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SamH
Guest
invisiblechildren.com/about.html
Their primary goal is raise awareness so other people will help the people of Northern Uganda. It’s like an ad agency running on charitable donations.
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Their primary goal is raise awareness so other people will help the people of Northern Uganda. It’s like an ad agency running on charitable donations.
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medaroge
Guest
I dont think I will watch it because it would upset me too much. However, I think that now that it has gone viral something will be done. As far as percentage of money actually going to the cause, I think the exposure alone is well worth it (of course I would hope for both exposure PLUS a higher percentage going to the cause). It is also up to individual donors to decide for themselves the type of things to support and the percentage of overhead they are willing to support. 
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kama3
Guest
I normally believe that awareness raising charities are basically a scam, since they help no one, except for their staff.
Nevertheless, there is precisely one way to solve the problem of Mr. Kony – the same one which has been used to deal with Mr. Hussein. The problem of course, is that the only people who can order that are politicians, and, since Mr. Kony is not sitting on any valuable natural resources (as opposed to Mr. Hussein), politicians have no interest in the matter.
Which is precisly why an awareness-raising campaign is the only thing which can potentially hurt Mr. Kony in the long run. Although I am not holding my breath…
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SamH
Guest
Kony is down to a few hundred followers is more of a bandit than a leader of an army. The Invisible Children, Inc organization couldn’t even identify (in their 1/2 hour video) what country he had fled to. So much for their raising awareness of the subject.
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pepipop
Guest
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/uganda/9131469/Joseph-Kony-2012-growing-outrage-in-Uganda-over-film.html
*“What that video says is totally wrong, and it can cause us more problems than help us,” said Dr Beatrice Mpora, director of Kairos, a community health organisation in Gulu, a town that was once the centre of the rebels’ activities.
“There has not been a single soul from the LRA here since 2006. Now we have peace, people are back in their homes, they are planting their fields, they are starting their businesses. That is what people should help us with.”
*
Well the Ugandans, don’t seem to be too pleased by the viral video, and it is their country.
guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/mar/08/kony-2012-what-s-the-story?fb=native
*This excellent post by Michael Wilkerson, a journalist who has worked extensively in Uganda, starts busting some of the myths around Kony and the situation in Uganda. He writes:
Further Ugandan’s comments in the Guardian
nytimes.com/2011/11/26/world/africa/uganda-welcomes-oil-but-fears-graft-it-attracts.html?_r=1
Needless to say the word ‘oil’ raises it’s ugly head - something smells fishy.
*“What that video says is totally wrong, and it can cause us more problems than help us,” said Dr Beatrice Mpora, director of Kairos, a community health organisation in Gulu, a town that was once the centre of the rebels’ activities.
“There has not been a single soul from the LRA here since 2006. Now we have peace, people are back in their homes, they are planting their fields, they are starting their businesses. That is what people should help us with.”
*
Well the Ugandans, don’t seem to be too pleased by the viral video, and it is their country.
guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/mar/08/kony-2012-what-s-the-story?fb=native
*This excellent post by Michael Wilkerson, a journalist who has worked extensively in Uganda, starts busting some of the myths around Kony and the situation in Uganda. He writes:
Code:
It would be great to get rid of Kony. He and his forces have left abductions and mass murder in their wake for over 20 years.
But let's get two things straight:
1) Joseph Kony is not in Uganda and hasn't been for six years;
2) The LRA now numbers at most in the hundreds, and while it is still causing immense suffering, it is unclear how millions of well-meaning but misinformed people are going to help deal with the more complicated reality*nytimes.com/2011/11/26/world/africa/uganda-welcomes-oil-but-fears-graft-it-attracts.html?_r=1
Needless to say the word ‘oil’ raises it’s ugly head - something smells fishy.
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New_eve
Guest
I hope they do catch Kony and put him out of business. Someone was saying they are making a big deal of it now because they found oil in the region. I don’t know how true this is.
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bookgirl
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No, they spend money raised on doing what they set out to do, which is advocacy and awareness, not monetary support, which as far as I’ve read is something they’ve been very transparent about. It’s the responsibility of the person donating money to know what they’re donating to.
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bookgirl
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I think you think I’m supporting everything their doing. I’m not necessarily doing that. I’m pointing out that the reasoning behind the criticism that I’ve read seems to be a straw man argument. That’s what’s bugging me. The person they were trying to stop in Iraq was the head of the government, thereby having to rebuild a government once that happened. This is a criminal, not the leader of Uganda. I’m sure there’s much more complexity that I’m portraying here as far as the effects he has on the area’s culture, but still, it’s not the same situation.
As far as a viral campaign against abortion, I’m all for it, no matter where it comes from. Abortion is not an American problem, even though it’s happening here. It’s a human rights problem, as is the situation with Kony.
Show me how Kony 2012 is specifically forming a system of dependency? I’m not arguing that they are or aren’t, I’ve just seen people throwing this around and in articles without any evidence of it.
But Kony has stated that their mission is to stop one man, not “rule a country”. Maybe raising money to get awareness out for one particular mission is wasting resources, I don’t know. But what bothers me is that people are claiming that they’re doing certain things wrong, things that I have yet to read that they themselves are even remotely trying to do.
You’re comparing an organization that is trying to stop one specific man to colonializm and slavery? Kony has never stated they were trying to change a culture, or civilize anyone, as far as I know. Only that they want to stop this man. Again, maybe they’re wasting resources and their efforts will be wasted, I’m just annoyed at the disingeniousness of some of the arguments against them.
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bookgirl
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They would need money to do the things they set out to do, which specifically is create a social media campaign, primarily with video, to raise awareness. Which if you look at the financials is where the money is going. To the goal of their organization.
I’m not defending them one way or the other, just trying to get people to look at what they’re actually criticizing.
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bookgirl
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Or a non-profit organization, of which there are many like them. Not all non-profits are direct charities.
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latin_rite
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latin_rite
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Hi. everyone
I went to uganda and met a boy, his family was killed and he would rather be dead because in his country the rebels kill them. So I left him there to contemplate suicide and live in fear and made a youtube video with nice production, made a few thousand shirts, buttons, stickers and made a website so people can give me money.
I went to uganda and met a boy, his family was killed and he would rather be dead because in his country the rebels kill them. So I left him there to contemplate suicide and live in fear and made a youtube video with nice production, made a few thousand shirts, buttons, stickers and made a website so people can give me money.
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TEPO
Guest
You could have so easily kidnapped the child by simply stuffing him in your carry on bag…
Or you could have fabricated a passport for him and said he was your brother in laws second wife’s step child.
How could you leave him like that.
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latin_rite
Guest
Yes i could have. As crossing the border is no big deal with a lil bit of help and a lil bit of foreign currency. I mean, i could have got him out for the cost of two or three kony t-shirts.
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TEPO
Guest
Uh-huh, and had you been discovered kidnapping one of the local children the authorities probably would have simply let you go free after you explained your reasoning -being that there is so little corruption among the authorities there.
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pepipop
Guest
Ha,ha, that about sums it up!
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agnes_therese
Guest
Interesting, that everyone here is more worked up about this organization’s finances than about what’s happened to the children in Uganda. Nice set of priorities.
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LovePatience
Guest
It is an American problem. Kony is a problem in Uganda. Not EVERY country in the world has pro-choice laws. Much of the world does not.
All of these NGOs seek to influence the people in a country without any responsibility to these people. Their actions affect local people, and shape their ability to live their lives. They don’t live in a void. They form a parallel system of governance and civil society, because these NGOs often have more money than local governance and local civil society. Thus, with more buying power - they affect a community: they raise rents, they subvert democracy.
They cause people who want to influence their community to believe that it is more effective to go to a developed country and influence from afar than from local means, to suck up to people who genuinely know little than from building upon the resources of their own people, that their own leaders are puppets manipulated by the West. It leads to brain drain. It leads to local gov’t leaders shrugging off responsibility by blaiming the West since the West is what is really in charge; people in parliamanet of a country tell the people not to blame them for the problems because its really the IGOs and NGOs that have the real power. Can it ever lead to a sustainable country when people look outside for gov’t rather than to themselves?
Imagine that some Iraqis decided that their biggest priority was abortion in the United States, and they would not work with the pro-life groups in America nor support those pro-life groups in America but would donate millions of dollars to raise awareness in Iraq of how horrible a problem abortion in America was. Would that “raised awareness” reduce abortions in the United States? Would that “raised awareness” create better relations between Iraqis and those in the United States? If those Iraqis launched an invasion into the United States to assassinate our President because he allowed all those abortions, would that really create a society capable of stopping abortions in the future or would it create a broken society and worldwide anarchy?
Well, Bush said that he was **against **nation building. He also built up Saddam Hussein as the enemy. Did America colonize Iraq?
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bellasbane
Guest
Rush Limbaugh (the man who believes the Pill works like Viagra) made this idiotic statement on his radio show last October in order to criticize the Obama administrations decision to send 100 US troops to Uganda to help capture Kony:
“Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them,”
csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Vox-News/2012/0309/Why-did-Rush-Limbaugh-defend-Joseph-Kony-and-Lord-s-Resistance-Army
Unbelievable! That just shows the sort of ignorance folks of conscience have to deal with.
“Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them,”
csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Vox-News/2012/0309/Why-did-Rush-Limbaugh-defend-Joseph-Kony-and-Lord-s-Resistance-Army
Unbelievable! That just shows the sort of ignorance folks of conscience have to deal with.
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TEPO
Guest
So it’s basically a battle between an armed Christian pimp sect, and Muslim gang-bangers, all competing for control of the local people.
Then according to R. Limbaugh, our government is supposed to be siding with the pimps…? I disagree.
Donations would be well spent as a global reward for the death of Kony. Every dollar we spend on shirts and buttons could become the bounty on konys head.
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