Anyone know anything about this?
Someone invited me to it on Facebook. A link to a video. id not watch it. They too lazy to not even give a brief description does not deserve my awareness.
http://original.antiwar.com/bphillips/2011/10/18/americans-should-worry-about-obama-not-uganda/
The above link from antiwar gives a bit of backstory about Kony and Obomba's deployment of 100 troops to "“help” and “advise” in capturing Joseph Kony" back in Oct '11 (shades of Vietnam) The cynic in me feels that the timing of the recent outcry against him shouldn't be any surprise. Kony's crimes have been known and documented for quite sometime, so why now are the humanitarians so eager to sharpen their guillotines? This image currently trending on reddit is as good a guess as any:
http://i.imgur.com/K3mgn.jpg
As my father said many years ago "Africa is the conscience of the world". Few things stir up the usually apathetic and sanctimonious Western public more than images of death, suffering and misery from Sub-Saharian Africa: dolphins being killed by Japanese whalers and baby seals clubbed by heartless Canadians are the only things beating them.
Regardless of who had the idea, they hit the proverbial jackpot. If the video is original Youtube will be paying them money and "going viral" has many other benefits (for example increased awareness resulting in increased contributions).
Personally I am not sold on the idea this is some obscure government conspirancy to build up consent for an intervention in Africa: France has been maintaing troops in various countries (Chad, Djibouti etc) and supplying weapons to various dictators and strongmen friends of democracy for decades now, often acting as a US proxy. After 9/11 the Pan-Sahel Initiative and its extensions tried to bring as many African countries as possible into the US orbit by providing them with weapons, training and hard cash. And we all know what they have been doing in Somalia for years now without even the pretension of asking our permission.
Of course there's the issue of Sudan but if the main driver was to deny China the oil (on which Chevron originally held rights but sold them back to the government in Khartoum in the '90s) it failed miserably: PetroChina and SinoPec hold the largest licenses well ahead of the two nearest Western competitors (Talisman of Canada and OMV of Austria) and are spending huge sums of money to improve infrastructures, for example by strengthening the pipeline going from the oilfields to Port Sudan. Splitting the country in half didn't hamper their activities: both countries desperately need cash and the Chinese have plenty of it.
Leaving aside full-blown government intervention the saga of Western involvement in Africa is a sorry one. NGO's often bicker among themselves about how to "aid" the locals and I've heard more than a passing rumor about missionaries creating even more confusion and unrest than already exists. In some areas villages have started to post sentinels to warn of the arrival of the "white trucks", the ubiquitous Toyota Land Cruisers favored by NGO's, which they see as harbingers of even more mayhem.
Yes, they really need more help.
Another chance for the liberal morons to demonstrate that they care and flash their rightesnousses to the world. The documentary isn't even about Kony, it is all about what they must do. Wear bracelets and such. Brendan O'Neil does a great job of constantly exposing this motive of the liberals, his latest such piece among many: link Choice quotes from the piece: "The liberal commentariat is on the hunt for a new mission, for another messy civil war that it can squeeze into a simplistic moral framework, for a new foreign field that it can transform into a soapbox from which to declare its unwavering commitment to the combat of "evil"." "The real motivation behind the use of the historically illiterate "new Bosnia" tag is not accurate assessment of what is unfolding in Syria, but rather to cohere the currently crusade-less commentariat around a new foreign mission. They are desperate for a repeat of the Bosnia buzz of the early 1990s, when everyone from playwrights to pop stars to journalists-cum-warriors-against-the-Nazi-Serbs descended on Sarajevo to shed tears, swig whiskey, and pose for photos in front of tanks. It is really the self-serving moralising of the Bosnia period that is being reproduced;" "In short, what these Bosniaheads really see in Syria is an opportunity to repeat the grandstanding they indulged in during the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s, to demonstrate once more their own goodness by calling for "the world" to intervene on the side of "good" against "evil". They want to reduce Syria to a simple litmus test of the resolve and decency of Our Generation, just as they did the war in Bosnia." They hunger for a joint mission. Ergo the bracelets and the posters and that crap. Tibet, Bosnia, Kosovo, Darfur, Libya, Syria, Uganda... They don't care which, just give them one!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/mar/07/kony-2012-video-viral-invisible-children
Good article, as well.
I was also a bit disgusted after I watched the vid. Not only is war actually peace, it's now hip.
The Kony Kollection
At the beginning of the documentary we see Jason Russell tell a crowd of young people that they must STAND AGAINST WAR. By the end of the documentary, he advocates MILITARY INTERVENTION*. Perhaps we should think about this a little more deeply.
Charity Review:
“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 for an issue which arguably needs action and aid, not awareness, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they lack an external audit committee. But it goes way deeper than that.”
Commentary:
Related Sources:
The Solution?
**Image: The Founders of Invisible Children posing with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). Who themselves have used child-soldiers.
Lastly, instead of Invisible Children and its “Kony 2012” Campaign, try these Charities.
Kony Propaganda | by XOmniverse
I have not watched the video, but it went viral really quick on social networking sites, and I'm rather suspicious about it all. My girlfriend showed me some stuff about how it's propaganda or some false-flag type thing, something created by those looking for a distraction. I never saw people this involved when I was doing GuluWalk to raise money for Uganda and the actual in depth and graphic documentaries on child warfare, so how did this video get so popular?
Joseph Kony is not in Uganda (and Other Complicated Things) and Joseph Kony 2012: Growing Outrage in Uganda over Film.
I made a quick reply to this Kony 2012 video, trying to point people towards Micro-loan sites like Kiva.org.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNF5IOohVHI
@CapitalistDog, that's a good video response. I've shared it. I've also just lent a Kenyan guy some money to buy farm inputs.
We should use this "Kony mania" as an opportunity to educate people about what really generates peace and prosperity, and how asking our governments to send "aid", weapons and "advisors" to assist the Ugandan government is not the best thing we can do to help out those Ugandan kids.
Here's Stefan Molyneux on this. The boot on the neck analogy is pretty powerful.
Government Explained 2: The Special Piece of Paper
Law without Government
For some reason, without doing much research, the micro-loan websites stimulate a great energy in me. It appears that you're directly helping people.
Rap News delivers the goods (and so quickly!)...
i still didnt understand what this Kony 2012 is.
Are they non governmental institution?
If I had a cake and ate it, it can be concluded that I do not have it anymore. HHH
As I thought O'Neil produces the single best commentary on the matter: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3886358.html
Were are the solutions to the matter?
Because so far I take it I'm the only person on the web to put up anything close to it..
Solutions to what?...the horrors of African warlords, or this ridiculous campaign and Western culture's sickening obsession with awareness?
Perhaps these people might listen to the Ugandans themselves? Nah. What would Ugandans featured in the film know about the suffering of Ugandans featured in the film?
[...] one woman "made the comparison of selling Osama Bin Laden paraphernalia post 9/11 – likely to be highly offensive to many Americans, however well-intentioned the campaign behind it."
Kakugo:Personally I am not sold on the idea this is some obscure government conspirancy to build up consent for an intervention in Africa: France has been maintaing troops in various countries (Chad, Djibouti etc) and supplying weapons to various dictators and strongmen friends of democracy for decades now, often acting as a US proxy. After 9/11 the Pan-Sahel Initiative and its extensions tried to bring as many African countries as possible into the US orbit by providing them with weapons, training and hard cash. And we all know what they have been doing in Somalia for years now without even the pretension of asking our permission. Of course there's the issue of Sudan but if the main driver was to deny China the oil (on which Chevron originally held rights but sold them back to the government in Khartoum in the '90s) it failed miserably: PetroChina and SinoPec hold the largest licenses well ahead of the two nearest Western competitors (Talisman of Canada and OMV of Austria) and are spending huge sums of money to improve infrastructures, for example by strengthening the pipeline going from the oilfields to Port Sudan. Splitting the country in half didn't hamper their activities: both countries desperately need cash and the Chinese have plenty of it.
Apparently South Sudan and Uganda are sitting on piles of fossil fuels (oil and natural gas). I, for one, think the people who made this video about Kony are being viewed as "useful idiots" by the people who are hoping to laugh all the way to the proverbial bank.
Oh, and in answer to why this particular video has gone viral: celebrity endorsements. That should tell you everything.
The keyboard is mightier than the gun.
Non parit potestas ipsius auctoritatem.
Voluntaryism Forum
Now we're talkin....
(funny you should use the word "creepy")...
NBCSanDiego.com is reporting that Jason Russell, one of the co-founders of Invisible Children, makers of last week's viral Kony 2012 video, was detained in Pacific Beach, Calif., on Thursday, after he was found masturbating in public, vandalizing cars and possibly under the influence of something, according to Lt. Andra Brown, who said Russell was acting very strange.
I just heard about this on Facebook. I guess he wasn't wasn't invisible.
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process. Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!" Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."
Wow. I may have my tinfoil hat on here, but something about this whole thing just doesn't sit right with me.
So the ideators were after some quick cash by exploiting the public's gullibility (or guilt or whatever)? I wasn't too far off the mark.
But I do agree with you Autolykos. Celebrity endorsement or not there's something very strange with the whole affair.
A giant shocker: US sends troops to Uganda to combat LRA. 6 months later: lazy thinkers proclaim 'it is all about oil'. Gee thank god there is oil (and other natural resources) in the world. Otherwise gazillions of democrats, and apparently some libertarians, wouldn't have an instant, ready-made explanation for every war and troop deployment out there, but would, if they wished to know what they were about, actually have to invest time and effort into studying them and comprehend concepts that are beyond the level of 6 year olds. Thank god the oil keeps it simple! Here's a suggestion, if you only found out about the Uganda deployment from a youtube video, months after it had begun, then being self-satisfied you have it all cleverly figured out (as the image maker is) just makes you look stupid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8tzVzjEUD6k
[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8tzVzjEUD6k:]
Marko, why you gotta be a buzz kill? Can't we have fun with pictures people reblog on Tumblr?
Just caught this one from LRC...
I realize this is kind of old news now, but I thought this one from the Daily Bell was a nice overview, and deserved to be included in the comprehensive collection of resources this thread has become...
We commented on this in this past week, in "Kony 2012 Debunking Shows How Far Alternative Media Has Come." But we wrote that article before the spectacular implosion of the "artistic creator" of the video, who apparently had a nervous breakdown due to the reception of the video and was sent to a psychiatric facility.
I am not one to rejoice at this sort of thing. In fact, it is a personal and familial tragedy for the person involved, obviously. On the other hand, the video itself was fairly despicable, in my view, and obviously and evidently the intention was to create a power elite meme.
This is not idle speculation. Alternative media reports may have firmly fixed the producers of the video, "Invisible Children," within the larger framework of the State Department and its infamous AYM sponsorship.
The "youth movements" that the power elite has assiduously cultivated over the past decade or more are responsible for destabilizing numerous countries around the world now.
The Invisible Children non-profit seems to me to be firmly entrenched within this Intel paradigm. No doubt, if their funding stream is analyzed closely it will emerge that various strands of support lead back to elite foundations and personalities.
What was the meme? It was to create a groundswell of support for a kind of neo-colonialist attack on Africa. Some of what is intended has been clearly elucidated now by alternative media and some has not. [...]
I should have known this existed, but I hadn't even heard...apparently there's footage of the filmmaker going crazy...
http://www.tmz.com/2012/03/16/jason-russell-video-naked-meltdown-kony/