1. Joseph Kony is very much alive and still committing atrocities. To see an up to date tracker of how many deaths and abductions the LRA has committed check out one of Invisible Children's best programs: http://www.lracrisistracker.com/ . This is in partnership with resolve.
2. Jason Russel was not masturbating. What occurred to him was a result of negative backlash, stress, and nine days of sleep deprivation he received. This should shine a light on what we are capable of doing to another being. This is a good read and a good opportunity to shine a light on mental issues. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archiv...
& http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2012/03...
If in high school we can feel depressed when we get bullied by one person, imagine how this man feels to have been bullied by the entire world?
Also, sleep deprivation is used as torture and can create the same mental state as being drunk.
3. Invisible Children spends their money in three ways, 1)movement, 2)movie, and 3)programs. 33% each. They are all valuable and without such unorthodox structure, you wouldn't know who Joseph Kony is today. Here is a video of their program: .https://vimeo.com/29169391 & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsod6MzW1...
4. The movement is very much alive. Expect a Kony2012 PART 2 video on April 4th. Spread the word & stop at nothing! www.invisiblechildren.com
Source(s):
Supporter of Invisible Children, Human Rights Watch, Resolve, Enough, and Amnesty since 2008. http://www.invisiblechildren.com/critiqu...
5. Simplicity of film
They have made two other major films. There is a reason they made this one simple, their other complex video did not go as viral as this.
Also, their film is not a research video about the 25+ year war. No video is going to give you all the answers to an issue. Please don't be disappointed when it happens. Instead, search. From credible sources to opinions and videos, soak it all in.
It's like when harry potter fans are disappointed the movie doesn't tell the whole story. If it would, that movie would have been about two full days. Image how long the film would be if it talked about an issue that has been going on for 25+ years!
6. Capturing Kony
i hope to clarify that the plan is to capture Kony and put him on a trial. This strategy is one that has been planned for many years after seeing how peace talks have failed, talking to the experts, research, talking to the victims, etc. This not a strategy originally suggested by invisible children but the International Criminal Court (ICC). This strategy is not an after thought. The sources I provided above can give you a more in depth description of why this is a favorable solution. And by this I mean capturing Kony and putting him on trial, not a 2.0 mob lynch. Also, to avoid confusion on what type of military involvement we are talking about, the LRA disarmament and Northern Uganda recovery act did allow for military involvement in central africa. Not military with force, but advisors to help the Ugandan government. Like the film illustrates, if the government doesn't know we care, then they will have the few military advisors return to the U.S. To see this part explained further, the sources above are a good place to start. We all want peaceful ways to resolve issues, but what happens when joseph kony takes advantage of peace talks to arm and plan more horrible attacks? To learn more visit the International Criminal Court, invisible children, human rights watch, and resolve. There is way too much info out there but to narrow your search this is a good place to start: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/14/campa...
Want to know how do u turn the #kony2012 buzz in to concrete, life saving action? peep this, its simple: http://www.theresolve.org/blog/archives/... (via @weareresolved )
And while the Kony2012 campaign doesn't gives you all the facts (which is very hard to do in just a 30 minute video) it did a kinda vague summation of it.
Yeah, true that it only sends 32% towards the children, but the rest are for videos to get the word out about the stories of the people, which as you can see, gets more people to buy merchs, which goes to the cause and the children.
(Here's the video of where the percentages are used- http://vimeo.com/38344284
And if the nothing happens to help the victims, will the problem get any better?
The whole point of this year's campaign is to make Kony FAMOUS. It's intended to make the people aware of him and what's going on with the children. It isn't a scam- it's a non profit organization, and it is taking different courses to accomplish the goal than what other orgs are doing (UNICEF, ect) :)
You can also check this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-1...
The video is real. Kony really did all those things, and more.
Invisible Children, however, is a scam. Less than 30% of the money they get as donations actually goes to Uganda and even then, it goes to the military. $0 of your money is going towards helping the villages or the children who were victims of Kony's assaults. By contrast, The Red Cross uses nearly 80% of its donations for supplies and programs to assist victims of natural disasters.
Kony2012, however, is not a charity. Its purpose is to sell you junk with "Kony2012" stamped on it. All the money they receive goes into their bank account. They are profiting off your emotions and the atrocities in Uganda.
What Invisible Children and Kony2012 won't tell you is that back in 2006, the UN sent a multinational military force into Uganda to capture Kony and dismantle his army. Kony fled, and hasn't been seen since. It's possible he fled into a neighboring country. Many in Uganda think he's been dead for years.
So, both Invisible Children and Kony2012 are supposedly raising money to support the capture of someone no one's seen in 6 years and may already be dead.
Finally there's the badly conceived Cover The Night event. People are told to buy a Kony2012 kit full of posters to put up around their town on the night of April 20. Just a few problems with this. Putting up flyers or posters on peoples' property (including city property) without their permission is called vandalism or littering. If caught, you probably won't get arrested but you'll get a nice fat ticket and be told to take all the stuff back down. Besides, within its first week, Kony2012 generated over 60,000,000 views of Invisible Children's video, and Kony made the news (again.) Of course, the news stories all pointed out the 2006 UN mission, and how in 2008 when Invisible Children first showed up they received intense criticism for the points I mentioned above already. At any rate, how much more exposure/education do you need for a man who was stopped, and may have been dead for over 5 years now?
Also, you might want to google April 20, otherwise known around the world as 420. Yet more proof that this whole thing is nothing but a bad joke to these people...
1- Surely no-one deserves to die?- i think that you're wrong. So you are saying that if someone kills your whole family and you're the only one left, you wouldnt try or kill the person.
2- Barack Obama is backing Kony 2012- America are depending on foreign oil so this is all about the oil and the money. Uganda has got lots of oil so they're negotiating.
I cant see any other mistakes that you made. i agree to what you've said.
That's a pretty low percentage. I wasn't able to find either the answers to your questions, or the average % that makes it to the supposed focus of the chairity, but I found that 40% was the minimum that Charity Navigator considers "efficient".
a bit of both. Incredibly missinformed info and dumbed down to "heart-warm"(I personally believe that this form of trickery is undeserving to be called a Heartwarming plea
More like a poorly thought out heartwarming plea.
Its hard to say... I just feel really bad if it isn't a scam.
A YouTube video was released around three weeks ago bringing to our attention a man called Joseph Kony. Throughout the video I was saddened by the horrific things the video discussed. I empathised with their campaign and could understand where they were coming from. Then I started to research the Kony 2012 campaign. I discovered something very suspicious. Only a small percentage of what they recieved (around 32%), was actually going towards the children. Surely, a non-profit organization would be giving more than a measly 32% towards those children. The first seeds of doubt started to blossom. Whilst watching the video again I realised how pro-war they were. Would they have the Joseph Kony killed, shot dead, or disposed of in some inhumane way. He has done terrible things, but surely no-one deserves to die? What gives us the right to decide whether someone lives or dies. Some of the most influential people of the 21st century were supporting this campaign. So many of these people I am inspired by in my life. I deeply respect them and aspire to do something with my life. They readily support the campaign, I would hate to think that they have a motive besides helping others on their minds. Barack Obama is backing Kony 2012. The US goverment is well-known for interfering where they shouldn't. That made me wonder whether the US goverment hade some ulterior motive for supporting Kony 2012. I sincerely hope that Invisible Children Inc. is legitimate.
I am looking for balanced answers covering all the key points and would like detail on lesser points as well.
Please correct me if I have made any mistakes or missed any other points.
