this Kony thing……

One of the links from the Guardian article comments referenced by Bwaarp, shows how corporate America appears to be pulling the strings on this issue. It’s Demand Nothing[/url]
JP Morgan we’re loking at you.

Its certainly true that Kony is a nutjob of the highest order.

I’m sure I’ve read about him and the Lord’s Resistance Army before.

He and another female leader kidnap and brainwash children, drug them and indoctrinate them to believe that drinking potions makes them bullet proof and that they are an invicible army of God.

Having him removed from the planet would undoubtedly be a good thing.

BUT

Its Africa, and eliminating every individual we feel deserves it is a very long road to start down. As others have said there is probably better ways of supporting action in Africa than targeting one – admitedly deserving – individual

My concern is less about ‘the message’ and more about the power that social media is having.

I’ll be honest, whilst I’ve known about child soldiers and such for years this is the first I’ve heard of Kony and that’s as a result of watching this video. It’s a bit over-the-top in places but it conveys the message that he’s a bad man and that he needs to be stopped. Simple.

However, I’m concerned that a ‘tool’ such as Youtube, or Facebook (or for that matter Twitter and blogs) can have such a massive sway over the majority. The word ‘propaganda’ springs to mind and I think it therefore necessitates a more careful screening of what can and can’t be shown. In this instance its making people aware of a tyrant who brainwashes, kills and tortures children and pushes the notion of stopping him by any means necessary. 26m views says its had a massive impact and I’m sure converted a large number of people.

Not everyone watching the video will be open to rational thought – my 13 year old step son watched it and thought it was pretty much a done deal. Emotive film convincing everyone that you’re less of a human if you don’t do something to stop it.

The cynic in me questions whether there’s some large corporation behind the whole thing – it all seems a bit too polished to be true. Lead man is a good looking chap, with a cute intelligent kid and a pretty (from what I could tell) wife.

That aside, I hope they get what they want. But everyday I’m slightly more fearful about the power of social networking/media…

Upside – 26 million views and counting, if it get’s this kony guy known around the world as a murderer and general scumbag, then it’s all good. If it mobilises people to badger their governments to drag the prick to The Hague to pay for what he’s done, all the better. If it changes one mind from being a lazy sod who cares more about new maps in COD MW than what happens to people in the real world then it has succeeded.

Downside – From the released financial records of this lot, they don’t appear to be sending enough money anywhere constructive to do any real good. I’m sure the founders of this are doing a lot of good work, but they’re also being paid 90K a year to do what they’re doing, maybe just me but that seems a lot really. They seem to be spending a hell of a lot of money on natty bracelets and posters to give them an excuse at playing “Banksy” for a bit…….all just seems a bit Hipster/skinny jean/that 99% thing looks a right larf

Also, this got 38 million plus views so you can’t always rely on people being intelligent

Kony bracelets on order

Sorry, what?

Rebuttal to the cricitisms – http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html

Difficult to know what to believe – I’m still cynical about this though, sorry. And like flange I think the level of hysteria is a little creepy.

C’mon. We all played soldiers as a wee boy and getting to do it with real guns would’ve been BRILLIANT!

I think this comment on the Guardian site sums it up best.

Thank you for this article. Today, out of nowhere, half of my friends on Facebook and Twitter start posting about “KONY 2012”, and I had no idea why. It took only a few hours longer for other friends to post things critical of it. I really didn’t have the time to watch the video and read the criticisms, so I was pretty confused by it all. It’s nice to have both sides summed up in one place.

The rhetoric has become so heated already. One widely circulated message on Twitter is “If you don’t know who Joseph Kony is, re-evaluate your life”. I think that’s completely ridiculous, considering that most people retweeting it didn’t know who he was 24 hours ago either. It’s basically a guilt trip, which makes me think that many of those saying it don’t really care about the cause as much as they care about being seen to care about it.

There are thousands upon thousands of worthwhile causes. Removing Joseph Kony from his position of power is probably one of them, but the only reason people suddenly care about it more than any other is because it’s trendy (and trending). On which note, I’ll end this comment:

Make poverty history!

The statisitics from the youtube video are interesting:

This video is most popular with:
Gender Age
Female 13-17
Male 18-24
Male 13-17

I would bet everything I own that most of the chumps jumping on the bandwagon couldn’t find Uganda on a map if their life depended on it

taken from the Invisible Children rebuttle linked above regarding the photo of them holding an RPG and an AK47

Bobby, Laren and I are friends and had been doing this for 5 years, we thought it would be funny to bring back to our friends and family a joke photo. You know, “Haha – they have bazookas in their hands but they’re actually fighting for peace.”

hmmm, having read more about this I can’t take them seriously anymore, the quote above say’s it all, the only reason people suddenly care about it more than any other is because it’s trendy (and trending)

39,5 Million views? From 100,000 yesterday? Thats pretty impressive!
Statistics show its not very popular in central africa tho….

bwaarp

post of the day

Excellent stuff bwaarp.

The 19 yo Sandwich junior was raving about this yesterday. I sent him a load of links to other information and he’s decided that maybe the initial hysteria on-line was a bit overdone.

Well done Bwaarp. Brilliantly done.

This is for you

over 2 thirds of the money they’ve raised has gone into things other than charity work. bit of a poor excuse for a charity imo

The first pic in Bwaarp’s post – looks like Obama uses an Amstrad Emailer?

LOLOLOL

“Izama says there’s a crucial natural resource angle that’s being overlooked, pointing out that Uganda recently discovered “significant deposits of oil” near its border with the DRC. “This is the one game changer in the history of conflict in that region” Izama said. He said joint military operations are increasingly concentrated in the oil-rich area.” – Guardian

Hmmm – gone all cynical since last nights post – didn’t do the order thing and now I feel I need to look into it more. I’m quite naive sometimes 🙁 – don’t think the wine helped.

Great concept on the one hand but full of pit falls and implications. Will be interesting to see where it leads.

We had them in school, (the invisible children punters NOT the lords army)They are about the money and just the invisible children,but three years ago, they told us that they spent 60% of the money they raised on publicity. We decided not to continue to be involved based on that. However it has to be said that they have very effectively pushed their campaign to the fore. I don’t really care who puts a bullet in him, Ugandan or whatever, he needs to be dead and this campaign has made that more likely.

This overlaps with some other posts, but a worthy view. Bwaarp+1

Bwaarp, that is truly epic.

Didn’t realise uganda had any decent oil reserves. Maybe we will see more u.s troops getting deployed in future.

There’s a whole generation who don’t read newspapers, don’t listen to the news on the radio or watch it on TV. Since I don’t think anyone is any dispute that Kony is a “bad man” (after all wasn’t he number 1 on the US indicted list?), I see no problem with social media raising awareness instead. Say what you like about Invisible Children or Tri or whatever they are called, you can’t ignore the fact that more people know about this than did before. If even a small percentage of those millions go off and do more reading on the subject and make themselves aware, then that’s a good thing. Some of them might even take appropriate action.

so its a ten year old issue, being pushed to slacktivists by a charity.
and the kids are lining up to throw money at them

mashable covered it a couple of days ago, the vid links on FB looked like typical spam shite so doesnt interest me

Much preferred the 1998 MTB video, now showing on Youtube “SPRUNG” (?) much better use of my free time.

What appropriate action would that be stilltortoise? Are they going to go and join the Marines, do a stint at Poole, retire and then head over to Uganda to tool up and hunt this man down then return home for a pint having avoided starting a civil war? No they aren’t, what they are going to do is encourage US interventionism in Uganda, which will end with hilarious consequences. “US military advisers” – ROFL I’ve heard that one before. A pinpoint precision removal of the guy based on sound intelligence might be a good way to go but funding the Ugandan army and putting lots of boots on the ground? Nahhh

Some of them might even take appropriate action.

Which is what? ‘Like’-ing it or linking to it on their social network web page?

It is a bunch of slackers paying themselves a very comfortable salary and spending far too much money on promotion of the issue from the total donations they obtain. This is several years too late and detracting from the more pressing concerns elsewhere. Awareness raised? The same audience are more aware that cats make you LOL than about crimes against humanity.

The same audience are more aware that cats make you LOL than about crimes against humanity.

This is a bit of a sweeping generalisation isn’t it 😯

I’m 37 and I listen to the news, yet I don’t remember ever hearing about Joseph Kony until this film. I’ll be honest I’ll probably do bugger all about it, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t 100s if not thousands of people who will pay more attention to issues like this and maybe try and make a difference. The very fact we’re all talking about it and educating each other can’t possible be a bad thing. Are some of us really this jaded and cynical?

There might be someone sat wasting time on Facebook right now who sees all this and decides to make a positive difference. Come on you lot, bring forth the suggestions of what can be done or are you saying it’s a hopeless cause?

Yes but the whole of the NGO community already knew about this (as they say, this campaign is about a decade late) and there’s nothing anyone can do unless we send troops to find him. So what is the point of the campaign exactly? There’s far better things to do, how about shocking the kids into actually reading the news or donating to a charity like Doctors without Borders that actually does something.

This charity is in bed with the Ugandan military and the Washington, along with the picture of them holding guns that does loads of good for NGO neutrality! Not

It is a hopeless cause, mostly because Kony isn’t much of a problem in Uganda any more but a problem along the DRC border. Who exactly is going to go and get him? Until that is answered it is a hopeless cause.

It’s all a load of pants. Shows how people resemble sheep.

There’s far better things to do, how about shocking the kids into actually reading the news or donating to a charity like Doctors without Borders that actually does something.

Which is my point. Of the millions who have become aware (that word again) of Kony and Tri/ Invisible Children, some of them may now take some positive action against issues beyond their own borders bedroom. Previously they would have been clueless about it. I’ve never understood bemoaning the act ot raising awareness.

This is a bit of a sweeping generalisation isn’t it

The statisitics from the youtube video are interesting:

This video is most popular with:
Gender Age
Female 13-17
Male 18-24
Male 13-17

I bet you knew about LOLCATZ tho didn’t you? 😐

So a video posted on You Tube is most popular with the main demographic of You Tube? Well I never

Turns out the film maker was a bit of a t0$$er…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/joseph-kony/9149918/Joseph-Kony-2012-filmmaker-Jason-Russell-arrested-on-suspicion-of-masturbating-in-public.html

Anyone see Charlie Brooker’s critique?

Yeah was just about to post that. The more I hear the less respect I have for them. They have also appaeently taken large donations from fundamentalist Christian organisations that support anti gay rights campaigns. Ever heard of having an ethical fundraising policy? Deeply, deeply dubious.

Apparently some NGO organised a screening in Uganda and caused a riot because they hated the video so much. I have a Kenyan friend who works for a human rights charity who was absolutely outraged by it. The ‘any awareness has to be a good thing’ argument is really not valid IMO.

Apparently some NGO organised a screening in Uganda and caused a riot because they hated the video so much. I have a Kenyan friend who works for a human rights charity who was absolutely outraged by it.

Link to outrage[/url]

Invisible Children chief executive Ben Keesey told TMZ: “Jason Russell was unfortunately hospitalised yesterday suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition. He is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better.

Malnutrition? Think they might need to look up what that word means. Spectacularly poor taste for a charity working in Africa to use that term about their rich ‘story-teller and dreamer’ caught **** in public.