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Joseph Kony & the Lord's Resistance Army
So the latest thing the Internet is getting riled up about is Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army.
So, obviously, Kony's a pretty shitty person, and should be stopped. I think there's still some room for discussion here, though. Is there hope? Can raising awareness like this have an impact?
So, obviously, Kony's a pretty shitty person, and should be stopped. I think there's still some room for discussion here, though. Is there hope? Can raising awareness like this have an impact?
Post edited by trogdor9 on
Comments
I've also heard some strong rumors that Kony is already dead, which would make this even more suspect. If you want my cynical bastard opinion, then I'd say that the CEOs of this one issue charity have heard the very same things, and are taking a nice big rush to milk as much as they can before the gravy train makes it's final stop, and they're just hoping nobody notices that the LRA haven't been active for more than five years, or the rumors of Kony's death.
Also, Invisible children is a SUPER shitty charity. They've got some very, very dodgy finances, their CEOs are paid exorbidant amounts of money - For example, just the personal paycheck for the bloke who made that film, who is also one of the CEOs, is one percent of the charity's total income, and his two partners are not far behind on that, not including travel and business reimbursements, along with other assorted expenditures, such as Computer equipment(over seven hundred thousand dollars), Vehicles(seperate from transport costs or mantinence, over 200 thousand), over a hundred grand of camera equipment, and forty grand of furniture. There are also allegations of fraud, and the fact that they not only use some of their cash to lobby for direct millitary intervention in the situation - Iraq style - they also give cash directly to the Ugandan millitary, rather than contributing too much directly to aid.
EDIT - I called up an old mate who knows more about these situations than I do. He confirmed that the LRA is all but dead, and whatever is left is little more than a rapidly cooling corpse of the organization that came before. He also noted he's hear the same rumors about Kony being dead, but didn't have much to say on the topic, other than the fact that while he thinks the rumors have a good chance of being true, he won't confirm or deny it till he knows for sure.
However, think about it when you see those large groups of teens and young adults wearing the shirts, with giant banners in various parts of the country and the fact that they show 600k fans on facebook. The concern is that, not enough people know and that congress was uninformed, but within the documentary, they kind of showed they already succeeded the battle. It just wasn't a major news story until now.
But man, it's put youtube in a fervor. Even with small videos, everyone's asking for support or reactions of Kony 2012.
Thanks for focusing on the real problems, internet!
If people like us ran the show, shit like that would be commonplace.
Probably whichever one gives me an epic adventure.
The words Lead Balloon spring to mind