Kony 2012 - Opinion?
Ok so as you may or may not know, this whole "Kony 2012" campaign as exploded last few days. Why? Well, you can look it up if you don't know actually. I was just curious what your opinions were on the campaign.
I say why the hell not. Invisible Children did a presentation at my school and they've helped a lot of people, so I guess I support their campaign.
Anyhow, food for thought: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things
Anyhow, food for thought: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things
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I recently discovered reddit (I'm slow, I know) and noticed the massive amount of debates around Kony 2012. From what I gathered, they're lying about the current state of events, because "Kony abducts and brainwashes children into murder machines!" sells much better than whatever they're trying to do. Secondly, Invisible Children's financial report shows that only a very small percentage of the charity's money goes to victims, all the rest is going to... I don't know, nobody cares apparently.
I haven't done any investigating myself. The first part (lying about the current situation) seems to be true, but that doesn't mean the charity might not be helping Uganda recover, or do other good things with the money. That doesn't justify lying [even if your goal is a charitable one, contributers have the right to choose what charities they support based on the work they do], but it certainly doesn't justify all the outcry to stop funding IC and to send the volunteers of the charity to jail.
Secondly, the financial report argument is tricky. Is it odd that only a small percentage of the money goes to the victims? I don't know. It depends on the kind of work the organization is doing. Personally, I don't think pumping money into the devestated villages of Uganda is going to do much good, so it might make perfect sense that the money flow doesn't go there. Since nobody cared enough to check where the money DOES go, it's impossible to make any conclusion.
In short: Social Media + Ignorance + Self-proclaimed critics = shitstorm. It makes me sad to see how quickly people draw conclusions from meaningless pieces of evidence, and use that to completely bomb a charity that might be doing very good work.
I haven't done any investigating myself. The first part (lying about the current situation) seems to be true, but that doesn't mean the charity might not be helping Uganda recover, or do other good things with the money. That doesn't justify lying [even if your goal is a charitable one, contributers have the right to choose what charities they support based on the work they do], but it certainly doesn't justify all the outcry to stop funding IC and to send the volunteers of the charity to jail.
Secondly, the financial report argument is tricky. Is it odd that only a small percentage of the money goes to the victims? I don't know. It depends on the kind of work the organization is doing. Personally, I don't think pumping money into the devestated villages of Uganda is going to do much good, so it might make perfect sense that the money flow doesn't go there. Since nobody cared enough to check where the money DOES go, it's impossible to make any conclusion.
In short: Social Media + Ignorance + Self-proclaimed critics = shitstorm. It makes me sad to see how quickly people draw conclusions from meaningless pieces of evidence, and use that to completely bomb a charity that might be doing very good work.
After a quick look at their financial statement:
20% spent on paying their own people (Management + awareness teams).
8% is spent on Media & Film creation.
Those numbers don't seem to be too shocking. The only thing that could at first be perceived as "odd" is the fact that they have $5mil "profit" (unspent income). This, however, seems to be due to the strong increase in income (~$5mil growth from 2010), while their expenses stay roughly the same. I think it makes sense; a charity needs money BEFORE it can do anything. It would be very risky to expand their efforts without backup funds. I imagine they'll do a lot of growing in 2012 (which probably resulted in the awareness we see now on the social media).
20% spent on paying their own people (Management + awareness teams).
8% is spent on Media & Film creation.
Those numbers don't seem to be too shocking. The only thing that could at first be perceived as "odd" is the fact that they have $5mil "profit" (unspent income). This, however, seems to be due to the strong increase in income (~$5mil growth from 2010), while their expenses stay roughly the same. I think it makes sense; a charity needs money BEFORE it can do anything. It would be very risky to expand their efforts without backup funds. I imagine they'll do a lot of growing in 2012 (which probably resulted in the awareness we see now on the social media).
32% goes to the cause.
As for the "charity" (it's actually a supposedly-not-for-profit organisation, not a charity), they support the SPLA and the Ugandan army, both of whom are accused of the same atrocities and crimes against humanity as the LRA.
As for the "charity" (it's actually a supposedly-not-for-profit organisation, not a charity), they support the SPLA and the Ugandan army, both of whom are accused of the same atrocities and crimes against humanity as the LRA.
My opinion is that I don't care. Just another example of the US getting involved in everyone else's problems. According to what I found the nation is fighting the guy and beating him in recent months, which if they announced that on their charity it would negate them getting money. Opinion is they need to quit using issues around the world to milk money to line their pockets with the lies of helping people in another country. I mean, what is a bunch of business geeks going to do for a country at war thousands of miles away? They are like the friends you had that when you got into fights were, "I have your back! I'm just going to hide in this toilet stall while you take care of the problem! I have your back though!".
closed account (3hM2Nwbp)
| money to line their pockets |
I also wonder where all this money is going - I'm certainly not getting any of it. Come to think of it, I don't know of anyone locally that's doing better than just scraping by here in the states. Instead of "the US", it should be "the US government and/or [Unknown](?)". In the past 12 years I have never voted for a president. I simply voted against the one that seemed like the worst candidate.
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| they're lying about the current state of events, because "Kony abducts and brainwashes children into murder machines!" sells much better than whatever they're trying to do. |
They're not lying about anything, and they inform people about how Kony is out of Uganda at this point. And what's so wrong with the quote you made up for them? Is being smart and trying to be successful stupid to you? I don't see why anyone should have anything against them, it's not like they're doing any harm.
@ascii,
As I said earlier, they support the SPLA and Ugandan army who are accused of the same crimes as Kony's LRA.
As I said earlier, they support the SPLA and Ugandan army who are accused of the same crimes as Kony's LRA.
| BHXSpecter wrote: |
|---|
| Just another example of the US getting involved in everyone else's problems. |
Before you tack this onto the list of crap my country does, get your facts straight. This isn't a project by the US Government, it's something some private organization is doing.
As for my opinion of the whole matter, while they didn't explicitly lie in the video (as far as I could tell) they certainly didn't go out of their way to give you all the facts. And in response to all the hype this is getting around the various social sites on the web, Kony for President 2012.
Maybe you should check the factuality of your own information before berating someone else for not having their facts straight when they are actually correct.
The US government has been involved in stopping Kony; IIRC they've tried to assassinate him several times. They consider the LRA a terrorist organisation, and there is even an act of Congress about disarming the LRA.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Resistance_Army#United_States_congressional_action
The US government has been involved in stopping Kony; IIRC they've tried to assassinate him several times. They consider the LRA a terrorist organisation, and there is even an act of Congress about disarming the LRA.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Resistance_Army#United_States_congressional_action
| chrisname wrote: |
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| IIRC they've tried to assassinate him several times. |
When has the U.S. ever attempted to assassinate him? Yes, we support the Ugandan army in their effort to kill him, but no U.S. troops were directly involved in the operation. They simply provided training, money and supplies.
Direct quote from that article:
| chrisnamesArticle wrote: |
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| Any high expectations in Uganda for the new U.S. soldiers, meanwhile, where dashed when information trickled out of Washington that the troops would probably stay in Kampala and give advice, rather than go into combat. |
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and I was referring to the cause of all the recent hype, a video put out by the non profit organization "invisible children"
| Before you tack this onto the list of crap my country does, get your facts straight. This isn't a project by the US Government, it's something some private organization is doing. |
I live in Bloomington, Indiana so it is my country too (actually you want to get into that it is the Native American Indian's country who lived here when he started taking it from them, we are all just immigrants here). Though you should look into the facts a little more. The organization is doing it, but they are also petitioning for the US to send troops over and get involved and this is out of the mouth of the guys that started it. They did an interview on CNN I think it was where he said they want the US government to get involved and stop Kony and his atrocities.
First, I didn't mean to come off so abrasive so I'm sorry for that.
But, just because they are petitioning the government to get involved doesn't mean it's the US doing this.
Anyways, the head of this organization is a tremendous tool as far as I can tell. :\
But, just because they are petitioning the government to get involved doesn't mean it's the US doing this.
Anyways, the head of this organization is a tremendous tool as far as I can tell. :\
Yeah, he seems like he should have been partners in Facebook's creation. The US may end up involved on their own accord anyways. Kony is the sort of guy that the US wants to stop from getting power, so if he isn't taken care of by his own people then we may end up involved with capturing him or killing him. President Obama during one of his addresses even basically said we were the world police because the people of other countries deserved to have the same freedoms and not be controlled by a tyrannical dictator. Makes me wonder if they have a list of guys they want to take out.
Also, no reason to apologize, everyone has their own views and are passionate about them. The great part of our country is that we are entitled to free speech and are allowed to have our point of view and voice it.
Also, no reason to apologize, everyone has their own views and are passionate about them. The great part of our country is that we are entitled to free speech and are allowed to have our point of view and voice it.
@ModShop,
Direct quote form the same article:
Also I did say "they", not "the US". I didn't specifically mean the US soldiers; "they" was supposed to mean anyone on the US government's behalf.
Direct quote form the same article:
| First, in October, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that he would be sending "combat-equipped troops" on a kill-or-capture mission to take out Kony. |
Also I did say "they", not "the US". I didn't specifically mean the US soldiers; "they" was supposed to mean anyone on the US government's behalf.
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