KONY 2012

Started by Kane Gunlock, March 06, 2012, 11:49:42 PM

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Kane Gunlock

GAMERS, GEEKS,ROLEPLAYERS LEND ME YOUR EARS...EYES! I'm not sure if many of you here are familial with the Joesph Kony and The Lords Resistance Army I'm not here to rant or anything but I feel like Issue in general is to Important to fall on def ears(there I go again) but rather than ramble on I'll let the video below do the convincing, lets make a real discussion out of this



<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/37119711?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;color=d13030" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p>KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.</p>

Sabre


Oniya

If you intend to have a discussion, it is going to be necessary for you to discuss.  Dropping links or videos without any explanation is generally frowned upon.  Please review the guidelines for this section of the forums.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Sabre

I suppose the problem here is there's little to discuss.  Kony2012 is a social experiment it seems to combine memetic spread through internet and social media with the moral panic charity drives of yesteryear that usually fizzled into 'oh-dear'-ism.  The video was well made and unfortunately very effective for perhaps the wrong reasons.  Time spent on Kony, Central Africa, its politics and infrastructure problems, and its multiple rebellions is marginal while the time spent on appealing to the individual viewer's ego and narcissism is comparatively huge.

It's good that such selfish drives are being used now for a less frivolous cause than usual, but it does say something about society.  There was an obvious reason Kony (and other African rebels like in Liberia) were ignored for so long, after all.

BCdan

I just wanted to post this so there is a record I can refer to just in case I have the chance to say "I told you so!".

Kony has been in power since the 80's.  He's an evil person.  He uses child soldiers.  The only way to arrest Kony as that viral video suggests is to go to war with him.  This will kill a lot of those child soldiers.  The real reason this campaign is taking off is because A) Uganda has s***loads of oil and B) Oil prices are going up because of turmoil in the middle east (Arab spring). 

So basically I think this campaign has other motivations besides the welfare of the people of Uganda. 


~I enjoy random PM's~

Oniya

There's also some shadiness on the part of the non-prof.  I found a link to their fiscal statements for 2011  (PDF file here), and most of their money goes to producing these documentaries - about 32-34% actually goes towards direct aid.  (Page 6 has the breakdown)

The Council on Foreign Affairs has written that

QuoteDuring the past decade, U.S.-based activists concerned about the LRA have successfully, if quietly, pressured the George W. Bush and Obama administrations to take a side in the fight between the LRA and the Ugandan government. Among the most influential of advocacy groups focusing specifically on the LRA are the Enough project, the Resolve campaign, the Canadian-based group GuluWalk, and the media-oriented group Invisible Children. Older agencies, from Human Rights Watch to World Vision, have also been involved. In their campaigns, such organizations have manipulated 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. They rarely refer to the Ugandan atrocities or those of Sudan's People's Liberation Army, such as attacks against civilians or looting of civilian homes and businesses, or the complicated regional politics fueling the conflict.

(source)


As I see it, Kony's bad.  Really bad.  But are the people going after him a group that we want to give weapons to?
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Vekseid

1.7 million went straight to compensation. To disburse 2.8 million in funds, that's outrageous.

BCdan

I've been looking more at who Kony is.  Apparently he only leads about 200 men, mostly just bandits who rob and pillage parts of the Congo.  The US already has a 100 man task force after them along with plenty of troops from 4-5 countries in the region.  He was a force back in the mid 2000's, but not anymore. 

NPR actually does a good fact check of the video.


~I enjoy random PM's~

Hurricane

Quote from: BCdan on March 08, 2012, 01:39:52 PM
Kony has been in power since the 80's.  He's an evil person.  He uses child soldiers.  The only way to arrest Kony as that viral video suggests is to go to war with him.  This will kill a lot of those child soldiers.

I think you vastly underestimate the ability of the US Navy SEALs to assassinate people.

BCdan

Quote from: Hurricane on March 09, 2012, 10:43:49 PM
I think you vastly underestimate the ability of the US Navy SEALs to assassinate people.

Like I said, they already have a 100 man task force after him.  It took a decade to get Bin Laden, someone like Kony just isn't that high of a priority.

I heard on NPR that the creators of the video aren't suggesting any sort of war path, just more of a "keep up the good work" video.  Though when I see the video, it seems like its doing more than being motivational. 


~I enjoy random PM's~

Serephino

Advertisers have learned long ago that appealing to people on a deep emotional level gets results.  I hate ASPCA adds because they play that Sarah McLaughlin song and show sad looking animals.  I'm an animal lover, so of course I feel bad for the animals.  Those commercials to help kids in Africa do the same thing.  They show starving kids and share their sad stories.  It makes you want to give them money to help.     

Acid

Quote from: BCdan on March 10, 2012, 11:28:53 AM
Like I said, they already have a 100 man task force after him. It took a decade to get Bin Laden, someone like Kony just isn't that high of a priority.

I heard on NPR that the creators of the video aren't suggesting any sort of war path, just more of a "keep up the good work" video.  Though when I see the video, it seems like its doing more than being motivational.

Supposedly.

I wish I had faith enough in the USA to actually believe they killed Osama Bin Laden when they said they did.

OldSchoolGamer

I'm sure we can now count on Russia and China to come to Kony's defense and whine like emo kids if any serious effort is made to bring him down.

Sabre

What does Russia or China have to gain from protecting Kony?  Now that oil was found in Uganda, the Chinese would be the most likely benefactors of that new source.

Zakharra

Quote from: Sabre on March 11, 2012, 06:12:23 PM
What does Russia or China have to gain from protecting Kony?  Now that oil was found in Uganda, the Chinese would be the most likely benefactors of that new source.

It irritates the US and Europe.

SilentScreams

Why is Kony so bad? Is he so horrible because he uses child soldiers? Is he bad because he's a Christian? Is he bad because the UN and their mouth pieces tell us he's bad?

Yoweri Museveni helped to over throw Idi Amin with the aid of Libyan forces sent by Muammar Gaddafi (the last "bad guy" the media sold us). Yoweri then went on to lead a "rebellion" against Obote which claimed 300,000 lives. After that (1986-present) Yoweri has battled with the LRA costing an additional 100,000 lives. Yet in that same period Yoweri, who is the President of Uganda and has been since 1986, invaded the Congo at an estimated cost of 5.4 million since 1998. Yoweri closes newspapers and radio stations that disagree with him, executes homosexuals, and was just elected to a fourth term in an election that the European Union disputes. Yet we have to help him fight two hundred starving rebels in a rain forest.

Why does no one report on Yoweri? Why does everyone focus on the LRA? Wow, like, imagine that videos made in Uganda only represent one side of the story....shocking. But oh, I forgot, its trending on Twitter so the facts don't matter.

Kony bad...Yoweri good. I go eat now...

Oniya

Museveni has also purportedly used child soldiers.  I'm also noticing that the person who started this thread hasn't weighed in yet.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Kane Gunlock

yeah at the time i thought it was a good idea to support KONY 2012 now im not so sure