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Kony 2012

we're supposed to watch a 30 minute video?

anyhow, nice to see you around here JPR, it's been a while :)
 
for those with short attention spans...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kony

Joseph Rao Kony (born 1961 in Odek, Uganda) is a Ugandan guerrilla group leader, head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a group engaged in a violent campaign to establish theocratic government based on the Ten Commandments throughout Uganda. The LRA say that God has sent spirits to communicate this mission directly to Kony.

Directed by Kony, the LRA has earned a reputation for its actions against the people of several countries, including northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Sudan. It has abducted and forced an estimated 66,000 children to fight for them, and has also forced the internal displacement of over 2,000,000 people since its rebellion began in 1986. As a result, in 2005 Kony was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, but has succeeded in evading capture since.
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for those who watched the NBA All Star Game, Bulls star Luol Deng is a native of Sudan and he wore a shirt with a map of Africa during the introductions to serve as an inspiration to children in Africa.
 
Interesting video. I like the idea very much, but unfortunately, they lost me when they wanted $30.00 for the "action kit" that I could've swore they said was free in the movie. I am all over supporting that kind of stuff, and would be more than happy to give a donation, but there were too many elements that just didn't sit right with me.

Very touching video though, it made me weep.
 
Have you heard about the controversy? Supposedly Invisible Kids hardly gives any money to support any actual cause.
 
Cyrone Torbin said:
Have you heard about the controversy? Supposedly Invisible Kids hardly gives any money to support any actual cause.
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After my initial review of the video, I started reading up on it. Lot's of different opinions out there, but this dude had an interesting take:

For those asking what you can do to help, please link to visiblechildren.tumblr.com wherever you see KONY 2012 posts. And tweet a link to this page to famous people on Twitter who are talking about KONY 2012!

I do not doubt for a second that those involved in KONY 2012 have great intentions, nor do I doubt for a second that Joseph Kony is a very evil man. But despite this, I’m strongly opposed to the KONY 2012 campaign.

KONY 2012 is the product of a group called Invisible Children, a controversial activist group and not-for-profit. They’ve released 11 films, most with an accompanying bracelet colour (KONY 2012 is fittingly red), all of which focus on Joseph Kony. When we buy merch from them, when we link to their video, when we put up posters linking to their website, we support the organization. I don’t think that’s a good thing, and I’m not alone.

Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal for an issue which arguably needs action and aid, not awareness, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they lack an external audit committee. But it goes way deeper than that.

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 a photo 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 rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing 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 hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission. These books each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending.

Still, the bulk of Invisible Children’s spending isn’t on supporting African militias, but on awareness and filmmaking. Which can be great, except that Foreign Affairs has claimed that Invisible Children (among others) “manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony — a brutal man, to be sure — as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil.” He’s certainly evil, but exaggeration and manipulation to capture the public eye is unproductive, unprofessional and dishonest.

As Chris Blattman, a political scientist at Yale, writes on the topic of IC’s programming, “There’s also something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa. […] It hints uncomfortably of the White Man’s Burden. Worse, sometimes it does more than hint. The savior attitude is pervasive in advocacy, and it inevitably shapes programming. Usually misconceived programming.”

Still, Kony’s a bad guy, and he’s been around a while. Which is why the US has been involved in stopping him for years. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent multiple missions to capture or kill Kony over the years. And they’ve failed time and time again, each provoking a ferocious response and increased retaliative slaughter. The issue with taking out a man who uses a child army is that his bodyguards are children. Any effort to capture or kill him will almost certainly result in many children’s deaths, an impact that needs to be minimized as much as possible. Each attempt brings more retaliation. And yet Invisible Children supports military intervention. Kony has been involved in peace talks in the past, which have fallen through. But Invisible Children is now focusing on military intervention.

Military intervention may or may not be the right idea, but people supporting KONY 2012 probably don’t realize they’re supporting the Ugandan military who are themselves raping and looting away. If people know this and still support Invisible Children because they feel it’s the best solution based on their knowledge and research, I have no issue with that. But I don’t think most people are in that position, and that’s a problem.

Is awareness good? Yes. But these problems are highly complex, not one-dimensional and, frankly, aren’t of the nature that can be solved by postering, film-making and changing your Facebook profile picture, as hard as that is to swallow. Giving your money and public support to Invisible Children so they can spend it on supporting ill-advised violent intervention and movie #12 isn’t helping. Do I have a better answer? No, I don’t, but that doesn’t mean that you should support KONY 2012 just because it’s something. Something isn’t always better than nothing. Sometimes it’s worse.

If you want to write to your Member of Parliament or your Senator or the President or the Prime Minister, by all means, go ahead. If you want to post about Joseph Kony’s crimes on Facebook, go ahead. But let’s keep it about Joseph Kony, not KONY 2012.
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https://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

Anyhow, I really thought the video was well done and I like their mission, but I'm not supporting this group.
 
I'm with Trout on this one. I like the intentions but I don't support the group. Maybe I'm totally off base, and these issues are extremely complex, but what I got from Kony 2012 was advocating for military intervention to remove an evil dictator. Sounds kind of familiar... (not to say that it is wrong, but I think we all understand in hindsight how incredibly complex an operation like this is.)
 
larryselbows said:
I'm with Trout on this one. I like the intentions but I don't support the group. Maybe I'm totally off base, and these issues are extremely complex, but what I got from Kony 2012 was advocating for military intervention to remove an evil dictator. Sounds kind of familiar... (not to say that it is wrong, but I think we all understand in hindsight how incredibly complex an operation like this is.)
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They support another group that wants to "take out" Kony. The group they support does all the evil things Kony does though, just on a lesser scale. Also, I don't even think Kony is in Uganda anymore. The numbers and figures in the video are also made up according to some news reports.
 
Cyrone Torbin said:
I don't even think Kony is in Uganda anymore.
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I think it's always dangerous to build a campaign around ousting one person. If this thing goes wildfire and Kony becomes the new Osama and all of sudden we're invading countries seeking him out, or using him as a utility of deception, that's no good. You have to take into account the Chinese/US battle for African resources that has been going on under the radar for years. I think the US government would love a good reason to have a larger presence in Africa and that's certainly much easier if your citizens are on board.
 
Duck Rodgers said:
I think it's always dangerous to build a campaign around ousting one person. If this thing goes wildfire and Kony becomes the new Osama and all of sudden we're invading countries seeking him out, or using him as a utility of deception, that's no good. You have to take into account the Chinese/US battle for African resources that has been going on under the radar for years. I think the US government would love a good reason to have a larger presence in Africa and that's certainly much easier if your citizens are on board.
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I believe we have actually gone on small missions to take him out. All have failed and resulted in brutal retaliations.
 
Duck Rodgers said:
I think it's always dangerous to build a campaign around ousting one person. If this thing goes wildfire and Kony becomes the new Osama and all of sudden we're invading countries seeking him out, or using him as a utility of deception, that's no good. You have to take into account the Chinese/US battle for African resources that has been going on under the radar for years. I think the US government would love a good reason to have a larger presence in Africa and that's certainly much easier if your citizens are on board.
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I wouldnt really relate this scenario to Afghanistan. To me, it seems more akin to NATO's intervention in the Kosovo War in the late 1990s. Which was successful, mind you.
 
Don't get me wrong, the message they're sending is solid, and I hope the US gets involved. I just don't like this organization. That *** Helmet needs to be brought to justice. (not murdered like Bin Laden) Having spent some time in jail, I can tell you, there is nothing worse. NOTHING.

If I ever did something that resulted in a prison sentence of substance, I would find a way to die before going there/staying. It is HELL, and a perfect spot for Kony.
 
TroutBum said:
Don't get me wrong, the message they're sending is solid, and I hope the US gets involved. I just don't like this organization. That *** Helmet needs to be brought to justice. (not murdered like Bin Laden) Having spent some time in jail, I can tell you, there is nothing worse. NOTHING.

If I ever did something that resulted in a prison sentence of substance, I would find a way to die before going there/staying. It is HELL, and a perfect spot for Kony.
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I tried telling you that night that the hooker was a dude but you said, "No doe! That isn't an adam's apple." I hope you live by my advice now. "If it smells like a doe and acts like a doe, it's probably a doe."
 
dalamon said:
I wouldnt really relate this scenario to Afghanistan. To me, it seems more akin to NATO's intervention in the Kosovo War in the late 1990s. Which was successful, mind you.
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Kony is obviously magnitudes short of the public enemy that Osama was/was built up to be. I made the comparison because you never know what they could eventually attache to the atrocities list that he committed. He can't refute any of it himself. I'm just saying don't be surprised to see the government piggy back this and use it for selfish ends if it gets enough momentum behind it.
 
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