General Chat / KONY 2012

Discuss.

Youtube - KONY 2012

ya know... that was special, worth the 30 minute watch
-JDP

Literally JUST finished watching the 30 minute video with my girlfriend. We're printing up hundreds of posters and covering our city.
My band is also going to be leading an awareness campaign as well.

Its sickening, but something needs to be done. Whether it is through Invisible Children or not.

The thing I'm worried about is the viral nature of this all. I mean, how many of the people posting KONY 2012 to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr are really dedicated to the cause and will work harder to raise awareness, and how many people are sharing and reblogging because they want to show they're compassionate people that will care up until the next funny GIF pops up on their dashboard? I really hope that it works more towards the former and people truly see this as an awareness opportunity rather that a cause-of-the-moment for the internet generation.

Josh, that's great to hear about all the poster-making and awareness-raising you guys are doing. At one of my old jobs, a summer camp, we were all required to watch the Invisible Children movie and had that as a slight raison-d'etre for the season, using events to help raise funds and awareness for the organization. I still feel just as upset about this now as I did a few years ago, and I really hope that this may end up somewhere.

I woke up this morning to hundreds of shares of this on facebook and was a bit 'what the hell is going on?'. I guess i'll watch it at some point as it seems quite a big deal to people.

i'm with robbie, but fuck it. i care, and hundreds upon hundreds will turn up in my city. we're hyped already.

I really hope everyone here decides to do a bit of background research on this topic before donating or anything. The fact that only 31% of Invisible Children's receipt was spent in Africa last year, with a large portion of that being arms for the Ugandan army (Kony hasn't even operated in Uganda since 2006) should really raise some eyebrows. Especially when you then go on to see that they had a surplus cash pile (Profit in other words) last year of $4.8million. That 31% I mentioned earlier equates to $3.3million.

I am not saying I disagree with this, I like that it is gaining popularity and everything, but if you do decide to donate money, find one of the many other charities out there which will use your money more efficiently.

Is there also a pro-Joseph-Kony-video somewhere on youtube???

i'm not donating shit to these guys, i'm just up for some team spirit for once. DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS 4 LYFE

Agree with trav, it's a good cause and something needs to be done; I like seeing people take action and hope it continues. However, people need to do research (myself included) on the organization's background, affiliations, and spending patterns and make a decision on how to act with reasoning in addition to emotion, rather than just with the latter.

The fact that a non-profit is paying for weaponry is a little concerning--one would hope that their goal would be to end violence, not instigate more. Naturally, violence is sometimes necessary in situations such as these, but still, the end result of arming a military could be less than desirable. Something to think about.

not to mention they're funding the ugandan army to eliminate kony's army... which consists of children.

I was tempted to change the topic title to 'KONG 2012', but I should not use my new powers for pranks.

Changed these posts for you, Liam.

The thing I'm worried about is the viral nature of this all. I mean, how many of the people posting KONG 2012 to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr are really dedicated to the cause and will work harder to raise awareness, and how many people are sharing and reblogging because they want to show they're compassionate people that will care up until the next funny GIF pops up on their dashboard?

(Kong hasn't even operated in Uganda since 2006)

Is there also a pro-Joseph-Kong-video somewhere on youtube???

not to mention they're funding the ugandan army to eliminate kong's army... which consists of children.

In a way, they make more sense.

A few things Im confused about.

-I was under the impression he hasn't really had any power for some time now?
-"Kony 2012" Makes it sound like there trying to elect the guy... terrible title.
-What exactly are the plans for ousting him? Military intervention?
If so, why was everybody all upset about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which are partly for humanitarian reason on top of some other agenda, and now everybody is chanting war to get rid of this guy? Specifically the hunt for Bin Laden.
-Who exactly will have the responsibility to take him out? I can almost garuntee that Uganda's government is not nearly capable of this. It would have to be done through something far more organized and powerful, the UN perhaps?
-Where is the donation money going? Some organization like invisible children is probably is not going be able to actually go in and find the guy, and spreading his name is good and all, but not really going to actually get anything truly done.

not to mention they're funding the ugandan army to eliminate kony's army... which consists of children.

So true. I saw a picture of the founders of Invisible Children posing with the Ugandan army, holding AKs and RPGs. It was actually a little disturbing. They seemed to be explicitly advocating violence. I wonder what is going through their heads. "Let's kill Koby, all we gotta do is fight those kids we're trying to save first!"

Like, really?

They've done a great job at making Kony and his actions known. Now they need to work on actually solving the problem.

I thought it would be more of a strike mission to kill Kony rather then to fight the children.

He may be weakened, but (1) he's no longer in Uganda so they will have to hunt him down, and (2) he isn't just going to give up or fight back alone. There will definitely have to be other casualties, and children will probably be among them.

Me being British we shouldn't be arming anyone we (British) were arming colonel gaddafi for years and years, And then with the help of the ICC armed the libyan rebels to defeat gaddafi and for helping these people they deface and destroy world war grave stones that have stood in Benghazi for longer than most of them have lived i find absolutely disgraceful. It is a minority obviously but these people doing this dont deserve our help, Back on topic about arming the ugandan army to find joseph kony, Lets be honest here it took 10 years to find Osama Bin Laden the most wanted man in the world,With the effort of the best secret agency's in world this kony guy is a thug compared to Bin Laden. This kony 2012 campaign will never happen he will die before we find him and im willing to say thats a fact. He deserves to face criminal trial but he wont. This video actually tugged at a few heart strings of mine .... When looking for Bin Laden there was videos posted of what this guy looked like at least 2 per year for a while after 9/11. But this kony guy isn't like that hes a small time crook compared to BL which is why the international community will never find this guy. Hes hiding in africa which is a massive contenent its like looking for a needle in a haystack. We at least had an idea of where Bin Laden was either afghan or pakistan take your pick, Middle and Northern Africa isn't like moving from afghan to our so called allies pakistan, There is no real border agency or homeland security this guy could be in Tenerife(spanish island just of north west africa) by now. I will eat my own arsehole if he is found this year

This is a ploy for money that will be used for travel expenses and funding Uganda's atrocious government. Disregard immediately.

Invisible Children released a statement in response to several of the criticisms they have received regarding Kony 2012. Interesting read:

http://s3.amazonaws..../critiques.html