There is a very telling article in the NYTimes today... I will quote the epic parts:
QUOTE Mr. Russell, a co-founder of Invisible Children, acknowledges that he has not made the most nuanced or academic of films. The video charts his personal odyssey to tell the world about Mr. Kony’s reign of terror and bring it to an end. He may have boiled down the issues, but that is what it takes to captivate so many people, he contends.
“No one wants a boring documentary on Africa,” he said. “Maybe we have to make it pop, and we have to make it cool.”
“We view ourself as the Pixar of human rights stories,” he added. END QUOTE
just admit your video is not based on facts... seriously. And what is with the pixar comment? Please congratulate yourselves more.
QUOTE “It was unstoppable,” Noelle Jouglet, 29, a spokeswoman for the group, said of the video’s rapid spread. “It went internationally very quick. This is a game-changing event for our company.” END QUOTE
are you serious? This person needs to go back to spokesperson school. How many charities refer to themselves as a "company"??? Also, the last sentence... a game-changing event for OUR COMPANY. Not a game changing event for the people they are theoretically trying to help, but a game changing event for the over privileged white people.
QUOTE Mr. Russell said he was far from finished with his campaign, which he said was an example of just how much young political novices could accomplish. “We are ready to make this bigger,” he said. “We are waiting for Jay-Z” to trumpet the cause.
And as a filmmaker, he said he had already received plaudits from producers in Hollywood. “They are getting in touch with the Academy Awards. They want this to be up for an Oscar.” END QUOTE
wow, once Jay-Z tweets about us, we will be such a big deal! maybe I can sign a book contract also! man I can't wait. I am doing so good at building a brand for myself, even Jaz-Z will recognize me. Also, look at what a good filmmaker I am. Yea, so it's not really based on facts, but who cares? I'm gonna get myself an Oscar and a bunch of other rich privileged people will tell me what a good job I'm doing and how I've helped so many people, even though really I don't do jack ****.
Our DD brought this to our attention about 3 days ago, and there was a very heated argument in the house over this issue.
The real fact is people need to understand that if we go in and remove him there will still be a power vacuum left. Look at Haiti, or Somalia, what did our military intervention do?
Haiti is still corrupt. Somalia has pirates taking control of ships.
Is it right we don't do anything? I don't know, because as we said to our DD this will cost money and may cost lives. Where is the line you draw on that issue? Do you take money away from social aspects in our country, do you raise taxes even more? Let's face it you won't take the defense money because you can't fight them without giving the military a budget. Also remember most Americans are tired of being in any military conflict that has no immediate impact on their life.
Where does it leave us at that point?
Exactly where the world is now. Sorry for it happening, but our country's priority is our country. We are stretched too thin to do anything at this time.
Harsh, but it is true. Like romanigypsyeyes stated OH shiny thing and come next week it will be OH new shiny thing.
This issue went viral very quickly, yesterday I must have had 15 posts from different people asking to share their version of a link to Kony. Today nada.
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Raising a teenager is like nailing Jello to a tree
sg, IIRC, he hasn't been in Uganda for 5+ years. He left when indicted for war crimes. He's been on the run more or less (emphasis on the less) since then.
The assistance in Uganda would be to help those who are still being terrorized by the LRA.
What p***es me off about this whole thing is the bandwagon aspect. Hundreds of thousands of people really are displaced, tortured, murdered, raped, etc and yet we're focused on a viral video. Really, America? OH SOMETHING SHINY!
Also, I think that if we're going to label someone a terrorist then something else needs to accompany that. I don't understand the point of the label without actions.
so in the last 24 hours I have read some more about this... Kony is not even in Uganda. There is a well established (and successful) amnesty program for his soldiers. He is already on the way out. The last thing we need is a bunch of over privileged white people who can't find Uganda on a map to ruin things. Also, if he's not in Uganda, no amount of assistance to Uganda will capture Kony, unless we are hoping Uganda will invade its neighbors.
Also... I heard the goal of the campaign was to get the US to keep doing what it is doing. I don't know if this is accurate. But, obviously that is a good strategy to be an activist... (1) champion a cause that is already happening and no one has plans to change, (2) watch the policy not change, and (3) congratulate yourself on a job well done.
I truly hope I'm not right bd. I would hope we see people as terrorists no matter what their religion or motivation. I hope it doesn't take a radical Christian strike our soil to make people realize that EXTREMISTS are the problem, not the religion.
I don't think killing him would stop the terror. The whole of LRA needs to be taken out.
be careful what you wish for. You should do some research on the other side, they have their own problems with child soldiers, rapes, etc
how many evil warlords are there in Africa? How many should the US go and assassinate?
We already have ground troops there. Obama sent them last year.
Are you advocating more troops? Taking special forces out of other areas where they are needed? What happens when these US forces come across the child soldiers and the child soldiers shoot? I hope we are prepared to read in the newspaper how many children our special forces gunned down in their hunt... is the western audience ready for that?
IMO, this should fall squarely on the African Union.
I was thinking more of a covert CIA operation, or we're getting pretty handy with those drones. Of course with a drone, we'd have to admit it was us. Definitely not ground troops, last thing we need to do is get involved in another major conflict with the crazies. And yeah, we do only seem to get involved when our interests are at stake, but it does seem to be in our interests that this situation not continue. Then again, would killing him stop the terror?
You may be right romani, that this situation isn't getting near as much press because he is not an Islamic terrorist. It is just another evil person terrorizing thousands of others but not seemingly threatening us. Islamic terrorists, since 9/11, certainly scare us more. There was plenty of terrorism in the Islamic world against Arabs and us too before that, but it never made big news until they brought it to our home.
Being the world's policeman doesn't always work for the US.
I am sure that if we dispatched lots of troops over there to find him and accidentally killed some of the young soldiers he has kidnapped and enslaved it might be a PR problem, since we aren't involved in an international "conflict".
It's pretty horrifying what this guy has done and that it's 2012 and he still hasn't been taken out.
Initially I was going to say, you are in quite a mood, landshark!
Then I googled him and wow, I'm with you. I never understand how truly evil people manage to survive so long. Why doesn't anyone with the capability take him out?
I don't know, bd. The US seems to only go after people who could directly affect our economy (Middle East = oil for example) or supposedly only affect our direct security.
Who else is going to go after him? No one around him has the capabilities that isn't benefiting from him. He was indicted for war crimes over 6 years ago and no one seems in too much of a rush to make him pay. It's mind boggling.
As sad as it sounds, I can't help but thinking that if this were an Islamic terrorist rather than a Christian terrorist that we'd be a bit more proactive in catching him. I DO hope I'm wrong, but why are Islamic countries that are terrorizing their people getting so much media time and yet the LRA is arguably worse than many of those regimes and yet you hear virtually nothing? I just do not understand how one can get SO much attention and SO much outrage and the other, virtually none.
Right now, Obama has only sent 100 troops over. It's no where near enough. I don't know why it's not getting the attention that it deserves. Bush labeled him a terrorist. Obama did slightly more, but again not nearly enough.
I've been involved with Invisible Children for ~5 years. I started a IC chapter at my high school when I was a junior. It already had a huge following by then (2007) and yet, years later, still nothing has really been done. I don't know what it's going to take. I just don't. Fwiw- I don't think it's the US's job to be the world's policeman. But if we're going to label him a terrorist then I DO believe it's our job to eliminate that threat. Why aren't we dedicating the troops necessary to take out this terrorist like we did to take out many others? I do not pretend to understand how our military works so I legitimately do not know.
-- Edited by romanigypsyeyes on Wednesday 7th of March 2012 06:26:21 PM
