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Kony 2012

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gonna buy an action kit. Also anyone who has EVER watched a movie or heard about african child abductions/mutilations should know who kony is. Seriously he's represented in a hollywood movie ever year or two.
 
soultron said:
To me, this video isn't an experiment in making the world a better place, it's a measure of how well today's disengaged youth respond to a well-executed propaganda piece that's centred around a good cause.
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Well put. I'm all for the cause, but Invisible Children as an organization seems a bit... off.

From Wiki:
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) noted in its report: "[Invisible Children] did not provide requested information. As a result, the Better Business Bureau cannot determine if it meets standards."[38] The BBB further noted that, "Despite written BBB Wise Giving Alliance requests in the past year, this organization either has not responded to Alliance requests for information or has declined to be evaluated in relation to the Alliance’s Standards for Charity Accountability."[39]
Invisible Children's financial reports reveal that the organization's three filmmakers and co-founders receive a combined pay of $223,922. This comprises 2.77% of IC's expenses.[40] In addition, Invisible Children holds the following assets: computer equipment ($751,000), transportation equipment ($288,762), video and camera equipment ($177,769), and furniture and fixtures ($45,361).[41]
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Invisible Children 2011 Financial Report

And like mcrae said above, their website doesn't even say where the money donated is going. I'm not against Invisible Children. I just hope that their efforts are genuinely for the greater good, and that they aren't using Kony 2012 as a form viral marketing to promote their own organization.
 
Emotional porn like that annoy me to be honest.Not saying the situation isn't terrible, but they absolutely don't need 30 minutes to make their point, which is quite easy to grasp.
Anyway, raising the attention on this by any mean is good i guess.
 
After watching it I don't feel inspired to do anything, it doesn't seem like my kind of thing. Harassing celerities to support a cause doesn't sound nice, it would do more harm than good. And the footage of the teenagers running around putting up posters looked almost like graffiti, which is guaranteed to annoy people. After all that happens and people will know Joseph Kony as 'that guy people keep talking about on facebook', then what? Seriously, if everyone in my town knew who he was...what would that do? It would do nothing.

This video was better.
 
Check out these awesome messages I'm getting on Facebook from one of my friends because I'm bashing Invisible Children and their shady KONY campaign:

"Your such a negative Nellie, its about helping kids that are being killed and taken from their homes, my friend you need to open your heart and stop being so critical..."

"Its fine if you dont support it but dont bash the people that do is all im saying"

Yeah, don't fucking read the financial documents or evidence of shady practices that I just linked to...
 
I hate Kony as much as the next guy, but one look at their financial report was all it took for me to decide not to support this specific group financially.

Over $300,000 in film expenses? $850,000 in production? $1,000,00+ in travel?

I'm more than willing to spread awareness, and will do so in any way that I can like I did with SOPA. But no, I will not be buying their kit and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
 
Arab Spring - Social media used to communicate with people on the ground in the states in revolt, breakthrough the barriers the regimes put up to block communications with the outside world

This campaign - Social media used to raise money and awareness.......but I don't think there is an appetite for military action in Africa, I doubt many people in the affected regions can access the internet to see all the "social media" support they are getting


http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble

Quest from the Roots tweeted that, glad to see a celebrity is willing to urge caution for a change
 
BigJonsson said:
Arab Spring - Social media used to communicate with people on the ground in the states in revolt, breakthrough the barriers the regimes put up to block communications with the outside world

This campaign - Social media used to raise money and awareness.......but I don't think there is an appetite for military action in Africa, I doubt many people in the affected regions can access the internet to see all the "social media" support they are getting


http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble

Quest from the Roots tweeted that, glad to see a celebrity is willing to urge caution for a change
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The picture on that blogpost tells me enough, also the finances. Pathetic that these guys will use anothers plight this way for their own uses.

Edit: Just gonna add here that that Kony guy really should be brought to justice.
 
The way that video is presented makes it seem more like a viral video for some movie or band than a real issue that needs addressing.
 
It's raising awareness which is a good thing. But invisiblechildren seem shady.

This blog post links to a whole lot of useful information.
visiblechildren.tumblr.com


Invisible Children support direct military intervention and support the Ugandan government. What the fuck
 
God. This is why I love GAF. I looked at the video and didn't want to feel bad about looking at it more rationally than emotionally (and in other words, more cynically). Then I come in here and a lot of my feelings are echoed.

I wonder if people (Kids) understand how much money is more important than pretty much everything else involved here.
 
Call me cynical, but it's kinda sad that a twitter/facebook campaign is needed to raise awareness of the fact that this sort of thing goes on in Africa. If people read (real) newspapers and watched the news every once and a while, they'd know who Joseph Kony is and who the LRA are.
 
CorvoSol said:
I went to Prom with a girl who was a part of the Invisible Children thing. A lot of people thought she was crazy for it; I wonder if that opinion has changed?
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Wow, people thought she was crazy because she was passionate about stopping a warlord that uses children for his personal army with no apparent motive? I think they're the crazies.
 
This Kony guy is a very effective campaginer. I'm seeing his name everywhere and will probably vote for him in the election.
 
Someone on a Facebook post I saw did make a point:
" Find me an organisation that gives 100% of donations direct to their manifesto's cause and I'll agree."

However I still think the KONY 2012 people are full of shite, and this just reeks of internet/uninformed people getting riled up at something they can do bugger all about. Yeah there's awareness now but so what? Are you gonna get off your twitter account and go to Africa and do something about it? The guy's evaded authority for so long now I doubt twitter and Facebook will change that.
 
Cindres said:
Someone on a Facebook post I saw did make a point:
" Find me an organisation that gives 100% of donations direct to their manifesto's cause and I'll agree."

However I still think the KONY 2012 people are full of shite, and this just reeks of internet/uninformed people getting riled up at something they can do bugger all about. Yeah there's awareness now but so what? Are you gonna get off your twitter account and go to Africa and do something about it? The guy's evaded authority for so long now I doubt twitter and Facebook will change that.
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There's a big difference between spending 31% of donations on the cause you're about, and say 60 or 70% though. I don't think anyone with any common sense would expect a charity to put even 80% directly towards its cause.

I agree with you though. Each time something like this video goes viral, people go crazy for a week and then soon get bored. What's worse though is the attitude that since they've watched a 30 minute video and lived in peace most of their lives, they know how to sort out one of many huge interconnected problems in Africa.
 
Invisible Children, the charity behind the Kony 2012 campaign, funds the Ugandan military - who have been accused many times of raping and looting. Joseph Kony isn't even in Uganda. They also support military intervention to try to capture Kony - something that the US military command in Africa, AFRICOM, has been doing already for years. Each attempt has failed, and has only served to provoke more and more brutal reprisals.

Joseph Kony's a really bad guy, but for the love of god, don't donate to the 'nonprofit' here or you're directly financing war crimes.
 
So is this one of those "flavor of the month" causes that people will soon forget the next month cause thats what I'm feeling right now about it. Just woke up and seeing this on the facebook feed than on reddit getting blown up.
 
Kony's a scumbag for sure, but that non profit org is shady as hell. Let Bono worry about this, he has more money than me.
 
Getting rather annoyed at KONY 2012 randomly popping up on Youtube comments, so I just went around video posting "SONY 2012" for lulz.
 
I only have 29 Facebook friends and like 6 of them have liked this thing in the last hour.

I automatically got annoyed by it.

Why do I have the mentality of a 50 year old man 30 years ahead of time? :/
 
Router said:
DUDE. THE FUCK!?
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What I'm trying to say is that these guys are spending a shit load of money, for purposes that appear to be more about creating a well-known campaign than the cause. And why do I say this? Because this movement isn't going to last. You can tell from the start the campaign was meant for a one-time hit to rake in as much money as they can. I'm not denying that they are donating money to the cause, but c'mon son... the lack of transparency and blatant use of untrue/manufactured facts to play with the consumers' emotions is kind of messed up.
 
Apparently now people are planning a protest gathering downtown in my city in April? Are other places doing this?
 
So which politician will use this in their campaign in order to get some votes from the Facebook/twitter world?????!?!
 
I understand the cause and fully support it but once Kony is gone(if they ever caught him), there will just be another guy waiting to stand in and take his place. That's the unfortunate thing
 
Seems like this is catering to the "I use the computer mostly to check my facebook" crowd. Having read tons of books and articles on fucked up stories from all over the world, given very little attention from mass media and with 99 % of the population unaware, i cant say i get as crazy as the previously mentioned crowd...

People over-reacting with this whole Kony thing are just the same uniformed crowd behind much of the problems in the world...
 
I was bored so I threw this together:
YW7PKl.jpg
 
I've done a fair bit of looking into it, and everything doesn't add up. Heres my findings and I have included sources. Will probably get down voted to hell but I hope to give at least one of you a better understanding of whats going on. Theres ALWAYS two sides to every story. This viral film has caught the attention of heaps of young folk but you are all far too late. Watching that Kony video is essentially watching old news. They started filming in 2003, and northern Uganda has been free of LRA violence and war for over five years. In fact, the LRA have signed a peace accord! They are rebuilding and are restoring the peace.

Yes the leader is still out there however the recruitment of children has decreased 80%. This isn't due to the Invisible Children organisation, its because Ugandan military and the ICC have intercepted. The Invisible Children group are trying to pass a bill that allows America to militarise the region... They are providing misinformation to woo idealistic followers. The group have combined multiple regional conflicts to make it appear that this is one rapidly increasing issue. When confronted about their dodgy tactics, the head spokesperson stated;

“I agree with you that leading people to believe that the war is still happening in Uganda is not ethically right. It's something we've been addressing internally, focusing on getting all staff and supporters on the same page (of communication)."

If you read the news, or even had an ounce of interest in the on-going unrest in Africa you would already know this and not be fooled. Yes, awful things happen to people in 3rd world countries but this has been occurring for centuries, it isn't a recent occurrence.

I think its only fair if I am to make such comments I provide sources (unlike the people over at Invisible Children...)

SOURCES:

Michael Kirkpatrick, a long-time Independent Global Citizen, he has resided in Uganda and other regions of Africa. He has no political, religious or financial agenda. He wrote this article and gave an in-depth insight to whats really going on. He also questioned important members of Invisible Children about their motives. [1] [3] http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/122/ARTICLE/6586/2010-06-02.html

Charity Navigator is a website that breaks down the proceeds and donations given to Invisible Children and subsequently shows what percentile of that is REALLY going towards these impoverished kids. A measly slither of what is going into the founders pockets. [2] [4] http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12429

I've read an interesting passage from Northern Ugandan man however it is not 100% verified - he has advised the Northern Ugandan parliament have listed IC as their main priority on their "fraudulent activity" list. (See 2nd comment, username Livingstone). [3] [5] http://www.topix.com/forum/city/stuart-fl/TQJSGHMES035Q6OI0 THIS article asking Invisible Children why they were pressuring poor AND illegal piece of legislation has since been removed and deleted. [4] [6] http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/2010/03/oklaholdout-update-letter-from-lisa-dougan/

ADDITIONALLY - There were members of Invisible Children were saying what their "allowance" could purchase them, it was on a forum on the official website, and this has also been REMOVED. [5] [7] http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/?p=5901

Also: [6] [8] http://www.thegauntlet.com/article/...ponds-to-Invisible-Children-Organization.html

I have a few more sources if anybody is looking for a specific answer, or where I got a certain fact, please just feel free to ask.
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this is shady...
 
Gah, its all over my Facebook.

And when I tell them how shady he is, I get "But oppa/hyung, he's bad."

"OK, this is like me saying, I hate Hitler. Give me money for a Lambo, so if I see Hitler, I can run him over in my new sports car."

"But he's WORSE than Hitler."

I want to shake so many young people right now.
 
Some guy on my Facebook shoehorned Christianity into this. So cringe worthy.

"we can eliminate dictators, rebel leaders or any sort of villain to reduce the effect of sin. but it will never be eliminated, not while mankind exist, not like that. but the answer to the problem and all struggles is found in Jesus Christ, our means to achieve victory over sin."

Anyway, this does look a bit shady..
 
Good cause, potentially shady org.

But regardless, I can't stand the editing and form.

Maybe the clip wouldn't last the entirety of half an hour if they tightened up the editing and cut out the clips with his kid, who we don't give a shit about. This is a movie about african war crimes, yeah?
 
Any organisation that manages to corral young minds as well as these guys have done are definitely shady. I don't trust them.

Good cause still.
 
Yeah, people can't solve problems on their own country, and they think that using twitter they're going to solve Uganda's.
Start cleaning the shit on your home first, people!!
 
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