KONY 2012

[TheLazyboy]

[Runty66]

i was waitin for this to come to the forum haha

[Jords]

[TheLazyboy]

haha, yer its gone virta. Im probably like 1% of people who knew what the LRA was, i did my english speech on it last week.

[Surfingant]

Yeah, you lost me at the giving birth part

[Eug]

while the cause is admirable and i partly agree with what needs to be done, it's a case of how they are doing it.

i suggest everyone have a good read of this http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they haven’t had their finances externally audited. But it goes way deeper than that.

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money funds the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces.

[Bommie]

nothing in charity is totally free, there is nearly always someone making money on it

[shortie]

Korny

We had enough probs in this country. Charity starts at home.

[Do$tylz]

while the cause is admirable and i partly agree with what needs to be done, it's a case of how they are doing it.

i suggest everyone have a good read of this http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they haven’t had their finances externally audited. But it goes way deeper than that.

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money funds the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces.

It's funny how there is always 2 sides to the story and for everything that you read, you should not take it on face value and do some research yourself. For anyone caught up in the hype and jumping quickly on the bandwagon, this is the sort of stuff that the animal liberals try and do when they label sea kittens and ocean puppys etc.

Anyone wanna get into the whole Global Warming thing??

[Jords]

[jeff f]

read this before you go sending any money. as invisible children is a scam and kony has not been in uganda for years

Today my feed has EXPLODED with this Kony 2012 stuff. Who is Kony? He’s a murderer that runs an organization in Africa, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which kidnaps kids and kills people. The response to this is that we should fight back against him and help save Uganda from the child kidnapper and family murderer. Here’s how to stop him: all you have to do is just donate a few dollars to… Wait a minute!

How the hell are people smart enough to avoid a Craigslist scam asking to help a Nigerian Prince recover his riches, but someone makes a thirty minute high-production video on YouTube and suddenly: SEND ALL THE MONEY! Immediately a few red flags came up on Kony 2012 and most of them were solved in just a few minutes of Google searching and digging.

Is Joseph Kony Even In Uganda?

Nope. Uganda is in a phase of rebuilding. The Kony 2012 video and Invisible Children make it seem that Joseph Kony is a monster ravaging through Northern Uganda as if he were Godzilla stomping through Tokyo. However, a quick fact check has pointed me to this: On July 8th, 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) named Joseph Kony the number one criminal in the world because of his crimes in Uganda. Shortly after the ICC indicted Kony, he fled Uganda and officially has been in hiding since 2006 (Source). Basically, he has since been hiding in a hole like Saddam Hussein and has approximately as much power as Saddam Hussein had while he was living in his hole, next to none. Hold that thought for later.

In short: I’ve just learned that this company “Invisible Children Inc†is lying. They’re making money off a man and a problem based on our ignorance.

Who Are Invisible Children?

Invisible Children is a company that was created by a few college students who travelled to Uganda and made a movie about it. They didn’t travel there looking for a story, they had to make one up as they went. They can be best described in this quote: “Invisible Children is too late. It has taught us that MTV type media can get university students interested in a world crisis, the problem is it took too much time. Night commuting, outlined as one of the major problems in northern Uganda by the film, is practically non-existent now. Why? Peace is coming to the region.†(Source). I’ve also learned that Invisible Children Inc isn’t even accredited by the Better Business Bureau. Susan G. Komen has come under fire for recent decisions that have been made and because their CEO makes millions, regardless they’re accredited because they’re a legitimate charity that helps millions of women. Invisible Children Inc is not accredited, which tells me they may not be a real charity, and that’s a huge red flag.

A little digging has shown me that they are in fact a charity organization and cannot profit, which is nice, except that the organization’s three filmmakers and co-founders receive a combined pay of $223,922 and in addition, Invisible Children holds the following assets: computer equipment ($751,000), transportation equipment ($288,762), video and camera equipment ($177,769), and furniture and fixtures ($45,361). (Source 1)(Source 2). The first source tells us that Invisible Children is very good with their money: Everything checks out and is accounted for, however, they score very low in their Accountability and Transparency. Basically that means they handle their money well, but they may not be doing what we think they should be doing with their money.

In short: Invisible Children has already lied about Joseph Kony being the Godzilla of Uganda, so my belief is that the executives and filmmakers at Invisible Children continue to make movies that are a few years too late and rely on college students and younger people to fund their travels around the world so that each of them can live a very moderate life averaging a little over $80,000/year. In the process, they’ve accrued a great deal of funds to build their movie making and documentary system and in return, all they have to do is build a few schools and buy clothes for people in Uganda with the extra money so not to make it look like it’s a giant scheme.

Are There Bigger Problems Facing Africa?

Yes, lots. The issue with what seems like a vast majority of people these days is that they assume killing the bad guy will lead to prosperity. Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq have all lost their vicious leaders and we expected them to be fixed by now. Egypt is in a rebuilding phase, Syria is a dump, Afghanistan is still in war, and Iraq is a dump. Saddam Hussein was tried and given capital punishment in 2006: Iraq is still rebuilding from that (hold this thought too). Uganda is in the process of rebuilding which involves needing supplies for schools, education, economy, clean water, heath care and a strong organized government. The people of Uganda need to unite and come together to form one peaceful community, but that is going to take many many years.

In short: Uganda has a lot more than 99 problems and they can’t be solved overnight, and especially not with the arrest and/or assassination of Joseph Kony.

Conclusion:

Still holding those Saddam Hussein thoughts from earlier? Here everything will make sense: Joseph Kony left Uganda and is effectively hiding with no power since 2006 and Uganda has been rebuilding since. This means Joseph Kony is basically Uganda’s Saddam Hussein (Saddam hasn’t been in power in Iraq since his death in 2006). Watch what happens when I translate Uganda to have it make sense to uninformed Americans: Invisible Children is telling us that we should make Joseph Kony Saddam Hussein famous in 2012, because Joseph Kony Saddam Hussein is running rampant in Uganda Iraq and is killing innocent children. Saddam Hussein has been dead since 2006, Joseph Kony has been (pretty much) dead since 2006.

Invisible Children is trying to make money from our ignorance based solely on the fact that they’re a relatively small organization and have avoided major public backlash and scrutiny for lying directly to us by flying just under the media radar. However, with this new Kony 2012 effort: I can almost see the future say with confidence that Invisible Children is going to come under major fire for exaggerating the facts and manipulating people in their course for making money.

Do not trust Invisible Children with your money. It’s pretty easy to see that there’s a large amount of evidence pointing to this company being a money making scheme by a few smart men who have been able to dance around the law and media scrutiny.

Today my feed has EXPLODED with this Kony 2012 stuff. Who is Kony? He’s a murderer that runs an organization in Africa, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which kidnaps kids and kills people. The response to this is that we should fight back against him and help save Uganda from the child kidnapper and family murderer. Here’s how to stop him: all you have to do is just donate a few dollars to… Wait a minute!

How the hell are people smart enough to avoid a Craigslist scam asking to help a Nigerian Prince recover his riches, but someone makes a thirty minute high-production video on YouTube and suddenly: SEND ALL THE MONEY! Immediately a few red flags came up on Kony 2012 and most of them were solved in just a few minutes of Google searching and digging.

Is Joseph Kony Even In Uganda?

Nope. Uganda is in a phase of rebuilding. The Kony 2012 video and Invisible Children make it seem that Joseph Kony is a monster ravaging through Northern Uganda as if he were Godzilla stomping through Tokyo. However, a quick fact check has pointed me to this: On July 8th, 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) named Joseph Kony the number one criminal in the world because of his crimes in Uganda. Shortly after the ICC indicted Kony, he fled Uganda and officially has been in hiding since 2006 (Source). Basically, he has since been hiding in a hole like Saddam Hussein and has approximately as much power as Saddam Hussein had while he was living in his hole, next to none. Hold that thought for later.

In short: I’ve just learned that this company “Invisible Children Inc†is lying. They’re making money off a man and a problem based on our ignorance.

Who Are Invisible Children?

Invisible Children is a company that was created by a few college students who travelled to Uganda and made a movie about it. They didn’t travel there looking for a story, they had to make one up as they went. They can be best described in this quote: “Invisible Children is too late. It has taught us that MTV type media can get university students interested in a world crisis, the problem is it took too much time. Night commuting, outlined as one of the major problems in northern Uganda by the film, is practically non-existent now. Why? Peace is coming to the region.†(Source). I’ve also learned that Invisible Children Inc isn’t even accredited by the Better Business Bureau. Susan G. Komen has come under fire for recent decisions that have been made and because their CEO makes millions, regardless they’re accredited because they’re a legitimate charity that helps millions of women. Invisible Children Inc is not accredited, which tells me they may not be a real charity, and that’s a huge red flag.

A little digging has shown me that they are in fact a charity organization and cannot profit, which is nice, except that the organization’s three filmmakers and co-founders receive a combined pay of $223,922 and in addition, Invisible Children holds the following assets: computer equipment ($751,000), transportation equipment ($288,762), video and camera equipment ($177,769), and furniture and fixtures ($45,361). (Source 1)(Source 2). The first source tells us that Invisible Children is very good with their money: Everything checks out and is accounted for, however, they score very low in their Accountability and Transparency. Basically that means they handle their money well, but they may not be doing what we think they should be doing with their money.

In short: Invisible Children has already lied about Joseph Kony being the Godzilla of Uganda, so my belief is that the executives and filmmakers at Invisible Children continue to make movies that are a few years too late and rely on college students and younger people to fund their travels around the world so that each of them can live a very moderate life averaging a little over $80,000/year. In the process, they’ve accrued a great deal of funds to build their movie making and documentary system and in return, all they have to do is build a few schools and buy clothes for people in Uganda with the extra money so not to make it look like it’s a giant scheme.

Are There Bigger Problems Facing Africa?

Yes, lots. The issue with what seems like a vast majority of people these days is that they assume killing the bad guy will lead to prosperity. Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq have all lost their vicious leaders and we expected them to be fixed by now. Egypt is in a rebuilding phase, Syria is a dump, Afghanistan is still in war, and Iraq is a dump. Saddam Hussein was tried and given capital punishment in 2006: Iraq is still rebuilding from that (hold this thought too). Uganda is in the process of rebuilding which involves needing supplies for schools, education, economy, clean water, heath care and a strong organized government. The people of Uganda need to unite and come together to form one peaceful community, but that is going to take many many years.

In short: Uganda has a lot more than 99 problems and they can’t be solved overnight, and especially not with the arrest and/or assassination of Joseph Kony.

Conclusion:

Still holding those Saddam Hussein thoughts from earlier? Here everything will make sense: Joseph Kony left Uganda and is effectively hiding with no power since 2006 and Uganda has been rebuilding since. This means Joseph Kony is basically Uganda’s Saddam Hussein (Saddam hasn’t been in power in Iraq since his death in 2006). Watch what happens when I translate Uganda to have it make sense to uninformed Americans: Invisible Children is telling us that we should make Joseph Kony Saddam Hussein famous in 2012, because Joseph Kony Saddam Hussein is running rampant in Uganda Iraq and is killing innocent children. Saddam Hussein has been dead since 2006, Joseph Kony has been (pretty much) dead since 2006.

Invisible Children is trying to make money from our ignorance based solely on the fact that they’re a relatively small organization and have avoided major public backlash and scrutiny for lying directly to us by flying just under the media radar. However, with this new Kony 2012 effort: I can almost see the future say with confidence that Invisible Children is going to come under major fire for exaggerating the facts and manipulating people in their course for making money.

Do not trust Invisible Children with your money. It’s pretty easy to see that there’s a large amount of evidence pointing to this company being a money making scheme by a few smart men who have been able to dance around the law and media scrutiny.

[Thirstyman]

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/18504-us-denies-interest-in-uganda-oil.html

[Gary_C]

>http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/18504-us-denies-interest-in-uganda-oil.html

Thanks for that Thirstyman. I found the comments to the stories very interesting. I'll withhold any opinion on those comments, but will note that most organizations / peoples paint US allies with the same broad brush: because we have a higher standard of living and can stamp out people like Kony before they can do much damage, we must have taken advantage of somebody to get there.

[BassTracker]

while the cause is admirable and i partly agree with what needs to be done, it's a case of how they are doing it.

i suggest everyone have a good read of this http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they haven’t had their finances externally audited. But it goes way deeper than that.

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money funds the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces.

Hoe would you do it?

[BassTracker]

I dont have any issues with the amounts of money jeff is talking about (or quoting, sorry Jeff). When you look at the not for profit sector you see it is highly scrutinized because people who help other should do it for nothing at least thats the perception. I work in a not for profit sector because Im passionate about helping people in certain areas that cant do it for them selves. I till need to pay my bills. CEO's of big not for profits always have to make excuses for thier paychecks, even though what they may be bringing to the table can warrent it.

As far as the money they have spent. BIG DEAL, get caught up in the nit picking and politics of it all and it will be explained away and perhaps come to nothing. They have spent less than most artists would promoting thier albums or money spent promoting the lates movies. And this is to stop someone (in uganda or not) who has up to date forced many children to do things none of us would want our children to even know about, thats just the tip of the iceberg. I think as a human being w need to give these things consideration. Perhaps this isnt the best way to get the job done, but its outside the box, its trying and it may in fact succeed. I say if they can achieve this sort of thing, pay em as much as they want, better them than my bank manager.

My question..

Is it better than doing nothing at all?

[Eug]

I agree their hearts are in the right place, but how they are doing it is what makes it sketchy. The point is that this is all old news, I've read about Uganda before yesterday it just topical now because it's gone viral and everyone wants to feel warm and fuzzy about doing something great (and good on them for getting behind a cause).

A workmate (Kenyan) and I were just discussing this just today and she says that peace talks have been occurring in Uganda for quite some time. Kony has been hiding in the Congo for a while now with apparently little influence.

Sometimes it is better than to do nothing, America has it's fingers in too many pies (Iraq? Libya?).

- I think what they are doing is admirable and their hearts are in the right place.

- The money raised could be better used, rather than supporting further military activity.

- If peace talks are already occurring and Kony is in hiding, why aggravate the situation? These countries need to be able to stand on their own.

- This movement is very political, I think they just need to focus on the children and rebuilding (but that's not where the most of the money is going).

- If only we could all be this enthusiastic about getting behind a noble cause, cancer? renewable energy? However we only do so when we know other people are watching.

[ellicat]

I don't know any of them. Not even 1.

It would not bother me if they were all wiped off the planet.

In fact it would please me. It would be a benefit to Earth.

Natural selection is at play, who am I to stand in the way or to interfere ?

Maybe it is because I grew up without the internet and facebook that I do not love and care for every other living soul on this planet, but I cannot understand why people get so uptight about events that, had they not heard about them or chose to ignore them, would not effect their life one iota.

Next question ?

[BassTracker]

Well said Eug.

I agree, being a father, its unimaginable for me to think of children having to go trough this. But there are more than just these kids in Uganda. Its a global problem. I’ve just posted on my facebook page after every person I know has posted Kony 2012. "How patient is your social conscience, will you still be posting and supporting next week, There is a difference between agreeing that something needs to be done and doing something.

Im all for this kind of thing, unless all it achieves is a further level of desensitizing people, when the get excited and then don’t do anything of concrete value..

Anyway here are some more invisible children if people don’t want to jump on the Kony train. Some food for thought and a couple of websites. This stuff come across the desk at work often and I work with a lot of people who have been through it.

/>http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/news/2007/03/most-widespread-forms-of-child-slavery-revealed-by-new-save-the-children-report

/>http://ecpat.net/EI/index.asp

/>http://www.savethechildren.org.au/?gclid=CJby8sD31q4CFYYepAodK2xzcg

[Davo_Dinkum]

when he said 27 minutes i refreshed the page ,i'm not going to watch a 27 min video .

i like porn but if its longer than 2 mins i don't watch it ,and i really really really like porn .

as for charities ,i donated to a few on afo and one's at the shops 10$ here and there .my silver coins in a tin ,its all good.

i don't like the ones that say :its under a dollar or 2 a day ,then want direct debit u 20 ,30 or 40 $ a month.

we have ended up signed up to a cpl of these ,one for kids and one for animals i think .

after a few months i cut them off .

i can't even earn 20$ a hr before tax ,think they will be waiting a while before they get my hard earned $.

[Bommie]

we have children here, in the best country in the world, doing it tough and going through unimaginable experiences from monsters every day, wish there was more on the net about this

[Eug]

Not sure if you boys (and girls) listen to JJJ. The Hack team did a little piece on this the other day, worth a listen as they are normally fairly neutral in their assessment.

/>http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/stories/s3450155.htm

So ask your friends who's still riding the bandwagon? Did you just click or did you actually do something?

Sometimes doing nothing is better than doing something.

Donating money = increased military activity = Kony retaliates and massacres civilians.

Some food for thought...

[Thirstyman]

Triple JJJ arent neutral, they are controlled media just like everything else.

[Eug]

I'm talking more specifically about the Hack program.

[Manni79]

when it went viral in 24/48 hours everyone was clicking this vid Kony - people watched it, some cried some donated, others just watched and killed 30 mins of work time and so on.

72 hours later...... nothing and much of the same even to today - Kony who????

Let's leave this one for Hollwood & Oprah to worry about, they need to put their name against a cause so let's see how they go

Personally I found it quite interesting, not the vid itself but how he he structured his approach, built a following and used social media make his message become viral....

I wanna make a fishing vid that has 30 million hits lol - maybe i should go fishing in Uganda, catch Kony whilst flicking plastics in a local river :whistle:

[Jords]

Kobia 2012? :whistle:

[Manni79]

Kobia 2012? :whistle:

Hahahaha i love it !!

[Eug]

lmao i want in on that!

[Zim man]

whilst it is sad and tragic etc etc, every african country has that sort of thing happening in one way or another and it never gets mentioned, . Some NGO gets 20 minutes of fame, a ton of money and nothing gets back to the people that need help. The people in the rest of africa don`t care about it, they dealing with their own little Koni's in their own countries and just about every african country has their own issue to deal with

i do however like the memes that followed

PS Kobia 2012 sounds much more likley to happen

[Jords]

[JarrydA]

[Manni79]

lmao i want in on that!

We'll make it for the bFO vid comp lol

[fishingnut]

Should really piss this whole thread off

[Davo_Dinkum]

yep

[Swagger]

When I saw the title of this thread I thought it was a new Ps3 game

[Thirstyman]

I was referring to hack as well

[Bommie]

[Bommie]

[Bommie]

[Jords]

Love the 'point to uganda' one!

[woody1]

For those who think kony2012 is just a wank... http://www.news.com.au/world/kony-2012-film-maker-jason-russell-arrested-for-masturbating-in-public/story-e6frfkyi-1226302345885