My issue with the whole Kony 2012 thing going on right now.

[The Funslinger]

What the hell is Kony?

Honestly I have no idea what you lot are talking about.
And ignorance is bliss.

Yeah right there with you. I'm just going to assume it's a new Pokemon.

Yeah, I caught a Kony once. It's not in my party, but I wanted it for my pokedex.

serious OT: This shit is no different than when an infamous, possibly hated celebrity or similar dies and automatically achieves sainthood.

When I found out Amy Winehouse died, I had an automatic, unplanned response that just bubbled to the surface. As soon as I was told, one word slipped through my lips: "Good."

And while I didn't mean for that to happen, it was a basic enough approximation of my feelings. I certainly wasn't going to start brown nosing the woman just to look like a sensitive and caring individual. So I stood by that verbal slip up because it was how I genuinely felt.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

The big thing with it, is for something internationally to happen it has to go through the UN. The UN has to agree on an issue... it doesn't matter how much you donate or pressure your government you will still have to persuade the Chinese and Russians so that they don't veto it. Charity organisations cannot really help against situations like this, and there is no way in hell I am going to give money to a lawless militia, no matter what there intentions are now!! Do we really want another Mujhadeen?

Anyway, I agree with the OP, this is exactly the same as the starving kids issue... in fact even less kids are involved...! Uganda isn't even that big a country... look across the rest of Africa and count all the problems and you will see the actual scale of the problem.

Unfortunately, however nice it is to raise awareness, efforts are pretty misguided and misjudged... giving money to organisations when you don't know exactly how they spend it or what they can actually do can be overall detrimental to the overall solution. Again, how do you know you are not paying for arms for a militia which are just going to add to the tribal problems in that region... Don't forget it was the Ugandans along with their southern border pals who invaded the DoC and started the Second Great African war, troubles that peacekeeps are still dealing with!

 

[wooty]

Ran into this on the tube-of-you, interesting stuff, but is it all just thesis?


Also, it had to be done

Spoiler

[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/832/8869533433393.jpg/]

 

[StBishop]

I haven't watched the video. But I discussed the summary with my girlfriend after reading this and a couple other threads. The first thing she said to me was why should she give a fuck about children in Uganda when we have all kinds of horrible shit happening to kids in (our own country) America?

- We live in the Detroit burbs, and some of you may scoff about the plight of American kids versus Ugandan kids- on a whole, maybe- but just last week a 9 month old was killed by a guy who sprayed 40 rounds into a house one morning. So point being- horrible shit happens everywhere... it may be concentrated in Uganda, but America- or other places- likely have their share of evil to go around. -

So after her bit about why care; I said yeah, but you can't talk about it like that- because horrible shit that happens is equally horrible wherever, and when people get emotionally swept up in it you can't say stuff like that to them. You can say it to me, but if you said it on facebook expect to catch a world of shit. She said she knew she would and we both decided the best thing to do is just say nothing, let people send their money, and then forget about it in a month or two like usual.

I know you've not seen the video so I'm saying this with as much respect as I can (touchy topic and all) but you really don't know what's going on obviously (it's not about kids in Uganda, it's about kids in central Africa in general, Kony isn't even in Uganda and hasn't been for over 4 years) and talking about it without any knowledge is adding to the entire problem and leading to misinformed debate.

I am going to say that you should probably watch the video again then because 99% of the time they refer to Kony as being IN Uganda. They mention him being OUT of Uganda ONCE towards the end. And then NEVER mention it again. Its not that hes misinformed about not watching the video its that the video is misinforming more than the person you quoted.

I dunno, the first time I watched it I thought it was clear and obvious that he wasn't in Uganda anymore. My girlfriend got the same impression.

Regardless, you're right, plenty of people aren't picking up on it even when they've seen the video so it should probably be made more obvious.

 

[Phlakes]

My problem is that awareness and activism are completely different things. All these kids new to the internet think Twitter is some kind of cosmic power, and if they just tweet something in all caps to their 15 followers all the world's problems will disappear.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Kony highlights the fact that you shouldn't blindly follow the tweets of well meaning but misinformed celebrities. Dude hasn't been in Uganda for 6 years.

There's also something insincere about this whole thing. I can't quite place it but I know it's there.

Insincere you mean like this?

Spoiler

Yeah thats the head of the Invisible Children holding an AK and posing with the Sudanese Army.

Me I was part of the OH SHIT KONY 2012 thing at first. Then I started asking questions about it and now I am thinking why the fuck are we supporting these people at IC who spend 50% of their money on making videos while 30% goes to direct aide?

Okay, let's be honest though. If you had the opportunity to pose holding ak's and rpg's like a badass, would you pass it up? I sure as fuck wouldn't! As for the whole most of their money going to videos, yeah, that's pretty douchy. I would probably give my money to some other charity first. Spreading the word about the monsters of this world is some kind of noble goal, but feeding and educating children is better in the long run.

On a side note, I find it hilarious how people are posting here about how they don't know who Kony is (my spell check doesn't either). I'm pretty certain that's some kind of irony.

 

[Mau95]

Ok, I have something to say about this before I talk about this (which even I find odd, but just bear with me).

I don't care about your support of Kony, I don't care if you hate the guy, I don't care if you know nothing about the situation. This rant topic is for all of you, so I don't want to see flame wars breaking out about the subject I am raging about. I hope that makes sense. I know some people will ignore that, but whatever.

I made a topic a while ago called <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.351902-Do-you-feel-bad-about-the-starving-kids-in-Africa?page=6#13942103>"Do you feel bad about the starving kids in Africa?" that asked if you gave a damn about the starving kids in Africa. Responses were mixed, with most people saying they felt bad about it but didn't do anything about it, and a few people saying they donated and supported the kids any ways they could, with a small minority of people flat out saying they didn't give a flying fuck. Now if you ask me, this Kony thing is almost identical to the issue of starving kids in Africa. But why are people so up in arms about this?!

The disgusting irony of this thread is that it just draws more attention to the Kony issue, which I really don't want to do. But since there are 6-7 threads about the exact same thing, why not eh?

Starving kids aren't caused by one person, with Kony there's one guy people can pick on. There's a simple and easy target.

New rule: http://9gag.com/gag/3231260

 

[Torrasque]

New rule: http://9gag.com/gag/3231260

I am ninja'ing the fuck out of that.

 

[Krion_Vark]

I haven't watched the video. But I discussed the summary with my girlfriend after reading this and a couple other threads. The first thing she said to me was why should she give a fuck about children in Uganda when we have all kinds of horrible shit happening to kids in (our own country) America?

- We live in the Detroit burbs, and some of you may scoff about the plight of American kids versus Ugandan kids- on a whole, maybe- but just last week a 9 month old was killed by a guy who sprayed 40 rounds into a house one morning. So point being- horrible shit happens everywhere... it may be concentrated in Uganda, but America- or other places- likely have their share of evil to go around. -

So after her bit about why care; I said yeah, but you can't talk about it like that- because horrible shit that happens is equally horrible wherever, and when people get emotionally swept up in it you can't say stuff like that to them. You can say it to me, but if you said it on facebook expect to catch a world of shit. She said she knew she would and we both decided the best thing to do is just say nothing, let people send their money, and then forget about it in a month or two like usual.

I know you've not seen the video so I'm saying this with as much respect as I can (touchy topic and all) but you really don't know what's going on obviously (it's not about kids in Uganda, it's about kids in central Africa in general, Kony isn't even in Uganda and hasn't been for over 4 years) and talking about it without any knowledge is adding to the entire problem and leading to misinformed debate.

I am going to say that you should probably watch the video again then because 99% of the time they refer to Kony as being IN Uganda. They mention him being OUT of Uganda ONCE towards the end. And then NEVER mention it again. Its not that hes misinformed about not watching the video its that the video is misinforming more than the person you quoted.

I dunno, the first time I watched it I thought it was clear and obvious that he wasn't in Uganda anymore. My girlfriend got the same impression.

Regardless, you're right, plenty of people aren't picking up on it even when they've seen the video so it should probably be made more obvious.

And I think that's part of the Kony problem the other part is that the video is simplifying 20 years of history according to an article I read earlier (which I can't link because I'm on my iPod right now sorry) the Ugandans are critizing the video . Apparently Kony came into being by wanting topiary corrupt Ugandan government

 

[Major_Tom]

So they've been trying to stop (capture/kill/tickle?) this guy for 9 years and they can't even pronounce his name? Useless fact: his name means "horse" in Croatian.

 

[Chanel Tompkins]

Eh. I just wish I could get people to stop banging on about wanting me to watch it. I already gave to IC at church, I clearly tell people this, and they still won't shut up about it. I mean, is it anti-Invisible Children or something?

 

[requisitename]

I've sworn off twitter until this passes.. as it will. It always does. I understand that the cause itself is important, but really. I don't need multiple tweets/retweets about it from one person I'm following.

 

[Don Savik]

I could come up with a new Warlord/rebel orginization/cult every week (or even every day) and post a video about how we should raise awareness about it. Shit happens, deal with it. If they cared about african children they would've already been doing something about it. And just because bad stuff happens in africa, and economically they are worse off than America, doesn't automatically make American problems less important. There are a ton of problems that we should/can be dealing with in our own country. Its really egotistical and pretentious to think you are important in the downfall of an african warlord by posting a comment.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

My issue is that Invisible Children is a scam and that Kony's been gone for almost a decade now.

 

[Dogstile]

Militia's in Africa doing bad things. Thats been happening for years. Same thing with child soldiers.

I find it disgusting how it needs to be cool or hipster for people to hate Kony. A week ago most people didn't know he existed. Iam all for awareness on the subject. How many people are just throwing money at groups to make themselves feel better that they help stop it?

If they really cared they would have been supporting kids in Africa as soon as they could.

You... sorry, run that by me again?

People who have been made aware by this should have... been made aware sooner? You realise that depending on your lifestyle you might not be able to check the news that often? This wasn't exactly reported on that much either.

So, please, tell me how its wrong that people who have been made aware by this are donating money. Last I checked that was a good intention.

 

[Torrasque]

I made a topic a while ago called <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.351902-Do-you-feel-bad-about-the-starving-kids-in-Africa?page=6#13942103>"Do you feel bad about the starving kids in Africa?" that asked if you gave a damn about the starving kids in Africa. Responses were mixed, with most people saying they felt bad about it but didn't do anything about it, and a few people saying they donated and supported the kids any ways they could, with a small minority of people flat out saying they didn't give a flying fuck. Now if you ask me, this Kony thing is almost identical to the issue of starving kids in Africa. But why are people so up in arms about this?!

Why, because they both take place in Africa? I bet you would say that it is almost identical to the aids epidemic in Africa as well then, just because it takes place in the same continent and deals with children dying?

No, I meant that my thread and this one are similar because they both concern giving a damn about people on the other side of the planet in shitty situations, and if you care and/or do anything about it.

I think starving kids in Africa is very similar to the Kony issue because the main buffer between those needing aid (the kids) and those who can give it (people in first world countries), are aid organizations. That buffer is not always as benevolent as they would have you believe, and that is a very important concern in this Kony case.

 

[Cazza]

Militia's in Africa doing bad things. Thats been happening for years. Same thing with child soldiers.

I find it disgusting how it needs to be cool or hipster for people to hate Kony. A week ago most people didn't know he existed. Iam all for awareness on the subject. How many people are just throwing money at groups to make themselves feel better that they help stop it?

If they really cared they would have been supporting kids in Africa as soon as they could.

You... sorry, run that by me again?

People who have been made aware by this should have... been made aware sooner? You realise that depending on your lifestyle you might not be able to check the news that often? This wasn't exactly reported on that much either.

So, please, tell me how its wrong that people who have been made aware by this are donating money. Last I checked that was a good intention.

When is comes to people just finding out. If they are in a position to donate they are old enough to watch TV. I don't watch that much TV but I have see enough ads about the poor kids in Africa. Anyone who has paid some attendion to the news knows about that and child soldiers etc from school or TV. Yes Im sure there is someone but it can't be that many people. This bandwagon is way to big for that.

If people want to know about something there is enough sources to find out about it. If they don't have access to though resources then they probably can't help because they need to focus about themselves. If they can hit a like button they have acces to the knowledge of the internet.

Donating is a good thing. It's just some people don't check who they are donating too. There are many unreputable donation organizations. Someone might see one youtube video say "OMG" see a link to "donate" and only some if any of that money goes to people in need. If they really cared they would do some research to make sure they are donating to a reputable help organization.

 

[anthony87]

Here's the thing though. Do you see people posting messages on facebook like "Fuck the starving children in Africa" and ever getting a positive response? No. Its a similar situation. Kony is in the wrong. Whether or not you agree with IC is pretty much irrelevant, and is unnecessary to see that the man is pretty evil (I mean he forces children to kill their parents). If you don't support it that's fine, but you shouldn't stand in the way of people that are trying to make a positive change, IMO that makes you an asshole.

Agreed.

But don't forget that the overwhelming majority of people who keep putting up bloody Facebook statuses or posting links to that video aren't trying to make a positive change. They're doing it to basically say "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! I CARE!!!" when in reality they didn't give a shit 24 hours prior.