator): Threads merged. There has already been 2 threads about the same subject today so please make sure there aren't already posts on this. Thanks.

[Andii]

hmmm how did you find all this

[Grig]

hmmm how did you find all this

For those who understand conflicts in the country it isn't hard. I knew it was a bunch of ironic crap anyway, as the charity itself doesn't understand that Kone is far from the main problem in the conflict, which has subsided and a platform of peace has been going on for about 5 years now.

Plus the stats about the charity are all out there.

Great post DPS, +rep.

[beth]

made the exact same post in the original kony thread :rolleyes:

[Jordy]

I don't understand how "awareness" is going to lead to his capture or any end to the injustice. I didn't know about this particular case but it's hardly surprising, if this has opened people's eyes to the world of oil, child soldiers, rape and slavery still commonplace in parts of Africa then they should be disappointed in themselves for not knowing the atrocities still going on in the world.

The campaign is useless, it seems the charity is there to make a load of money through "awareness" (The finances are very dodgy) which really isn't going to achieve all that much, and their support for military intervention is ridiculous, first of all it would result in the death of many child soldiers. Also it seems the Ugandan Army they support is just as ludicrous as Kony himself. Regardless of this, Joseph Kony is one of the most wanted men in the world by far, I have no doubt at all that if the US could locate him we'd be seeing another Bin Laden style assassination. Whether you agree with this or not, that is what's going to happen and no awareness campaigning/money making scheme is likely to change that.

[cocaine]

i've found it amazing how no one seemed to question it, at all.

[Jordy]

i've found it amazing how no one seemed to question it, at all.

I'm not surprised about the sheep I follow on Twitter but celebrities getting involved should look into it more before spreading the word. Apparently Stephen Fry, Lady Gaga and Mark Zuckerberg are all involved.

[Vause]

I'm not surprised about the sheep I follow on Twitter but celebrities getting involved should look into it more before spreading the word. Apparently Stephen Fry, Lady Gaga and Mark Zuckerberg are all involved.

I've heard Rihanna is also involved.

[Ellz]

posted on twitter and facebook. might buy some posters aswell