Done by these fine gents:
What a buncha lookers!
And now, here's the kicker:
The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces.
But hold on now, Ugandan military is charged with raping and looting!
So we know what's goin on here, good ole NGO propping up of corrupt colonial military outfits in Africa. But who of these good-intentioned average Joes and Joesaphinas knows about that? Time for some good ole teachin'!
So far, I've been gettin good with the fact that the ICC has been only prosecuting Africans, and the US is not even signed on to the ICC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_the_International_Criminal_Court
Concurrently, there are some websites for exposing the charity behind the video, Invisible Children:
http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/
and a cached article on blackstarnews (the website is presently down due to 'too many connections') that talks about Invisible Children's work legitimizing AFRICOM (US military command in Africa): http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KNcPeWXYJ-MJ:www.blackstarnews.com/news/122/ARTICLE/6586/2010-06-02.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
even Vice magazine is starting to get in on it: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/should-i-donate-money-to-kony-2012-or-not
Also of help is a 2005 article in the Atlantic, about "America's African Rifles":
Early last summer the United States dismantled the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, sending home L. Paul Bremer III, effectively its proconsul, and causing some observers to proclaim the end of the American empire. But imperialism has always been less about proconsuls than about local alliances and the training of indigenous troops, both of which allow the imperial authority to project power with minimum risk and fanfare. This was true for Rome, and it was particularly true for France and Britain, two thirds of whose campaigns consisted of soldiers enlisted in their colonies.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/america-apos-s-african-rifles/3823/
So far, these have been good eye-openers for people that had no idea about the sort of meddling and expansion of misery 'humanitarian intervention' means in Africa. So let's take advantage of this propaganda campaign, and compile some information!
Sure, they only use ~20% of donations for overhead--including admin/salary costs. But of the 80% that goes to "charitable work," most of that gets sucked up in film production costs--which is why Kony 2012 is actually a pretty damn good production. Only 30% actually makes it to Uganda/Africa, and most of that get's absorbed by the corrupt military.
Why had i not heard any of this last night and I wake up this morning and it's all over the news services.
so i think the college imperialist thread has been somewhat contained
Lessons posted:
the whole sensation here has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand. everyone knows there are horrible warlords committing horrible atrocities all over the world, and in africa in particular, and a factual 30min documentary about one of them would be ignored by everyone. it's this manic participatory facebook message that's gotten them whatever, 5 million views in the past 24 hours, not the politics. people are just watching it because facebook
very astute analysis. who do you work for?
One of their partners and donators is Chase Community Giving who awarded them $1million as a prize for winning a contest that was mired in controversy and accusations of fraud. This organisation is part of J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation who are also listed as one of Invisible Children’s network of supporters. This organisation is also owner of Chase Military, an organisation that offers loans, mortgages and insurance to soldiers that are to be deployed abroad. J.P. Morgan have also used foreign military interventions in the past to secure investment opportunities such as in Afghanistan with the full support of the US Government. Further ties with Uganda include their recent investment in Ugandan agribusiness and their ties as broker and adviser to Heritage Oil, whose operations are expanding into the border of Uganda and the Congo where the LRA are currently based. Situating these operations with their support of Invisible Children in the past year, it seems that J.P. Morgan are very interested in Uganda’s assets and are looking for means to foster business-friendly awareness of Uganda’s problems for their own benefit. Military intervention would do nothing but bolster J.P. Morgans profitmaking opportunities in the region.
Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. That’s what the lingo means, “to help regional forces remove from the battlefield,” meaning capture or kill.
So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda, and — (interruption) no, I’m not kidding. Jacob Tapper just reported it. Now, are we gonna help the Egyptians wipe out the Christians? Wouldn’t you say that we are? I mean the Coptic Christians are being wiped out, but it wasn’t just Obama that supported that. The conservative intelligentsia thought it was an outbreak of democracy. Now they’ve done a 180 on that, but they forgot that they supported it in the first place. Now they’re criticizing it.
Lord’s Resistance Army objectives. I have them here. “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people.” Now, again Lord’s Resistance Army is who Obama sent troops to help nations wipe out. The objectives of the Lord’s Resistance Army, what they’re trying to accomplish with their military action in these countries is the following: “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people; to fight for the immediate restoration of the competitive multiparty democracy in Uganda; to see an end to gross violation of human rights and dignity of Ugandans; to ensure the restoration of peace and security in Uganda, to ensure unity, sovereignty, and economic prosperity beneficial to all Ugandans, and to bring to an end the repressive policy of deliberate marginalization of groups of people who may not agree with the LRA ideology.” Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting, or who are being fought and we are joining in the effort to remove them from the battlefield.
babyfinland posted:Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. That’s what the lingo means, “to help regional forces remove from the battlefield,” meaning capture or kill.
So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda, and — (interruption) no, I’m not kidding. Jacob Tapper just reported it. Now, are we gonna help the Egyptians wipe out the Christians? Wouldn’t you say that we are? I mean the Coptic Christians are being wiped out, but it wasn’t just Obama that supported that. The conservative intelligentsia thought it was an outbreak of democracy. Now they’ve done a 180 on that, but they forgot that they supported it in the first place. Now they’re criticizing it.
Lord’s Resistance Army objectives. I have them here. “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people.” Now, again Lord’s Resistance Army is who Obama sent troops to help nations wipe out. The objectives of the Lord’s Resistance Army, what they’re trying to accomplish with their military action in these countries is the following: “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people; to fight for the immediate restoration of the competitive multiparty democracy in Uganda; to see an end to gross violation of human rights and dignity of Ugandans; to ensure the restoration of peace and security in Uganda, to ensure unity, sovereignty, and economic prosperity beneficial to all Ugandans, and to bring to an end the repressive policy of deliberate marginalization of groups of people who may not agree with the LRA ideology.” Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting, or who are being fought and we are joining in the effort to remove them from the battlefield.
I guess the hilarious thing about that is that Uganda is a massively majority christian state. muslims are like 10% of the population. The places they attacked in South Sudan are Christian/Animist as the bbc always calls them. And of course the LRA doesn't believe in anything like western christianities beyond extreme hick freestyle stuff
Also their name follows that cold war african rebel group naming continuum that makes them sound much more important and focused than they are.
LRA is a rape and pillage religious militia gang and not a real military thing, I spose everyone here knows that. If Uganda was more of a functioning state and the acholi ethnic group wasn't historically the lowest ethnic group on the totem pole of the country, they'd probably be sorted out by now. Give africom a few years and the ugandan army will probably be decent and motivated enough to stomp them out. They already chased them out of the country a few times. Who knows what will follow.
This is a reallly good bit of propaganda psy ops whatever you want to call it. i've never seen as much of a pro and con response in such a short time to something like this before
Edited by Myfanwy ()
I definitely agree! When I was reading this article, I couldn’t help but think Inivisible Children isn’t the be all-end all and that they probably know themselves that they cannot fix all of the problems with the LRA and Africa. But the important thing is they are using social media to spread the word about something that has been flying under the radar for so long. I was someone who knew nothing about Kony, and now I do. And because I am compassionate, I want to contribute in some way. I think that is the most powerful thing: getting individuals to want to do something about it.
http://justiceinconflict.org/2012/03/07/taking-kony-2012-down-a-notch/
shennong posted:
what happened to laurent nkunda aynawy
He's being indefinite detentioned in a military prison in Rwanda. I wish I could lead a dramatic breakout and find some glory with him
once i realized kony 2012 plays on sublimated anxieties about obama it sort of made sense why it took off
Myfanwy posted:shennong posted:
what happened to laurent nkunda aynawyHe's being indefinite detentioned in a military prison in Rwanda. I wish I could lead a dramatic breakout and find some glory with him
is there any confirmation hes still alive? im surprised they didnt just kill him
shennong posted:Myfanwy posted:shennong posted:
what happened to laurent nkunda aynawyHe's being indefinite detentioned in a military prison in Rwanda. I wish I could lead a dramatic breakout and find some glory with him
is there any confirmation hes still alive? im surprised they didnt just kill him
He's under house arrest, I was totally confused earlier. The thing is, he was acting for Rwanda. He was basically just their proxy, but closer than that. The only reason that Rwandan forces captured him was that they wanted to have official good relations with Congo so that they can get in on mineral extraction stuff, legally, and can be free to punish any Hutu aggression on tutsis on either side of the border.
Congo wants him to be extradited for "war crimes" but Rwanda doesn't want that at all, he's popular there, especially with the military, and the president needs the military to be happy. He was basically playing Tutsi robin hood/Israeli nazi assassination squad against those hutu genocideres who'd run away to congo, his support is not a mystery. So he'll probably stay on house arrest for a decade or so and be pardoned. Or maybe Congo will offer them a lot of concessions in exchange for war crimes trial. But Rwanda doesn't domestically want to be ordered to do anything by Congo. If there's enough money offered, he'll end up in a real prison, but they definitely have to make it worth the Rwandan government's while
Ironicwarcriminal posted:
http://demandnothing.org/making-the-invisible-visible/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=making-the-invisible-visibleOne of their partners and donators is Chase Community Giving who awarded them $1million as a prize for winning a contest that was mired in controversy and accusations of fraud. This organisation is part of J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation who are also listed as one of Invisible Children’s network of supporters. This organisation is also owner of Chase Military, an organisation that offers loans, mortgages and insurance to soldiers that are to be deployed abroad. J.P. Morgan have also used foreign military interventions in the past to secure investment opportunities such as in Afghanistan with the full support of the US Government. Further ties with Uganda include their recent investment in Ugandan agribusiness and their ties as broker and adviser to Heritage Oil, whose operations are expanding into the border of Uganda and the Congo where the LRA are currently based. Situating these operations with their support of Invisible Children in the past year, it seems that J.P. Morgan are very interested in Uganda’s assets and are looking for means to foster business-friendly awareness of Uganda’s problems for their own benefit. Military intervention would do nothing but bolster J.P. Morgans profitmaking opportunities in the region.
my eyes grabbed on to "Chase Military" before the rest of the post and i momentarily panicked
getfiscal posted:
once i realized kony 2012 plays on sublimated anxieties about obama it sort of made sense why it took off
the worst
Blahyi got his nickname, "General Butt Naked", from his nakedness which was supposedly demanded by the Devil. He claimed to a South African Star reporter that he "met Satan regularly and talked to him" and that from the age of 11 to 25 he took part in monthly human sacrifices. In his account of a typical battle Blahyi claimed, "So, before leading my troops into battle, we would get drunk and drugged up, sacrifice a local teenager, drink their blood, then strip down to our shoes and go into battle wearing colourful wigs and carrying imaginary purses we'd looted from civilians. We'd slaughter anyone we saw, chop their heads off and use them as soccer balls. We were nude, fearless, drunk yet strategic. We killed hundreds of people – so many I lost count.