Kony 2012

[Oirarana]

So I came across a video that I figured was important to share. I know it's long, but I think you should at least have a look. I'd never heard of Joseph Kony before today, and I'm honestly appalled that knowledge of him isn't widespread.

http://vimeo.com/invisible/kony2012

[kyubichan]

These are the kinds of things that give religion a bad name. It is not the religion or the ideal itself that causes pain, but the people who interpret it and those who carry out the flawed interpretation. An idea or belief cannot harm anyone unless a person decides to act it out.

I didn't know about Kony until today as well, not until I got invited to a Facebook event and saw that Kony 2012 video on the Home tab. He's not the only one who is like that in this world. I know of at least three local rebel groups who fight for their own ideals based on religion and ethnicity, by abducting, raping, pillaging, massacring, burning, killing, kidnapping - the list goes on.

A great evil does not start out great. It starts out as a small evil, then like a blackhole it sucks up everything around it until it becomes large enough to destroy worlds. To prevent more "evil" like this Kony, let's start in our local communities, our families and with ourselves. Aiding "Invisible Children" will help victims of these kinds of crimes as well.

[Mishio]

I'm a member of my college's Invisible Children chapter, and, for lack of anything better to say, please support this. The war has been going on far to long as it is, but we've made a lot of progress in recent years; with the early warning radio network, and Obama's dispatching combat-equipped military advisors. Let's keep up the momentum, shall we?

Spoiler!

Also, why the frell didn't I think of posting this here? *facepalm*

*noms anvil*

[Oirarana]

Too many anvils in your bloodstream? o.o

[Rourke Saito]

I was originally thinking about posting a thread like this last night. I think that Kony should be recognized as an evil figure and it sickens me to know that little number of people knew about him. Finally the world can unite as one and take down Kony

[Akayuuki]

I like that people are making a big deal about this, but it's kind of sad that it took a movie coming out to get people to actually care/realize what was going on over there.

[Shiyana]

http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02...ible-children/

Thought that you should all take a look at this... Not trying to burst people's bubble, but there is truth in what this guy has written about Kony and Invisible Children.

More Links:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DAE/comments...picious_about/

http://chrisblattman.com/2011/11/21/...sistance-army/

[kyubichan]

I like that people are making a big deal about this, but it's kind of sad that it took a movie coming out to get people to actually care/realize what was going on over there.

Hold your horses, Akayu. Was this ever in the news? People don't have super powers that enable them to sense that there's trouble somewhere.

I could go on about the shit that happens in my own country. I lose my internet a few times every year because local rebel groups steal from local farmers and blow up communication towers on rice fields. Did you know about that? In Mindanao, three factions want to "liberate" that place, which they do by stealing, kidnapping foreigners (Aussies have been victims of these guys), kidnapping AND killing locals, destroying small villages, abducting children to train as soldiers, etc. Our current president even gave five million Philippine pesos to one of the rebel groups to “train future Bangsamoro (Philippine Muslim homeland) leaders.” /rantrant (read BS here: http://www.cathnewsphil.com/2011/10/...-not-for-guns/)

Let's just be glad that these kinds of things are known all over the world now.

http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02...ible-children/

Thought that you should all take a look at this... Not trying to burst people's bubble, but there is truth in what this guy has written about Kony and Invisible Children.

More Links:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DAE/comments...picious_about/

http://chrisblattman.com/2011/11/21/...sistance-army/

Noted. And this is why I don't "go" to Facebook events or donate to random charity unless I personally, as in IRL, have seen what it is about.

[Oirarana]

*seconds Kyu's post*

o.o

*makes a note to avoid Mindanao*

[Akayuuki]

Hold your horses, Akayu. Was this ever in the news? People don't have super powers that enable them to sense that there's trouble somewhere.

I could go on about the shit that happens in my own country. I lose my internet a few times every year because local rebel groups steal from local farmers and blow up communication towers on rice fields. Did you know about that? In Mindanao, three factions want to "liberate" that place, which they do by stealing, kidnapping foreigners (Aussies have been victims of these guys), kidnapping AND killing locals, destroying small villages, abducting children to train as soldiers, etc. Our current president even gave five million Philippine pesos to one of the rebel groups to “train future Bangsamoro (Philippine Muslim homeland) leaders.” /rantrant (read BS here: http://www.cathnewsphil.com/2011/10/...-not-for-guns/)

Let's just be glad that these kinds of things are known all over the world now.



Noted. And this is why I don't "go" to Facebook events or donate to random charity unless I personally, as in IRL, have seen what it is about.

Yush its been in the canadian news and american news plenty of times over the last few years.

[Mishio]

My IC chapter just had our weekly meeting (the first since before the video came out) and had a pretty deep discussion about the video, and it's flaws, I feel like you guys ought to hear what our bottom line is: the video was meant solely to raise awareness. It wasn't meant to be perticuarly educational, it was not meant to give people a much deeper understanding of the problem.

For those of you who are really interested in Invisible Children, I suggest the first thing you do is learn more about the LRA and Invisible children in general. This video has become pretty popular, and has taken quite a lot of critisism in the process; it leaves out a great deal of information, and to a degree, glamorizes the whole situation, but it is still a big problem.

*noms anvil*

[Davak]

The community and service director of our school send this to each student a week back, we all watched it and well firstly thumbs up for the media these days and its power, than thumps up for invisible children for fighting for this noble cause lastly thumbs down for Kony …

[kyubichan]

I have deleted two posts by Rourke Saito. Mods may check the deleted posts and restore it as they see fit.

However:

Hated by many, wanted by plenty, disliked by some, confronted by none

I am confronting you right now. Your posts were distasteful, irrelevant to the topic at hand and completely assholish.

While Shiyana did post links to blogs, they were related to the topic at hand which was the Kony 2012 video and people's reactions to it. Rourke's link, however, would not further this thread and was not the least bit educational when it came to the topic of "Kony 2012" and "Invisible Children". It was indeed "news" (not gossip or a hoax), but it was irrelevant to the topic of this thread and the way that it was presented was completely distasteful and unmindful of the atmosphere.

For those who are curious, Rourke's post contained information about the recent (March 15) public escapades of Mr. Jason Russell, a co-founder of Invisible Children. If you choose to look it up, please read multiple sources of the "news" as different writers present it in various ways.

[Rourke Saito]

My posts were very relevant to the topic
This is the Discussion Room where one discusses "stuff" so to speak
This thread is titled Kony 2012
The creator of the Kony 2012 video is Jason Russell
The activities of Mr. Russell seem quite relevant
Especially since he publicly embarrassed himself and lost many followers of his cause
FYI Joseph Kony signed a peace treaty in 2008 with the Ugandan people the conflict is already resolved.
Also the movie/film Mr. Russell made was filmed in 2003. Not that I don't care for the Ugandan people its just there is no need to go into Uganda currently.
And thanks for confronting me

[Pickled]

Don't get me wrong, of course I want people like Kony to get imprisoned and punished for what they are doing and have done. I just find it sad that something like this video is necessary to make people aware of this. Ther is so much shit going on in this world, and most of us are blessed with what they have even though sometimes even our first world problems make our life seem difficult. I just wish, that precisely in times like now, where we all have internet and other sources of getting to know what the world is about and how stuff works and what is happening, people wouldn't wait for something like invisible children to make them aware of in this case Kony. Because all I hear from my friends and people around me is: Wow, I really didn't know about any of this...

[Aeterno]

And what good does it do if we all 'know' of all the shit going on everywhere around the globe? First world problems? I assure you there is crap going on in our so called 'civilized' parts of the world that is just as bad, if not worse than what Kony did, does, or will ever do.

Humans in this day and age are BOMBARDED with information from every direction, "news" is flying at us with a staggering rate. Most of the news that gets thrown at us doesn't stick, mostly because of the 'far far away place' factor. And this isn't really a bad thing. I have to consciously BLOCK streams of information or I'd never be able to go through it all.
If you know all the crap that goes on in the world, you'd instantly go suicidal unless you have the ability to realize there is crap you can do something about. And crap you can't do anything about.

Kony is one of those things you CAN'T do anything about. It's a conflict that has deep political roots that has been going on for years. I don't pretend to know the precise details of that conflict, but there is nothing any amount of awareness is going to do. Are they sad children? Probably, is Kony a bastard? Probably. But it irks me when people go all 'Awww, but the children!' on a problem that occurs halfway across the globe in a form they have literally NO influence over. (Politics doesn't even listen to a large mass of boo-calling people. Why would this guy?) while in the mean time problems that occur right in front of their faces get ignored with an almost childish "na na I can't see you"

Make a better world, start cleaning up your own lawn before interfering with someone else's. Because Afghanistan / Iraq and many others before then have shown us what happens when you try to clean up someone else's lawn.

[kyubichan]

The Ugandans themselves do appreciate help from "outside" BUT they do recognize that they should be able to solve their own problems. Kony has victimized people beyond that country's borders, but the Ugandans know that the primary responsibility falls on their (and their government's) shoulders. They prefer "help" in the form of empowering their voices and, well, letting them "deal with their own shit".

Knowing that these kinds of things happen all over the world, it doesn't really "help" if we always go "o m g poor you, here take my money! here have my manpower! " Dealing with this kind of thing is a bit like teaching a kid how to walk: if you always carry him around, he's never going to learn. Hold him by the hand instead, and little by little, he'll be able to do it on his own.

[Mishio]

I've heard that there's going to be another video coming out; essentially a sequal, that focuses less on the emotional impact, and more on information about the issue itself. Yes, it was probably done to answer criticism about the first video, but considering how well-known the first video has become, I consider it to be a smart move on their part. It should be out around April 3rd.

*noms anvil*

[Mishio]

And part 2 is out.


*noms anvil*