Who is Joseph Kony?

kara811 · March 2012

This has been popping up in my FB newsfeed all day and I finally sat down and tried to figure out what it's all about. Please take the time to watch it and share it to the world. This is very important and eye-opening. Thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

divinemsbee · March 2012

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/07/stop-kony-yes-but-dont-stop-asking-questions/

This is an interesting article on the same.

Zimsgirl · March 2012

Possibly flame worthy:

I'm already annoyed with all the event invites I'm getting on FB. The organization is really corrupt and I just won't support that. I don't think we should get involved in other country's civil wars/conflicts unless it affects us (like Somalia, wasn't neccessary). I know not everyone will agree with me but that's just my 2 cents and here is an interesting article if you're wondering about the org being corrupt

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/life/kony-2012-why-im-opposed-to-the-campaign/

Sammy0709 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_who-is-joseph-kony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:13Discussion:e70e724f-68f0-45de-b388-be0cdfcea679Post:51ee691f-d6f9-48ac-a73c-d1ee49426092">Re: Who is Joseph Kony?</a>:
[QUOTE]Possibly flame worthy: I'm already annoyed with all the event invites I'm getting on FB. The organization is really corrupt and I just won't support that. I don't think we should get involved in other country's civil wars/conflicts unless it affects us (like Somalia, wasn't neccessary). I know not everyone will agree with me but that's just my 2 cents and here is an interesting article if you're wondering about the org being corrupt <a href="http://www.sabotagetimes.com/life/kony-2012-why-im-opposed-to-the-campaign/" rel="nofollow">http://www.sabotagetimes.com/life/kony-2012-why-im-opposed-to-the-campaign/</a>
Posted by Zimsgirl[/QUOTE]

Here's an interesting book I think that you should read before making those judgements "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier". I'm not saying that you should support that particular organization. There are several much more worthy organizations that are supporting the cause against Joseph Kony. Normally I don't even support getting America involved with other people's sh!t but forcing young children in to war is not something I can condone or agree with. It's insanity that needs to be dealt with.

The big thing that you don't realize is that there are ways this DOES affect us and, even if it is because of a "corrupt" organization, I am glad it is finally getting the attention that it deserves.

Zimsgirl · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_who-is-joseph-kony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:13Discussion:e70e724f-68f0-45de-b388-be0cdfcea679Post:c85a996d-b4e1-4bed-9a60-9ad477dfe5c1">Re: Who is Joseph Kony?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Who is Joseph Kony? : Here's an interesting book I think that you should read before making those judgements "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier". I'm not saying that you should support that particular organization. There are several much more worthy organizations that are supporting the cause against Joseph Kony. Normally I don't even support getting America involved with other people's sh!t but forcing young children in to war is not something I can condone or agree with. It's insanity that needs to be dealt with. The big thing that you don't realize is that there are ways this DOES affect us and, even if it is because of a "corrupt" organization, I am glad it is finally getting the attention that it deserves.
Posted by Sammy0709[/QUOTE]
I agree it's awful but this is not the best organization to support. It's awful kids are being used as soldiers but I don't think the tactics being used are going to work completely if that makes sense

Sammy0709 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_who-is-joseph-kony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:13Discussion:e70e724f-68f0-45de-b388-be0cdfcea679Post:2b77818d-d31c-4874-831c-c15e132516a9">Re: Who is Joseph Kony?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Who is Joseph Kony? : I agree it's awful but this is not the best organization to support. It's awful kids are being used as soldiers but I don't think the tactics being used are going to work completely if that makes sense
Posted by Zimsgirl[/QUOTE]

Well, it seems like you would prefer we ignore it and that hasn't been working for the past 26 years.

ETA: Also understand that I have been mulling on this issue since 2009 when I was a mentor to freshman students and I had to read the book and learn about this issue.

Zimsgirl · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_who-is-joseph-kony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:13Discussion:e70e724f-68f0-45de-b388-be0cdfcea679Post:179afc8a-f654-4c2b-9051-e2d605e9e06a">Re: Who is Joseph Kony?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Who is Joseph Kony? : Well, it seems like you would prefer we ignore it and that hasn't been working for the past 26 years.
Posted by Sammy0709[/QUOTE]
I probably should've just kept my mouth shut here. I know what's been going on hasn't been working but I've gotten FB invites to things in small towns and they're hanging up posters and whatnot. I don't see stuff like that working.

Sammy0709 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_who-is-joseph-kony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:13Discussion:e70e724f-68f0-45de-b388-be0cdfcea679Post:b6d13927-e06b-443a-b425-cfd56d7541d6">Re: Who is Joseph Kony?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Who is Joseph Kony? : I probably should've just kept my mouth shut here. I know what's been going on hasn't been working but I've gotten FB invites to things in small towns and they're hanging up posters and whatnot. I don't see stuff like that working.
Posted by Zimsgirl[/QUOTE]

It may not be a direct fix but the point is to draw attention to the issue and stop ignoring it.

divinemsbee · March 2012

My deal with it is this: I'm glad people are talking. I do believe in interventionist policies because with the way the world is now, those kind of isolationst policies just don't work any more. We can't say that, for example, Egypt or Syria is on the other side of the world and what happens to their government doesn't change what happens to us. Because it does affect us. The global web is getting smaller and smaller, and to deny that puts our country at risk in many ways.

While I didn't know who Kony was, I do know a little (little) about Uganda and the Sudan and the Congo from books and the news. I also know, from a little bit of research today, that Kony is being tried for War Crimes and has had his assets seized.

My thing about this charitable organization is that they haven't ever been audited by an outside company, and that's a little worriesome. They also support direct military intervention, which would come through the government army of Uganda, not exactly the least corrupt way to go about it. They also have given money to the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, which is well known to use rape as a weapon of war.

Zimsgirl · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_who-is-joseph-kony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:13Discussion:e70e724f-68f0-45de-b388-be0cdfcea679Post:06c0f971-82da-4e41-82ee-287e9adbf84a">Re: Who is Joseph Kony?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Who is Joseph Kony? : It may not be a direct fix but the point is to draw attention to the issue and stop ignoring it.
Posted by Sammy0709[/QUOTE]
Yeah that makes sense. I'll be honest I had no clue what was going on until today.

Sammy0709 · March 2012

I agree with DMB that there are definitely some reasons I wouldn't support a particular organization but I think the attention the issue is getting is well deserved.

LetsHikeToday · March 2012

Sammy- I was JUST going to post that book. What a great, eye opening read. I read it years ago and should read it again. Honestly, I'm all for Facebook opening eyes on subjects around the world that no one knows about. If you hadn't been invited to those things, lately, you still would have no idea this was going on. I'm more than willing to press will not attend of Facebook if it can teach at least one person, one thing.

kyrgyzstan · March 2012

Oh really Katelyn? Invisible Children is corrupt? Please tell me all about the inside info you have on the subject. I'm dead serious, I'd love to know.

kara811 · March 2012

First, I made this thread to spread the awareness. It's shocking how so much of the world don't really know these issues.

If the statuses and invites are annoying, I would just stay away and not open them. I'm glad that people are at least starting to find out about this and make an opinion for themselves. I shared it on FB and so glad that I got others to watch it. That's all I could really ask for, to spread the awareness, although I hope that this movement becomes successful.

CAB1217 · March 2012

I had no idea about any of this until everyone started posting about it on FB. Glad it brought awareness. Not sure about any corruption goin on with the people who made this, but my interest has been sparked by the book Sammy and Hike have mentioned. Thanks for spreading the word, ladies!

crownsuperstar · March 2012

Sammy our freshmen had to read that book and we had a speaker come to the university that was a former boy solider. It was heart breaking to listen to him.

Sammy0709 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_who-is-joseph-kony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:13Discussion:e70e724f-68f0-45de-b388-be0cdfcea679Post:97c85b75-fc14-423a-aa47-2c73005309db">Re: Who is Joseph Kony?</a>:
[QUOTE]Sammy our freshmen had to read that book and we had a speaker come to the university that was a former boy solider. It was heart breaking to listen to him.
Posted by crownsuperstar[/QUOTE]

We had one too. It broke my heart. I don't know if I cried more reading the book or watching that guy speak. Ugh.

amh04 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_who-is-joseph-kony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:13Discussion:e70e724f-68f0-45de-b388-be0cdfcea679Post:97c85b75-fc14-423a-aa47-2c73005309db">Re: Who is Joseph Kony?</a>:
[QUOTE]Sammy our freshmen had to read that book and we had a speaker come to the university that was a former boy solider. It was heart breaking to listen to him.
Posted by crownsuperstar[/QUOTE]

We had something similar at our High School. We have this thing called founders week, and I want to say the guy who made the movie was the speaker (could be wrong) but it was about this issue. It's utterly heartwrenching and so very sad. I really, really hope that by spreading the word something happens and it can change. While I don't think it's smart to use millitary forces to go in and try to find him, I do hope that they can find and figure out a way to find him and those who are directly helping him and serve them justice. It is so sad what these children have had to go through, it's been around for a long time (I was exposed to it in high school, so about 2005) and it's extremely sad that there hasn't been any progress made on finding him and stopping this.

Edit for clarity - While I don't think we should deploy 30k soilders to go and help find the guy, we can help in other ways, have our FBI help provide ways and help track him down. Try to analyze his paths and formulate a plan for where he would be next things like that..

kyrgyzstan · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_who-is-joseph-kony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:13Discussion:e70e724f-68f0-45de-b388-be0cdfcea679Post:753864d9-fb3b-4e0f-b13c-46714ddbedb8">Re: Who is Joseph Kony?</a>:
[QUOTE] My thing about this charitable organization is that they haven't ever been audited by an outside company, and that's a little worriesome. They also support direct military intervention, which would come through the government army of Uganda, not exactly the least corrupt way to go about it. They also have given money to the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, which is well known to use rape as a weapon of war.
Posted by divinemsbee[/QUOTE]
<div>IC has their financials on their website. <div>
</div><div>I support direct military intervention in a lot of places, and we are compelled as signatories of the the Genocide Convention to intervene in a lot of places. We find legal justifications (remember the term 'acts of genocide'?) to avoid it. I do not know that they do support direct military intervention by the gov't army of Uganda. Since their main reason for being is to increase awareness by Americans of issues outside America, I'm not certain I'd agree with the assertion.</div></div><div>
</div><div>I had not heard of IC giving money to the SPLA, so I asked someone I know who used to work for them. That person says that is not true, and has not been true since they stopped working there. </div><div>
</div><div>The photos of the IC workers posing with guns and SPLA members does not mean they gave them money. It means there were young Americans in a war zone posing inappropriately in a photograph to show people back home. Hmmm, wonder if that's ever happened before...</div>

Sammy0709 · March 2012

When IC came to my college (same time we read the book) I was under the impression that they wanted to spread the word and have the government act as they saw fit, not necessarily in a military way.

amh04 · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_who-is-joseph-kony?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:13Discussion:e70e724f-68f0-45de-b388-be0cdfcea679Post:b31ff122-d1c1-4dc8-bd5b-6c0074f6ef41">Re: Who is Joseph Kony?</a>:
[QUOTE]When IC came to my college (same time we read the book) I was under the impression that they wanted to spread the word and have the government act as they saw fit, not necessarily in a military way.
Posted by Sammy0709[/QUOTE]

From what I gathered from the video it is still that way. They wanted troops to educate those in Uganda how to navigate the jungles and so forth - not fight for them. They all have such a fierce independence its admirable but I hope that they can help and locate the jerk- this has been going on for too long.

divinemsbee · March 2012

Again, while I've known a bit about what's been going on in Sub-Saharan Africa, I'll fully admit to not knowing a lot about Kony or Invisible Children until I saw this video and started checking it out and doing a little research. I'll admit to being a total cynic about things that get posted on Facebook in order to raise money or awareness, I like to do a little bit of poking around. Here are the things I read about it that made me a little distrustful of what this particular charity is doing and what they are about:http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

http://jezebel.com/5891269/think-twice-before-donating-to-kony-2012-the-meme-du-jour

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136673/mareike-schomerus-tim-allen-and-koen-vlassenroot/obama-takes-on-the-lra?page=show

This does not mean I distrust all charities that try to raise awareness about these issues or try to help with the aftermath. It doesn't mean that I think awareness, even a little of it, is a bad thing, hell, I'm more aware thanks to this. And I think that's good. I do think that the U.S. has a responsibility to intervene, and I do feel like maybe we don't intervene as early as we could/should to prevent further bloodshed.

I'll admit to being wrong about the giving money to the SPLA, which I think I conjectured from the article I read, I see that this is actually mentioned nowhere in there. I do think that there's more to people who are in a charitable organization posing for pictures with this kind of group than "stupid kids take pictures because it will look cool to show friends." The exact same way that I don't think that members of our military who "take stupid pictures" should have people just get over it. They did something that tarnished the image of their organization, and people are going to see it and infer things about that organization through looking at photos.

divinemsbee · March 2012

And this is an interview with the woman who took the picture of the founders (I didn't realize that it was the actual founders of the organization in the pics) with the guns.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/invisible-children-founders-posing-with-guns-an-interview-with-the-photographer/2012/03/08/gIQASX68yR_blog.html

And, while I can see the bias, this is the photographer's blog that sets the scene for when that photo was taken:

http://www.scarlettlion.com/invsible-children-the-next-chapter/

I'm not saying they're bad people, at all, or that they aren't better than the alternative of people knowing nothing, I just don't know that I'd give money to them.

kara811 · March 2012

Just in case anyone wants to help. This is not for Invisible Children but a petition for the White House to aid in capturing Kony. 25,000 signatures are needed. Thanks! http://wh.gov/XoM

kyrgyzstan · March 2012

I honestly don't care what the AP photographer thought about the situation, tbh. She's a photographer, not a diplomat. And the blogger is really, really reaching. He makes the assertion almost immediately that photo = support, and it simply doesn't. The guys in that photo have spoken about it, they've said it was meant to be a silly photo for back home. I believe that, because nothing is dumber than 3 guys in their early 20s. And while I do agree that when service members are inappropriate, it reflects poorly on their service. I do not, however, agree that it means their mission is wrong because of it.

calindi · March 2012

I studied African Development Studies in college - it was my concentration as part of my International Relations degree. Additionally, my FI just had a former child soldier come to speak at an event for his law review at his law school this past Friday. We sat with him at dinner on Saturday, and got to spend time getting to know him and his story.

You can read that guy's book HERE

My FI also had this guy speak: Mark Drumbl who is a leading academic on international law, and specializes in children in warfare. He wrote this book: "Reimagining Child Soldiers" (available HERE, to be published in the US next month).

They also had Chris Jenks, International Law Branch Chief of the US Army Office, who came to speak about his views on the legality of involving the US military in these situations, and how complicated it is to legally address the issue of fighting children who carry weapons, and how to target someone such as Joseph Kony (who was mentioned several times throughout the event as an example) who surrounds themselves with children.

You can see all of them speak for a combined total of 191 minutes of video HERE (the child soldier comes on around minute 78, if you just wanted to see him).

Basically all that to tell you that this issue is a LOT more complicated than Invisible Children makes it seem. It's really great that they're using social media to draw attention to a very important issue. It isn't a new issue, and it isn't simply as basic as killing Joseph Kony - as several speakers made the point, it's not a snake where you can just cut off the head and it'll be dead. If Joseph Kony was killed or arrested, someone else would rise up in his place. The environment is where children are often unwanted because there's so much rape, abortions aren't easily available, and women often abandon their unwanted children who were the product of rape. This creates a situation where children have little education or supervision, and it allows for a power structure for people to get ahead by being warlords, and those warlords take advantage of these disenfranchised children, who grow within this power structure and are the next warlords ten years from now.

To summarize, the only long term way to end child soldiering is education and to address the underlying social issues that create an atmosphere where being a warlord in charge of a child soldier army will not be the best option people have to get ahead.

Who is Joseph Kony?

Re: Who is Joseph Kony?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards