Kony 2012

[DanielofRedwall]

NOTE: THIS IS A BIG AND CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE. PLEASE RESPECT EACH OTHER'S OPINIONS. SOME THINGS MAY ALSO BE A BIT SHOCKING, SO BE WARNED.

For those of you who don't know, Kony 2012 is an event set up by The Invisible Children organization. The Invisible Children Inc. was an organization set up in 2003 to help raise awareness of child soldiers.

Joseph Kony is the head of a Rebel Party in Uganda in Africa known as the Lord's Resistance Army. He is the person this whole thing is centered on. To put it short, he has a whole army made up of children. He abducted them and forced them to become soldiers, kill their own parents, and many more unspeakable acts. The problem is not many people knew about what he was doing. Until recently.

I've known about Invisible Children for a while now. What they are doing is trying to raise awareness of what is happening. In effect, they are trying to make Kony famous. Not famous in a good way, though. We want to try and make more and more people know about him and act on what they now know. We are trying to make our voices heard. The US government have agreed to send in soldiers to track down ands arrest Kony. We are now trying to make them follow threw with their promise by showing our support. As well as get other governments involved. There will be an event where people all over the world will put posters up all over their city at night, so people will notice when they wake up in the morning.

You can make a difference in other ways as well. By donating money, buying a kit or a bracelet and many more. Here are some links:
This is the official video. It's gone viral over the internet recently. Be warned, it can be a bit full on at some points. Also, it goes for about half an hour.

Sign up here and also donate and buy some merchandise here.

"Every child deserves a childhood."-Anonymous.
"Where you live shouldn't determine whether you live."-Bono.

[Matthias720]

Thank you for posting this, Daniel. I will watch this when I get the chance, and I will do my part to spread the word.

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

I too have known of IC for some time.
I really liked the video, for several reasons. But I want to be brief.

There's been a lot of criticism thrown around however, ranging from IC lining their own pockets with donations (almost entirely depends how you look at it) to more fundamental.
One particular (shorter) article I would recommend is one by Justice in Conflict. Link

*edit: I'd like to add it's always a good idea to read up on both (or all) sides of an issue-any issue.

[Lily]

I agree with ToR, it's good to do your research before you donate to make sure your money is going to be used how you want it to be. I think it's a great thing that so many people are being educated about this issue, but I have heard questionable things about Invisible Children too.

Either way, it's a horrific thing to happen to anyone, and I hope something can be done to stop this kind of thing.

[DanielofRedwall]

Thanks for that link ToR. I still believe this is a great cause to get behind. However, I won't donate money (I actualy wasn't going to in the first place). I still signed the petition to show I'm behind it though, and I definitely want Kony captured.

EDIT TO ADD:
Invisible Children have responded to the criticism thrown their way. Read about it here.

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

I've been reading through a report by FTS (Free the Slaves) published about slavery in the eastern DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) last month. A good deal of it relates similarly to IC's work, so I figured I'd post some, mostly figures. The victims involved are arguably defined as 'invisible children'. To quote FTS' final statement of child slavery in the region, "And at the far end of the supply chain, where the violence, humiliation and injustice of slavery are made invisible within the products we use every day..."

FTS interviewed a number of miners in the region, finding about 40-60% being in literal slavery. Children amongst these make up a strong measure. The boys amongst these have their labor mostly split between bodyguards/soldiering, supervising involved, and mining work, of which they get more dangerous work than adults due to their smaller agile size. Mining work, from wells to transportation of minerals to sell to smelters in Europe, is what primarily 80% of the children do. I say primarily because they often do more than one job. Of these boys, more than 50% said they were not there by force, but the majority said it was because they could not be provided for at home. App. 90% of all children at the mines are estimated to be in slavery or perilously close, most by debt ##:1162. Most do not realize this claim is both illegal and often a sham. The groups that run the mines are rebel armed groups teamed with businessman and shaft owners, and also government forces, but these have, as I understand, mostly left off over the last couple years.
Thing is, the situation with rebel groups, the LRA amongst them, is closely related to poverty and lack of rule of law in the entire transnational region. An average income of less than 1 USD per day doesn't provide much.

Basically, it's worth noting, as both IC and their critics haven't hesitated to point out, is that the situation is very complex, and a 30 minute video cannot or is meant to demonstrate that.
It's raising awareness, which I think is brilliant. But to ramble a bit more, I'd quote Jonathan Hirt and say "Awareness is passive. Awareness is peripheral. Awareness must be a byproduct of action. Awareness (alone) is dead."

[redwallgurl]

gosh watching the video its  a scary world out there im thankful for what i have now