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I'm just doing my little bit here to help spread the word about KONY 2012, a campaign by Invisible Children Inc. to raise awareness about war criminal and world's number 1 most wanted Joseph Kony.
Here is the video explaining what the campaign is about, please take the time to watch it, they need all the help they can get.
So everyone please do whatever you can, even if it's just sharing the video like I am here; mass awareness is what they need most if Kony's going to be brought to justice.
I was also wondering if we would be interested in doing something as the Dakka community. Suggestions are obviously welcome, I know there was the 'great space marine project' before. If anyone has any serious ideas then please post them, let's do what we can to donate and help out. I would be happy to organise something and help out with any projects for this.
I was just looking through the off-topic forum to see if any other threads had been created.
This is an IMPORTANT ISSUE and people need to be made aware. It's sad that no one else has replied.
This post will put this thread at the top of the list, so hopefully it will help raise awareness. I'm already trying to raise awareness on both my own websites and also sites like Facebook. I will admit.. it isn't easy trying to explain it to a German kid whose language I can barely speak.
The important issue is that this is a scam.
Pure and simple.
Don't send any money.
If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it. item 87, skippys list
DC:70S+++G+++M+++B+++I++Pw40k86/f#-D+++++A++++/cWD86R+++++T(D)DM++
I'm both selfish and rational. I'm scheming, secretive and manipulative; I use knowledge as a tool for personal gain, and in turn obtaining more knowledge. At best, I am mysterious and stealthy; at worst, I am distrustful and opportunistic.
Not me. I'm not going to open a 30 minute youtube clip on pretty much anything.
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
Possibly a scam. I can't really verify that. A charity organization that doesn't disclose its finances to the BBB is suspect. Aside from that, I thought it was fairly low of the guy to use his kid as a way to emotionally blackmail the audience.
On the surface, it does seem like a good cause. But if the site Huffy linked to is correct, it's definitely a scam, and possibly malevolent.
I can't really say. I can say that if they achieve their goal and things turn out better in Uganda and surrounding areas, I'll be pleasantly surprised.
I'm both selfish and rational. I'm scheming, secretive and manipulative; I use knowledge as a tool for personal gain, and in turn obtaining more knowledge. At best, I am mysterious and stealthy; at worst, I am distrustful and opportunistic.
Yeah, after much debating with the intellectual minority of youths my age, we've decided that there's nothing good about what this charity is or is trying to accomplish.
Death Gear wrote:I don't really care about the charity. It's the idea that really counts .
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.
~ Grant Oyston
Grant Oyston is a sociology and political science student at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. You can help spread the word about this by linking to his blog at visiblechildren.tumblr.com anywhere you see posts about KONY 2012.
Death Gear don't. As was stated, they are trying to mislead you with persuasive rhetoric and are spending ALOT of money to make damn sure it works, and it really should the way that they play this all up
Kilkrazy wrote:There's nothing like a good splutter of rage first thing in the morning to get you all revved up for the day.
Yeah, Kony and the LRA are a serious problem, but Invisible Children is a very dodgy charity. Consuming 68% of donations in admin and film production (ie money spent to get more donations) is woeful.
So send a letter to your local representative, telling them you support action on the issue. Talk about it with friends, and raise awareness. Just don't give money to Invisible Children.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Squidmanlolz wrote:Yeah, sounds like rainbows and unicorns, don't it?
Fighting a radical with radicalism has worked in the past right? No major problems?
Well, yeah, direct military action has worked in ending the reign of tyrants. Quite a few times. Hitler comes to mind.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/03/08 03:22:00
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Squidmanlolz wrote:Yeah, sounds like rainbows and unicorns, don't it?
Fighting a radical with radicalism has worked in the past right? No major problems?
Well, yeah, direct military action has worked in ending the reign of tyrants. Quite a few times. Hitler comes to mind.
During WWII, the US was directly provoked, there's a difference between that and something localized to Uganda and the immediate area. I don't see the need to intervene if the only ones in any danger at the moment are the locals. When they throw a coup and start annexing their neighbors, then we can start getting concerned. There are bigger concerns now anyway, especially the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, but that's for a different thread.
Squidmanlolz wrote:During WWII, the US was directly provoked,
Not by Hitler.
there's a difference between that and something localized to Uganda and the immediate area. I don't see the need to intervene if the only ones in any danger at the moment are the locals. When they throw a coup and start annexing their neighbors, then we can start getting concerned. There are bigger concerns now anyway, especially the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, but that's for a different thread.
So as long as locals are only abducting the children of locals and forcing them to kill locals, then who cares what the rest of the world can do? Well, if that's your opinion then that's your opinion.
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Squidmanlolz wrote:
there's a difference between that and something localized to Uganda and the immediate area. I don't see the need to intervene if the only ones in any danger at the moment are the locals. When they throw a coup and start annexing their neighbors, then we can start getting concerned. There are bigger concerns now anyway, especially the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, but that's for a different thread.
So as long as locals are only abducting the children of locals and forcing them to kill locals, then who cares what the rest of the world can do? Well, if that's your opinion then that's your opinion.
I'm a bit of a political isolationist, Americans seem to have developed a "do unto others..." ideology though. If a country progresses without endangering another country, we'd might as well wait it out and see what the revolutionaries become, as far as I'm concerned.
Squidmanlolz wrote:I'm a bit of a political isolationist, Americans seem to have developed a "do unto others..." ideology though. If a country progresses without endangering another country, we'd might as well wait it out and see what the revolutionaries become, as far as I'm concerned.
Which is a pretty reasonable approach. Compared to the Iraq mess, and the appearance of the same being developed in Iran, I think your approach is preferable to what we've got right now.
It's just that when someone is committing atrocities, like Kony and the LRA are, and solving that problem could be as simple as a few hundred soldiers in support and training roles, and limited air recon support, then I don't really see the value in isolationism.
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Slarg232 wrote:Well, tried to warn all my friends on facebook, but I don't think they beleive me.
Anyway, my job is done.
I don't have a chance of being believed, and i'm not a big fan of being called a horrible human being by people who can be so inspired by a 30-minute video that was funded using a large chunk of their previous earnings.
So i'm just watching, laughing, and being annoyed that they're clogging my news feed.
Mandorallen turned back toward the insolently sneering baron. 'My Lord,' The great knight said distantly, 'I find thy face apelike and thy form misshapen. Thy beard, moreover, is an offence against decency, resembling more closely the scabrous fur which doth decorate the hinder portion of a mongrel dog than a proper adornment for a human face. Is it possibly that thy mother, seized by some wild lechery, did dally at some time past with a randy goat?' - Mimbrate Knight Protector Mandorallen.
Excerpt from "Seeress of Kell", Book Five of The Malloreon series by David Eddings.
"You need not fear us, unless you are a dark heart, a vile one who preys on the innocent; I promise, you can’t hide forever in the empty darkness, for we will hunt you down like the animals you are, and pull you into the very bowels of hell." Iron - Within Temptation
Stormrider wrote:Let us PLEASE stop telling the world how to run their gak, thank you, that is all.
Yeah, who's to say they don't want to have a child abductor brainwashing their children into murdering people?
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Well I just watched it on a news special edition, completely ad free and they're about to show the critics and supporters views on the 7pm Project.
I have to say the idea itself is excellent, revolutionary and plausible. Whether the charity itself is corrupt will hinder the opinion of people and as they said "the support will disapear".
As to the use of his 4 year old, it may be controversial but hey it sent a message, even a 4 year old can be informed and make a difference.
Now the effectiveness of the campaign, it itself seems misinformed and the money is being put into the wrong place. Why train Uganda's army when Kony isn't there anymore?
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2012/03/08 11:07:24
Slarg232 wrote:Well, tried to warn all my friends on facebook, but I don't think they beleive me.
Anyway, my job is done.
I don't have a chance of being believed, and i'm not a big fan of being called a horrible human being by people who can be so inspired by a 30-minute video that was funded using a large chunk of their previous earnings.
So i'm just watching, laughing, and being annoyed that they're clogging my news feed.
I'm not sure why but I've just realised you remind me of Rorschach from Watchmen.
Anytime anything charity-related becomes too popular, it's likely a scam. Quite simply, spamming for other people will never help anyone and will only give some people room to feel self-righteous while the majority get to feel guilty or extremely annoyed.
Edit: First-page Godwin is always refreshing too.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/03/08 12:33:50
3000+
Deff Gearz 2,000+pts. (50% painted), 
Retribution 57pt.(70% painted), 
FOW 
Hive Fleet Aquarius 2-1-0
Catachan LIX "Lords Of Destruction" 