March 8, 2012

How To: Make Joseph Kony Famous


There are two reasons why I've avoided talking about this subject:
1) I lacked the facts I wished to possess.
2) I despise becoming political.
It usually leads to some sort of stress headache on my end.
But, for the sake of those curious about what I think - me being the all-knowing authority I am - I'll risk a brain aneurysm and spill my private thoughts.
You're welcome.

Let me start by saying no one is on the opposing side of this issue. No one wants those children to be forced into war.
Everyone wants to see them liberated.
Well, everyone besides Mr Kony and his associates.
It's such a basic debate (in the worst way possible).
People picking on each other because they don't care much
or because people are spreading information by any means possible:
posting/liking statuses and tweets, reblogging pictures and donation links.
As I ended my post yesterday, let people do what they want.
You can't control what they do,
so stop bickering over it

Speaking of donations,
Invisible Children, the group behind the 30 minute film,
have caught heat for using their money in a way people didn't expect.
Supposedly they used most of this charity towards
paying their workers, production cost, and travel arrangements.
The whole list of grievances with the group can be found here.
I would expect this though.
They're a non-profit whose main propose
was to raise awareness, if I'm not mistaken.
It's not as if they're not giving any money out to the Ugandan children that need it.
Besides, people are not going to work for free.
It'd be nice, but just because people are putting in all their time for a cause,
it doesn't mean they don't have bills to pay and mouths to feed.
I also wanted to wait to post this to allow Invisible Children the opportunity to rebut
which they have. Link found here.
Again, I'm not going to regurgitate everything they've said
but I may reference it throughout this post.

Next, there are those saying they've known about Kony for years.
You know, the hipster peace makers. Couldn't have a travesty without them.
It would seem we've been trying to capture Kony for years now.
He's been avoiding negotiations and such, the whole nine.
I've also been hearing/reading that Uganda might not be so innocent in this whole ordeal.
Not as if they're helping Kony, but they aren't stopping him either.
I would go on, but I sadly don't have all the facts on this aspect.
Any added information you have would be greatly appreciated.

Lastly, I want to bring up a point I overheard this week.
Allow me to direct your attention to this exerpt from Invisible Children's rebuttal:
This is because regional governments are often not adequately committed to the task, but also because they lack some of the specific capabilities that would help them do so. The KONY 2012 campaign is calling for U.S. leadership to address both problems.
My question: is the U.S. the only nation directly being asked to help, and if so why?
Are we the only superpower nation in the world?
Yes, we're the greatest country ever, we can do it all, hoo-rah!
But serious, it seems that over the years we're the ones everyone turns to for help.
We aren't even the real big brother here.
Britain, Spain, France, Portugual, etc has been around much longer.
China's population beats ours by a smooth million.
Looking at a recent list of population, though, we are ranked third.
Regardless, we have our resources being drained from other angles.
While this would be a very important battle to fight, we can't fight them all.
I'd love to finish a war before we begin our next at the very least.

In all honesty, I'm afraid that our national debt
could land us in a worse state.
If I recall correctly, we've already lost our coveted AAA credit rating.
To bring up a point another person made,
we have to take care of home before anything else.
If we end up in a wreck, how can we help anyone else?

I feel myself beginning to hyperventilate, so I think I should stop here.
Look how passionate you've made me get.
I didn't realize I had it in me.

So, to wrap it up, what do I think of the whole Stop Kony movement?
Well... I'm talking about it, aren't I?
But am I going to donate?
No. My house isn't in order.
However, I will continue to spread the word
through intelligent and thought provoking conversation
in hopes of devising a solution that may actually be effective .
Word

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