41 replies to this topic

[Juturna]

holymotherofcheeseandtomato

I've heard of this guy before, but apparently now they're only /really/ spreading the word.

What do you guys think?

[Neoquest]

I just watched the whole video. Pretty interesting, I'm glad that there are people actually willing to bring this kind of stuff to the attention of the public.

[Bone]

It's nice to see people finally acknowledging the LRA's atrocities.

Interestingly, Rush Limbaugh just recently criticized Obama for "targeting" Christians by sending troops to Uganda.

I'd also note that this is an example of viral marketing at its best.
Fortunately, it's for a good cause.

[James]

I watched the entire video and I must say that it is great people are taking action.

If you haven't read it, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a great book by someone that was a child soldier himself.

The sad thing is, there is no real good side of the war. We can freak out and worry about children being abducted, stopping Kony and ruining the rebellion, only to return the corrupted government back to normal. Pretty sad.

On another note, that little boy is obnoxious.

Edited by James, 06 March 2012 - 06:50 PM.

[likerobots]

glad somebody posted the vid here, it deserves as much attention as it should get.

And I love the guerrilla marketing they suggest.

[Bone]

I watched the entire video and I must say that it is great people are taking action.

If you haven't read it, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a great book by someone that was a child soldier himself.

The sad thing is, there is no real good side of the war. We can freak out and worry about children being abducted, stopping Kony and ruining the rebellion, only to return the corrupted government back to normal. Pretty sad.

On another note, that little boy is obnoxious.

Whut. Kony isn't actually staging an active rebellion against the government. The LRA basically just roams around central Africa trying to maintain its power and spread its fanatical message. Don't get me started on the corruption in Uganda's government, but the dissolution or persistence of the LRA won't significantly affect its administration, unless something drastically changes.

[Keil]

My university has an Invisible Children club on campus and I do distinctly know they bring once abducted children from Central Africa (now 20 year old speakers) every year. If my apathetic brain can recollect information that doesn't pertain to me, I remember some of these children were once armed with only whistles to alert Kony's "militia". Sad reality is that these whistle's were blown, the sound gives off the location of these children and often shot by both Kony's opposition and even his own "militia". Maybe I'll get involved with the canvasing in April.

[jaque]

It's a good topic to bring to light, but some research should be done. See: http://www.facebook....158145934306193

[Coops]

It's a good topic to bring to light, but some research should be done. See: http://www.facebook....158145934306193

That facebook group does highlight some serious issues with the Invisible Children "charity" if you will. However, if you can solidly prove a charity that isn't like that then I will give you a cookie. All charities do this. It's an unfortunate part about charities. If you really want to do REAL charity work, spend your money going to Uganda and help there. Otherwise, your money you donate will be whittled away by the organization, governments, etc that the money is funneled through. Only a slight bit will actually reach the people of it's purpose. Despite the misguided spending on Invisible Children's part, I do admire the fact that they have utilized possibly one of the most powerful tools currently available - the internet. Whilst in high school, I never learned anything regarding Africa. I shit you not. The atrocities of corrupt African governments, rebel groups and war lords were left out of my text books. Anything I learned was by reading myself (having a particular interest in cultures about the world). And even then, it's hard to distinguish fact from opinion (because let's face it, 90% of "fact" is just opinion spread out to look like fact, even in text books, encyclopedias, and on the internet). So it makes me sad how few people know about the horrors of living in an African country - such as Uganda. But it isn't just Uganda that is riddled with horrible, corrupt government and rebel groups. Anyways, I'm just glad that someone is bringing light to the serious, terrifying institutions that get away with murder daily in a continent long since forgotten. Remembering there are still countries with this level of disparity compared to say the United States, or Britain, or Germany, etc is important for all generations of people. That's just my two cents about the issue. Thanks for posting this on Codex. ^^

Edited by Niva, 07 March 2012 - 09:53 AM.

[Bone]

It's a good topic to bring to light, but some research should be done. See: http://www.facebook....158145934306193

Hey, I did some 'research' too!

Edited by Bone, 07 March 2012 - 12:03 PM.

[Nymh]

Hey, I did some 'research' too!

Your research leads to a broken link landing page

[Bone]

Your research leads to a broken link landing page

What are you talking about stop doctoring my posts

And, no it didn't just take me three tries to post a link.

[jaque]

That facebook group does highlight some serious issues with the Invisible Children "charity" if you will. However, if you can solidly prove a charity that isn't like that then I will give you a cookie. All charities do this. It's an unfortunate part about charities. If you really want to do REAL charity work, spend your money going to Uganda and help there. Otherwise, your money you donate will be whittled away by the organization, governments, etc that the money is funneled through. Only a slight bit will actually reach the people of it's purpose. Despite the misguided spending on Invisible Children's part, I do admire the fact that they have utilized possibly one of the most powerful tools currently available - the internet. Whilst in high school, I never learned anything regarding Africa. I shit you not. The atrocities of corrupt African governments, rebel groups and war lords were left out of my text books. Anything I learned was by reading myself (having a particular interest in cultures about the world). And even then, it's hard to distinguish fact from opinion (because let's face it, 90% of "fact" is just opinion spread out to look like fact, even in text books, encyclopedias, and on the internet). So it makes me sad how few people know about the horrors of living in an African country - such as Uganda. But it isn't just Uganda that is riddled with horrible, corrupt government and rebel groups. Anyways, I'm just glad that someone is bringing light to the serious, terrifying institutions that get away with murder daily in a continent long since forgotten. Remembering there are still countries with this level of disparity compared to say the United States, or Britain, or Germany, etc is important for all generations of people. That's just my two cents about the issue. Thanks for posting this on Codex. ^^

I totally agree, but I don't think it should be spread out in a plethora of misguided lies. See: "For context, 31% is bad. By contrast, Direct Relief reports 98.8% of its funding goes to programming. American Red Cross reports 92.1% to programming. UNICEF USA is at 90.3%. Invisible Children reports that 80.5% of their funding goes to programming, while I report 31% based on their FY11 fiscal reports, because other NGOs would count film-making as fundraising expenses, not programming expenses." - http://theeducatedfi.../we-got-trouble

[Kat]

I leave Facebook to get away from this Kony bullshit, and it's here. too. -_- Before I exasperate myself by typing all I know, I'll link a reddit post that sums everything up quite nicely. Sources in the post. link
Also my favorite Facebook post of the day: "Hey guys, I watched a 30 minute Youtube video and now I'm a social activist!"

[Volition]

http://9gag.com/gag/3208772

[redlion]

Also my favorite Facebook post of the day: "Hey guys, I watched a 30 minute Youtube video and now I'm a social activist!"

That doesn't make the people's interest any less sincere or relevant.

Denigrating them for the method they learned of the problem is more contemptuous than learning of the problem through social media.

[Pilot]

Yeah I train child soldiers

what uganda do about it

[Ling]

I think spreading awareness is great, but the whole Kony issue was many years late. I had been hearing a ton about Invisible Children 5-6 years ago and only now are people flooding facebook with it. I think everyone has read the Tumblr articles, so no sense it beating a topic dead with a dead rabbit. Invisible Children is so entangled with Christian groups that I think the organization has been advertised too much. If you want to help little african children, donate to a charity like Africare that uses 96% of funds for direct services and only 4% for administrative expenses.

[Nymh]

Poor Carl Weathers is getting a lot of bad press because of this Kony stuff

[Icey Defeat]

I'm split on the issue personally.

[Ling]

[redlion]

That's pretty good.

If only they were given a choice.

[Cyo]

Kony's kind of cool tbh. He set himself a goal and look how much he has accomplished moving towards it.

[Cyo]

The black version of Hitler?

Not really.

[redlion]

Kony's kind of cool tbh. He set himself a goal and look how much he has accomplished moving towards it.

What goal would that be? He has no stated objectives. His only implicit objective is maintaining his own power. It's not like he's publishing position papers on the human rights violations of Uganda, or working towards establishing a more benevolent government.