Kony 2012

[altersteve]

I originally posted this in the "In The News" section, but it was closed. However, I obtained permission from a mod to post it here on the condition that we leave politics out of the discussion.

For those who don't know, Kony 2012 is the name of a campaign by Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization which seeks to draw attention to the crimes committed by Joseph Kony, the leader of an African "Christian" rebel group known as the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA has been accused of atrocities such as murder, kidnapping, rape, sexual enslavement of women and children, and forcing children to fight in war. This half-hour documentary discusses ways in which the world can draw attention to this so that Kony can be brought to justice and the LRA can be dismantled by the local government with the advisory of the U.S. military.

I fully support this, and I, as a member of the Church, do not tolerate abuse of any kind or unjustified war, especially when it comes to children and especially when it is done in God's name. I have been sharing this video to express my support of the campaign, and it seems that over the last few days, it has gone viral and completely exploded throughout the world; it's all over Facebook and Twitter. The Kony 2012 website (where you can pledge your support) actually crashed because of the massive popularity of the video.

What are your thoughts?

Again, please avoid discussion of politics. I have been told that if people start arguing about what the government should do, this thread will be closed.

Edited March 7, 2012 by altersteve

[blueadept]

I actually watched the whole thing. It's definitely a humanitarian piece that's uniting everyone especially our younger generations since it's on twitter and facebook. Atrocities exist. If christians can't find a common cause here, it will be a sad day for all.

[Minos]

Altersteve this is now making the rounds so buyer beware. http://thedailywh.at/2012/03/07/on-kony-2012-2/

Additionally, IC has a low two-star rating in accountability from Charity Navigator because they won’t let their financials be independently audited. That’s not a good thing. In fact, it’s a very bad thing, and should make you immediately pause and reflect on where the money you’re sending them is going.

By IC’s own admission, only 31% of all the funds they receive go toward actually helping anyone [pdf]. The rest go to line the pockets of the three people in charge of the organization, to pay for their travel expenses (over $1 million in the last year alone) and to fund their filmmaking business (also over a million) — which is quite an effective way to make more money, as clearly illustrated by the fact that so many can’t seem to stop forwarding their well-engineered emotional blackmail to everyone they’ve ever known.

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s a photo of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission. These books each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending.