Kony 2012

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Hi,
I recently saw the KONY 2012 video on Youtube (youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc) and I was wondering what the Catholic perspective was of the “Cover The Night” thing on April 20, where people are going to go through major cities and paste posters & fliers about it on buildings. Isn’t that vandalizing?
 
I can’t speak about the vandalizing, but this whole Kony thing is really a scam. The organization behind the video, I think it’s called Invisible Children Inc. is basically making tons of money off of the donations. I believe only 30% of donations are actually spent on the children and the rest is used on the members of the organization for travel, luxuries, and other things. Too many people see a 30 minute video and believe that they can destabilize a Ugandan warlord by simply liking a video. I bet you most people wouldn’t even be able to find Uganda on a map. But according to my facebook feed, people are slowly starting to realize this :rolleyes: I wish people did their research a bit better instead of trusting everything they hear.
 
Mike_91 said:
I can’t speak about the vandalizing, but this whole Kony thing is really a scam. The organization behind the video, I think it’s called Invisible Children Inc. is basically making tons of money off of the donations. I believe only 30% of donations are actually spent on the children and the rest is used on the members of the organization for travel, luxuries, and other things. Too many people see a 30 minute video and believe that they can destabilize a Ugandan warlord by simply liking a video. I bet you most people wouldn’t even be able to find Uganda on a map. But according to my facebook feed, people are slowly starting to realize this :rolleyes: I wish people did their research a bit better instead of trusting everything they hear.
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I don’t think people should necessarily donate money without doing research, but can sharing the video do harm? I did a little research tonight and although your numbers are correct (only around 30% of the money goes directly to the children), your reasoning seems a little off. I don’t think their goal, at this point, is to raise as much money as possible for the children. I think they’re taking a risk (quite possibly one that won’t payoff) and hoping that if they get enough people talking, the governments will get involved and stay involved. I don’t think they are a charity in the traditional sense of the word, but more of a nonprofit organization trying out a new plan. Financially speaking, it looks like they’re pretty transparent as far as making the monetary facts available. And it looks like, as is the case with many new businesses, most of that 70% is going to overhead, meaning salaries, travel, media production, etc. But there’s no evidence that any of this constitutes a “luxury” or any unethical recipient, so I think you also need to do some research before throwing those accusations around. This could quite possibly be a huge waste of money and a bad idea in the end, but to insinuate that it’s a scam without knowing it is irresponsible.

Again, I’m not necessarily standing up and throwing all of my weight behind them. But I think they honestly believe that the strategy they’re using might work. And it very well might. The US and other first world country governments knew about the Rwandan genocide, and did nothing. If there would’ve been more of a public outcry because the public actually knew about it (most didn’t, while it was happening), maybe something could have been done. I realize that this man has been doing what he’s doing for 20 years, but will public knowledge tip the scale against him? It will be interesting to see if it does.
 
jcunningham352 said:
Hi,
I recently saw the KONY 2012 video on Youtube (youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc) and I was wondering what the Catholic perspective was of the “Cover The Night” thing on April 20, where people are going to go through major cities and paste posters & fliers about it on buildings. Isn’t that vandalizing?
Click to expand...
I don’t know about the vandalizing either. It’s not as if they’re uring people to do any actual damage to property.
 
Don’t know what this is, but I know i’m sick of it appearing on my Facebook newsfeed.
 
jcunningham352 said:
Hi,
I recently saw the KONY 2012 video on Youtube (youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc) and I was wondering what the Catholic perspective was of the “Cover The Night” thing on April 20, where people are going to go through major cities and paste posters & fliers about it on buildings. Isn’t that vandalizing?
Click to expand...
I hope people won’t resort to vandalism when they put up posters. In some cases, it is quite clear that the owner of a building does not want it used to advertise bands or candidates or political causes. But in most cities there are telephone poles, sides of buildings, etc, that are commonly used as sidings for political or concert posters.

If I buy a building that has a wall used for this purpose for the past few decades, and do nothing to discourage the activity - whether because it’s too expensive to do so, or I’m too lazy, or I just don’t care, or I actually think it enhances the value of my property by making it seem vibrant in an otherwise decaying area - I’m essentially giving the green light to those who do this.

I’m not sure how my description compares to the video - after 1.5 minutes of exceedingly slow discussion about the wonderful internet, my head was about to explode, and I couldn’t stomach another 28.5 minutes.
 
Mike_91 said:
I can’t speak about the vandalizing, but this whole Kony thing is really a scam. The organization behind the video, I think it’s called Invisible Children Inc. is basically making tons of money off of the donations. I believe only 30% of donations are actually spent on the children and the rest is used on the members of the organization for travel, luxuries, and other things. Too many people see a 30 minute video and believe that they can destabilize a Ugandan warlord by simply liking a video. I bet you most people wouldn’t even be able to find Uganda on a map. But according to my facebook feed, people are slowly starting to realize this :rolleyes: I wish people did their research a bit better instead of trusting everything they hear.
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I hope that people do their own research and don’t believe everything you are saying either. You are repeating misleading facts, much the same way that politicans do to influence people. I suggest that people look up Invisible Children’s site and see their financial details for themselves.

A lot of what I am hearing of people being sick of seeing it on Facebook is pretty funny. People are sick of hearing about a terrible man that is relatively unknown to most of the world, but have no problem posting and reading useless videos, twitters, and blogs about mundane, boring things.

The apathy I am hearing about what this man is doing is pathetic.
 
This is viral in the college student community.

I’m sure this guy is probably a bad man, but where’s the outrage about Communist China? sigh
 
Luigi_Daniele said:
This is viral in the college student community.

I’m sure this guy is probably a bad man, but where’s the outrage about Communist China? sigh
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Communist China is not doing what this guy does.

Please, let’s not blow this off by saying what about this or that. Two wrongs don’t make a right.There is a long list of things and people that are wrong with the world, even though he is number one on the international list from The Hague. Someone had to start somewhere, and you are free to champion your concern for Communist China, I won’t mock your affection for them.

People seem to want to put this organization down, or it’s work, or it’s cause, by saying that there are more important things. Well, I hope that they are out working for those groups then, or for that other cause that is more important.

But probably not, all I hear is stupid comments from people whose biggest concern is what time the party starts and if Snookie will be back next season.
 
Although thread does not link to a news article, it would appear the video is turning into at least a temporary phenomenon
.

Will leave thread open as long as it is charitable.
 
Real glad this thread will be allowed to continue. I’ve known about this since I was seventeen when my friends and I saw the Invisible Children documentary. I always thought that since it’s in Africa, the world powers won’t care. Hopefully Kony will be stopped this year and children if Africa won’t have to wake up scared
 
Gift_from_God said:
Real glad this thread will be allowed to continue. I’ve known about this since I was seventeen when my friends and I saw the Invisible Children documentary. I always thought that since it’s in Africa, the world powers won’t care. Hopefully Kony will be stopped this year and children if Africa won’t have to wake up scared
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He’s being stopped. Read the article I posted the link to.
 
Whether he is in Uganda or not, he must be capture and bring to justice, I think it is a good start! 😉
 
A few days ago I posted this video which I called “Possibly the Best Use of Social Media I have Ever Seen.” I watched the video, I believed that their use of media was commendable and I thought it was worthwhile to share what they were doing.

Since then there has been some controversy surrounding the organization that produced the video called “Invisible Children”. The controversy has revolved around the fact that some people don’t believe enough of the IC budget goes to actually solving problems, but instead is used to produce videos like the one that is making it’s rounds on the internet.

I DON’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT

Is Kony 2012 A FRIEND OR FOE? Here are my thoughts on the issue

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
billykangas said:
A few days ago I posted this video which I called “Possibly the Best Use of Social Media I have Ever Seen.” I watched the video, I believed that their use of media was commendable and I thought it was worthwhile to share what they were doing.

Since then there has been some controversy surrounding the organization that produced the video called “Invisible Children”. The controversy has revolved around the fact that some people don’t believe enough of the IC budget goes to actually solving problems, but instead is used to produce videos like the one that is making it’s rounds on the internet.

I DON’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT

Is Kony 2012 A FRIEND OR FOE? Here are my thoughts on the issue

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DCDn4uqLO...AABfo/dYmjmRIfbOQ/s320/origin_KONY-2012-2.jpg
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I really can honestly say that I don’t know much about any of this, only what I’ve read in the past few days. What’s bothering me about the criticism against IC is that, for one, there is this straw man argument being set up of “they’re making all this money and then not giving it to the children.” They’re not making it in order to give it to the children. They’re openly and honestly making it to try to raise awareness of the problem in a way that they think will make a difference. They could be wrong about that in and of itself, but I don’t for a second think that they’re running a scam to make money. That claim is ridiculous.

Secondly I’m bothered by the claim that they’re fostering the image of Africans “not being able to help themselves”. I get that the people of Central Africa need to feel empowered, that they can very well learn how to take care of themselves, that they are just as smart and capable as we in the US are, and all of that is very true. But acknowledging that help is needed doesn’t do anything to refute any of that. What would those critics have people do, nothing? None of these “scholars” and other charities seem to have any problem throwing condoms at them as opposed to educating them about abstinence, thereby insinuating that they’re, what, incapable of self control, or to dumb to learn about abstinence. How is that any different?

I think many are actually kind of pissed off that their work never received this kind of attention. I have a friend who worked for the Carter Center in the early 2000’s and she said they tried and tried to get the word out that this was happening, and never could. The bickering is ridiculous, and it sounds like it’s coming from jealous middle schoolers, not supposedly highly educated philanthropic activists.
 
billykangas I’m going to link to your blog post on this to my FB page if you don’t mind. Also I just very quickly skimmed through your blog The Orant, and it looks really interesting. Nice work!!
 
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