Kony 2012

[StanSP]

http://s3.amazonaws.com/kony2012/kony-4.html

Very eye-opening and worth the half-an-hour it takes to become knowledgeable about it all.

Just spread the word however you like!

[Captain...]

http://s3.amazonaws....012/kony-4.html

Very eye-opening and worth the half-an-hour it takes to become knowledgeable about it all.

Just spread the word however you like!

I don't get it, that link is just about signing a pledge, but he is already a wanted terrorist: Fromw Wiki http://en.wikipedia....iki/Joseph_Kony:

In October 2011, Obama authorized the deployment of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. troops to central Africa.^[18] They will help regional forces “remove from the battlefield” Joseph Kony and senior LRA leaders. "Although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense," Obama said in a letter to Congress.

He is clearly a nut, he is claiming to defend the 10 commandments, by killing people, does anyone remember the commandments, especially number 6?

[Zingari]

this is indeed a disturbing film and I am not in any way trying to belittle any efforts by anyone to try to make the world a better place for all of us but i have just read this comment from another site discussing this movement

"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;

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.

Ps Invisible Children are facing IRS auditing and are breaching tax-exempt policy with their campaigns."

this is the point that bother me most !!

Read more:

http://www.smh.com.a...l#ixzz1oQlRl8ai

[ACF]

I believe Zingari, and correct me if I'm wrong, they're trying to catch him to prosecute him, as he is still at large in other areas nearby to Uganda. I don't think that article you've posted has fully understood that.

[LcFc_Smiv]

http://s3.amazonaws....012/kony-4.html

Very eye-opening and worth the half-an-hour it takes to become knowledgeable about it all.

Just spread the word however you like!

For a link straight to the video http://vimeo.com/37119711

[NeilyBoy]

I'm confused: I couldn't get the video working (it's peak time on campus so I've got a sloooow connection) so I wikipedia'd (wikipediad? wikipedied? wikipeded?) Kony and it seems Obama's already trying to bring this guy in, which begs the question: What's the point of the petition if the cogs are already well in motion?

[LcFc_Smiv]

I'm confused: I couldn't get the video working (it's peak time on campus so I've got a sloooow connection) so I wikipedia'd (wikipediad? wikipedied? wikipeded?) Kony and it seems Obama's already trying to bring this guy in, which begs the question: What's the point of the petition if the cogs are already well in motion?

If you can't get the video working, basically it explains within the video that although the US are taking action now they can pull out at any moment. By raising awareness it becomes an issue of interest to the US government and they have to take notice, the US are only their as advisor's and for training purposes to help the Ugandan army capture and arrest Kony.

[Trav Le Bleu]

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

[Captain...]

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

One man's child enslaving murdering violent lunatic, is another man's prophet.

[hairy]

One man's child enslaving lunatic, is another man's prophet.

A bit like work experience without the pay then

[anotherharboroughfox]

http://visiblechildr.../we-got-trouble

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 notalone.

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, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they haven’t had their finances externally audited. 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.

[dave the caveman]

Wonder if there's any identifiable logic behind the reasons why some things go viral like this and others don't. There must be thousands of documentaries which are just as effective as this one yet this one spreads across the world in hours while others lay almost dormant.

[sphericalfox]

Wonder if there's any identifiable logic behind the reasons why some things go viral like this and others don't. There must be thousands of documentaries which are just as effective as this one yet this one spreads across the world in hours while others lay almost dormant.

Some celebrity with sycophantic followers will have posted a RT of the link(s) which then goes viral, at a guess.

[Captain...]

Wonder if there's any identifiable logic behind the reasons why some things go viral like this and others don't. There must be thousands of documentaries which are just as effective as this one yet this one spreads across the world in hours while others lay almost dormant.

This one has the advantage of appearing to be very emotive, disapperaing children, african warlords etc, effectively if you don't forward this/Retweet it/follow it you are in agreement with the enslavement of children as child warriors. I am always scepitcal of these kind of things, it seems more about raising the profile of the organisation than what they are campaiging for.

[Ozwin]

This is pretty big and is exploding all over Facebook. The Leicester meet up on April 20th has got over 2000 people attending already. If this happens all over the country it's going to be absolutely mental and definitely get the higher ups talking.

Got to be worth a watch and a share surely? Properly eye opening stuff and who knows, this could make history.

[Captain...]

This is pretty big and is exploding all over Facebook. The Leicester meet up on April 20th has got over 2000 people attending already. If this happens all over the country it's going to be absolutely mental and definitely get the higher ups talking.

Got to be worth a watch and a share surely? Properly eye opening stuff and who knows, this could make history.

But this should not be trying to make history, and it shouldn't be how international policy is made.

"Whoever gets the biggest facebook campaign going gets their man."

There are plenty of unpleasant people killing innocents, but Kony is already a known force, who has been monitored for years and attempts to capture him have been made, the goals of this campaign have already been acheived, it is like campaiging to kill Osama Bin Laden.

[Haydos]

But this should not be trying to make history, and it shouldn't be how international policy is made.

"Whoever gets the biggest facebook campaign going gets their man."

There are plenty of unpleasant people killing innocents, but Kony is already a known force, who has been monitored for years and attempts to capture him have been made, the goals of this campaign have already been acheived, it is like campaiging to kill Osama Bin Laden.

First of all it's to arrest not kill. Secondly it's nothing like that. How many people have heard of him before? Nobody I have spoken to about it has at all. Bin Laden was known to 99.9% of the worlds population. IMO it's a great to promote awareness like this, even if it isn't direct, it lets people know about situations in places like Uganda that many people are not familiar with.

I can't help but think that anyone who thinks this is anything other than a good thing (I'm not saying it's going to lead to the capture of all the worlds most wanted men, just that it does do some good) is being very cynical.

[Captain...]

First of all it's to arrest not kill. Secondly it's nothing like that. How many people have heard of him before? Nobody I have spoken to about it has at all. Bin Laden was known to 99.9% of the worlds population. IMO it's a great to promote awareness like this, even if it isn't direct, it lets people know about situations in places like Uganda that many people are not familiar with.

I can't help but think that anyone who thinks this is anything other than a good thing (I'm not saying it's going to lead to the capture of all the worlds most wanted men, just that it does do some good) is being very cynical.

My point is that Osama Bin Laden is already dead.

This man is a known entity, and on the radar of the US and many other nations for being a bad un. If anything this campaign is just raising his public profile and that of his cause.

I want the Governments of this world to continue doing what they are doing and dedicate as much time and effort as they think necessary to capturing this man, based on the information they have, the priorities they have, the resources they have available and the actual danger he is to the safety of children and on a global scale, not on how many people forward this video on Facebook.

This post pretty much sums it up: http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/80261-kony-2012/page__view__findpost__p__2167064

[Guest Basildon Fox]

Just watched this. All similar to what is happening in the Congo. Ross Kemp did one his programs from there.Very heart rendering.

[leicesterisme]

I never knew who Kony was until all this exploded all over Twitter and Facebook and I'm sure thousands of others were the same.

In the space of a couple of days there won't be many people who don't actually know who Kony is now and what he has done.

[James.]

Personally I find it quite unsettling that a complicated issue like this can become just another Twitter “trend” or something that people stick on their Facebook profile. Fair enough it raises awareness but is this how policy will be decided from now? How many hits a video gets on You Tube determines who the latest bad guy is? It’s pretty weird. It’s like sanitised charity work where people think they’re doing something to help by simply copying and pasting a link.

Why does everything have to have a hashtag next to it before anyone pays attention? What good is this really doing? It's just a fad. The new iPad will come out or some celebrity will die and everyone will have forgotten about Joseph Kony. What about the rest of the world? Shall we ignore all their problems until someone makes a film and starts Tweeting about it?

[dave the caveman]

Couldn't agree more James. Reckless, illogical bandwagons are fine when applied to irrelevant crap like fashion, but when applied to international policy it becomes really quite dangerous. When the clueless left wing Starbucks crowd can influence important issues with no qualification other than number, we're in deep, serious trouble.

[Finnegan]

Personally I find it quite unsettling that a complicated issue like this can become just another Twitter “trend” or something that people stick on their Facebook profile. Fair enough it raises awareness but is this how policy will be decided from now? How many hits a video gets on You Tube determines who the latest bad guy is? It’s pretty weird. It’s like sanitised charity work where people think they’re doing something to help by simply copying and pasting a link.

Why does everything have to have a hashtag next to it before anyone pays attention? What good is this really doing? It's just a fad. The new iPad will come out or some celebrity will die and everyone will have forgotten about Joseph Kony. What about the rest of the world? Shall we ignore all their problems until someone makes a film and starts Tweeting about it?

Spot on. Deleted someone linking this shit off my wall earlier. It's not that he isn't a deranged terrorist that needs stopping but I just hate that 'raising awareness' becomes more a fashion statement than a well held belief.

[NeilyBoy]

James and Finnegan have hit the nail on the head.

Now that everybody with an internet connection knows about KONY2012!!fapfapfap!!! I think we can safely say that the video has successfully raised awareness, leave the whole thing to be usurped by the next celebrity tart who walks to the shops with some cellulite showing and let the govts continue doing the work to catch Kony that they were doing before this big media circus.

End of topic? I bloody hope so.

[Darkon84]

To quote from someone else's blog, regarding all the people that think they are saving the world by watching the video ....

In order to move past #KONY2012, to promote credible approaches to conflict resolution in Central Africa, anti-Kony advocates need to be prepared to move past the public narrative, past the sexy, and past the action kit. On March 6, hundreds of people told me to take thirty minutes out of my evening to watch Invisible Children’s Kony documentary. If, on March 7, you’re not taking thirty minutes out of your evening to read the International Crisis Group’s November 2011 report on the way forward for stabilization and conflict resolution in LRA-affected areas, you’re not doing your job correctly.