Well. I was going to make a video on this topic since it has been so popular today, but in the end I decided I couldn't make a video that would get all I wanted to say across, mainly due to time, other due to me not knowing exactly how to present it. Anyways, I decided to fire up ye old blog to get some ideas and points across, huzzah!
I just wrote this in a crazy writing storm, so grammar may not be the greatest.
I will be presenting several links and things further on for you guys to check out.
Anyways, all I really wanted to say is that we as a people need to be careful when taking up these causes. Sure the cause may seem like a wholesome and decent idea, but the truth is you can't trust everything that is presented to you today (especially on the internet). I'm not saying that Kony isn't a bad guy and that what he's done isn't horrendous, but I feel there are better ways to go about making changes.
The Invisible Children group (the ones who are running this whole Kony 2012 "campaign") have some questionable tendencies from what I've researched. According to this article (http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/120307/kony-2012-campaign-criticized-dumbing-down-conflict) the Invisible Children organization only used 32% of their almost $9 million dollars of funds on direct services while the rest of the 68% went to salaries, travel, and film production. When I think of a nonprofit organization I think that all money donated is used to the cause that they are supporting. I would feel robbed if this were the actual case.
Another thing is that the Kony 2012 campaign is calling for action against Kony. To take him in and capture him. How would this be accomplished. You can't just walk up to a guy like this and by all like "hey guy, you need to come with us." There's probably going to be conflict involved in order to get to him, which, if this does happen, is not good. Considering that Kony's forces are made up of a lot of children, many children may be killed in such a conflict, which, is going against what the campaign is wanting to change. And so what if they do catch Kony. Someone else will just rise up in his place. The only way to ensure the LRA doesn't take children anymore is to totally eliminate the LRA, and at what cost is that? There are some many children in the ranks that children will be killed if hostile action is taken against them. And say the LRA does fall apart and disappear from this planet, surely another group with similar beliefs will rise up elsewhere in this world (not saying that there already aren't other groups like that now). We cannot truly purify this world from evil.
One more point of interest is that the LRA (Kony's rebel force) has sort of dissolved out of Uganda and is split up over surrounding countries. While this isn't good for those other countries, many are saying Kony has been out of the picture for years and may not be directly involved anymore. If this is the case, then there is someone else that is possibly leading them, and they are the one that should be of main focus now.
To move on from that, regardless of what I posted above is actual truth or not, for one cannot fully trust the internet, I just want to say that my true reason for writing this blog is to tell people to not just blindly share this thing on social media sites. Don't be a sheep being lead around. If you truly believe in this cause and want to do something about it, do some research. We do have the internet now day, it isn't too hard to do some Google searches. Hell, there may even be a better cause somewhere that you agree with more! All I'm saying is to make sure that what you want to support is worthwhile, and if you want to make a difference make sure everything you've donated is going to where you want it to go. I'm also not saying that raising awareness is a bad thing. Social media has definitely helped raise awareness over the past several years. I'm just saying you can't go posting a bunch of stuff on facebook and expect something to happen. You need to take action in some way if you truly believe in a cause.
Anyways that's all I wanted to say, I'll step off my soapbox. I know some of you won't agree with what I've said, and I respect that, I haven't said I necessarily agree with everything I said myself. I like to play devil's advocate and raise up other issues to think about. Ultimately I just want people to be smart with their decisions. We live in a day in age where people are to blind and hopeless to have their own beliefs.
Have a good day!
Some websites I would check out and read:
http://whitthef.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/kony-2012/
http://whitthef.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/kony-2012-part-2/
http://deadmau5.tumblr.com/post/18924546282/me-my-awareness-and-my-big-mouth
Also, another organization I found that is actually doing something about the children affected in all this:
http://grassrootsgroup.org/
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