I watched this just this morning and I could barely make it through the first few minutes. I can not imagine what it must be like to live in fear every day and then have to watch someone cut the throat of your younger brother right in front of you.
We often hear of the atrocities in africa but it seems ( to me ) that there is not much attention given to the subject and most people simply feel like there is nothing that can be done.
To a certain extent I would agree. There is no way to be able to police the entire continent ... not when people like Kony are doing what they do.
Taking children into the jungle... raping the girls, making the boys kill and turning these children into lifeless zombies is just.. horrible.
I do not know much about the people BEHIND this movement .. and Im not sure that I really care. But their point is right on and something I agree with. It is to MAKE someone famous. Once a person is known, there is no hiding. Once you can capitalize on the desperate push to fame that can be found in this country, there is almost nothing you CANT do with your 15 minutes. In THIS country.. people listen to the famous..if you want something done , it has to be 'famous'. Their idea is to plaster this mans face every where, have this story go viral and make his name common knowledge.
Maybe.. with all of this hub bub .. some where in the political campaigns , finding him can become someones vote token. yes, that is pretty tacky so say but you know it is true.
If he becomes a vote token, more money and more time will be put into finding him and those children can POSSIBLY return to a normal life and the thousands of other kids that could have been his sex slaves or murderers will be safe and free..
I wanted to divorce america when I heard in this clip that people were turning them away because what was going on in africa was not affecting the countries pocketbook there for it was not important. And that is the most truthful statement I have ever heard. I have always known that, but hearing it again... especially after hearing that boys story infuriated me.
Just after that.... you hear that Obama sent 100 people to help find him .
Most people cheered that .... I personally see that is the biggest insult on the face of the earth.
100 people? really? thats all? You can find MORE VOLUNTEERS than that.. 100 people is not enough to DO anything. 100 people is a joke when you send 100 thousand people back and forth just to protect OIL.. for gods sake.. this is about childrens lives .. and the big bad american government sends... 100 people.
To have it ignored would have been worse.. yes, but we know this country is capable of MUCH more..
So.. in my head, it is important to make this information viral.. Not that posting a video will DO anything significant, but again.. their point is to reach fame. Once you have a moment of fame, you have more opportunities in this country than most people can even dream of.
Here in austin, there may be a small gathering of people putting up posters and essentially "protesting" by making noise.
I will be there with my camera
0 Replies
Ragman
1
Reply
Fri 9 Mar, 2012 02:21 am
@shewolfnm,
Ï've really been caught up with this story myself today. This LRA fund-raising issue makes things very confusing based on this further research:
Interviewing Invisible Children’s CEO After ‘Kony 2012′ Film Goes Viral
By Melissa Knowles | Trending Now – 9 hrs ago
"Make Joseph Kony famous. That is the goal of a 30-minute video produced by the nonprofit organization Invisible Children. The video, released just two weeks ago, has already received more than 38 million views and counting between Vimeo and YouTube, and has drawn lots of attention - both good and bad - to its cause. Trending Now spoke with CEO Ben Keesey in an exclusive interview where he gave us an inside look at how the video became so viral so fast, and responded to criticism over the organization's finances and its solutions to the conflict in Uganda.
The documentary follows filmmaker Jason Russell in his pursuit to end the conflict in Uganda by capturing Joseph Kony, the leader of the rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army, his personal army of kidnapped children.
Invisible Children says that Kony has gone unnoticed for his crimes against humanity because the American government does not see him as a direct threat to American foreign policy or interests. Invisible Children feels the injustice against the children has gone on for far too long, and the group wants to put a stop to it.
The organization decided to raise Kony's international profile so American politicians would take notice. The goal is to make Joseph Kony famous through making the documentary and having everyone possible, primarily college students, share the story of the tragedies. Using social media, word of mouth, posters and awareness rallies, Invisible Children has aimed to have Kony captured by the end of 2012 and to restore peace and prosperity to communities in Central Africa.
While awareness and support of the Invisible Children's movement has increased by the millions, it has been met with some controversy, including accusations that the organization is providing an idealistic and overly simplistic solution to an incredibly complex problem. Some have also pointed out that there are other people committing crimes against humanity and also other countries, like Sudan and Somalia, that are in need of support and funding just as much as Uganda.
In addition, public financial records indicate that only 32 percent of the money raised last year went to direct services to help the children affected by the LRA. The other 68 percent went to things like staff salaries, film production, and travel costs. Plus, even though Invisible Children is advocating for a peaceful resolution in bringing Kony to justice, it is not opposed to direct military intervention.
On Facebook, Invisible Children has more than 2 million likes, and on Twitter more than 320,000 [Y1] followers, including celebrities and other influential people. So by the looks of it, the organization is well on its way to making Joseph Kony a household name.
It's possible the high appearing expenses are justified. I've been somewhat familiar with LRA for some time. Many more do, now, and it might make some difference.
0 Replies
izzythepush
1
Reply
Fri 9 Mar, 2012 03:42 am
From the Guardian.
Quote:
Kony 2012: what's the real story?
A 28-minute film about the plight of children in Africa has been watched more than 21m times on YouTube. But the charity behind it is facing criticism for its Hollywood-style campaigning on the issue. Are the criticisms fair?
The important thing is that this story get exposure.
I can't believe the wide spectrum in the ages of the people who have separately posted this on Facebook - my 13 year old granddaughter, a 23 year old neighbor and a 63 year old classmate.
My concern is that the SAME thing is going on in our inner cities - young boys and girls being recruited into gangs and trained to commit violent acts.
I really really really wanna operate on the idea that this film was made with real intentions and driven for nothing other than its stated purpose...
but the more I read the more I wonder.
Granted.. .Kony DOES exist.. he DOES enslave children, but the reports from many pieces ( including some posted here ) show that he is actually NOT as big as they stated.
So.. that brings two points up
1) - are they deliberately over stating facts to help boost the media coverage? Because.. again... just getting 15 minutes of fame in america can make you a millionaire for NOTHING and can make many things happen. Knowing that this society can hand out golden tickets like that.. is it OK to blatantly lie about facts to garner more attention?
2) They dont KNOW how wrong they are..
Maybe they really do not know that he has moved on.
Maybe they really do not understand that he isnt as big as they think
or maybe they DO know.. because they were there.. but because what he has done it almost untraceable , it is the media who is not informed.
Think about it.
A poor community, no electricity, no police ... children just GO missing. These kids are taken and maybe killed.. buried somewhere in the jungle and no one knows WHO did it.. or where they are. These little bodies may never be found either. Who is to say what his numbers really are because that scenario plays out every day in africa by the hands of thousands of people
0 Replies
shewolfnm
1
Reply
Fri 9 Mar, 2012 07:42 am
@PUNKEY,
PUNKEY wrote:
My concern is that the SAME thing is going on in our inner cities - young boys and girls being recruited into gangs and trained to commit violent acts.
There is a point in that clip where someone says " If this happened in america for ONE day....."
I wanted to stop it right there and call him . He needs to know it happens ALL THE TIME. Teenage girls are kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Willing but unknowing teens are forced into gangs and have to be ranked in by killing, raping or robbing... if they choose not to, they are killed because " they know" too much..
I sure hope that the reaction to the LRA is not the meme-du-jour. There's been coverage on the CBC for a couple of years at least - one politician in particular has been trying to get attention to this for close to a decade.
0 Replies
boomerang
1
Reply
Fri 9 Mar, 2012 07:58 am
I can't help but wonder if a 30 minute viral video about Saddam Hussein would have rallied people behind the war in Iraq.......
Saber rattling always makes me nervous.
0 Replies
sozobe
1
Reply
Fri 9 Mar, 2012 08:15 am
Good article about this in the New York Times today:
I was suspicious when the video started popping up all over Facebook, and unsurprised when the counterpoints then started popping up.
It seems that it's not a clear-cut legitimate or not situation.
Kony is a real person, who has done lots of horrible things and is still doing them.
However, there has been action taken against him, the LRA is no longer in Uganda, and the worst of this is in the past.
Quote:
The surge of awareness is even more remarkable considering that President Obama, under pressure from Congress, announced in October that he had authorized the deployment of about 100 American military advisers to help African nations working toward “the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield,” a major step in American foreign policy in Africa.
[....]
Not until halfway through the film does Mr. Russell mention that “the war” he describes is no longer happening in Uganda, where he sets the documentary. The Lord’s Resistance Army left the country years ago, migrating to more fragile nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Another complaint among critics is that the film fails to mention the human rights abuses by the Ugandan military, and that Mr. Russell’s narration could imply that there are as many as 30,000 child soldiers in Mr. Kony’s army today. After years on the run, the group is believed to be down to hundreds of fighters, though they still prey mercilessly on civilians.
Mr. Russell, a co-founder of Invisible Children, acknowledges that he has not made the most nuanced or academic of films. The video charts his personal odyssey to tell the world about Mr. Kony’s reign of terror and bring it to an end. He may have boiled down the issues, but that is what it takes to captivate so many people, he contends.
“No one wants a boring documentary on Africa,” he said. “Maybe we have to make it pop, and we have to make it cool.”
0 Replies
Ceili
2
Reply
Fri 9 Mar, 2012 03:16 pm
I think this is just the beginning, from one despot to another, films like this will be made and terrible situations will be revealed to people who have never even contemplated these places much less the horrible things done in them. I think this is the future, more and more of these films will be made and "we the people" will pass it on, from one friend to another, from one country to another. I think this type of viral message will clean up a lot of nasty stuff, not because anyone gives money to a questionable charity but because the idea is too powerful to squelch. From Wikileaks to the uprising in the middle east to the occupy movement, times they are a changing and for the first time in my life, I feel I actually have a voice that can sway governments and change policy.
We are no where near the end of this phenomenon. Evil won't be able to hide anymore, the internet has made that impossible. We are the newsmakers, the story tellers, the watchers... Information is power and now, it's ours.
Obama may have sent 100 people, but they are trained, it took far less to kill Osama... it'll take one bullet, from one gun.
On another note... Tens of thousands of children have been taken in Uganda and neighbouring countries by this man and his followers, in N. America we have similar cases, women/childrn have been taken from their communties and used as sex slaves and boys are routinely snapped up by street gangs. If this kind of expose was done on just a handful of these assholes, things would change... probably faster than putting them in jail.
0 Replies
Ceili
5
Reply
Fri 9 Mar, 2012 03:23 pm
@Ceili,
Well obviously my zero fan is following me around and is on the ball rather quickly today.... Don't like what I write, confront me coward.
0 Replies
boomerang
1
Reply
Thu 15 Mar, 2012 06:53 am
0 Replies
CalamityJane
1
Reply
Thu 15 Mar, 2012 08:54 am
Invisible Children - the "charity" is a hoax. They're headquartered (no address is given anywhere though) here in San Diego and our news stations tried to find out who is behind it. Unfortunately, the organization received millions of Dollars in donations and one look at their financials tells you that the bulk was spent on "administrative" cost. 1 mill. Dollars alone for traveling expenses in ONE YEAR! Get real!
It is terrible how people manipulate and take advantage of others, but please, research carefully before donating!
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace