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Surrey, BC
Canada
119 Posts |
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3022 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2012 : 11:27 AM
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Hi DragonFlymist, I was about to post this and I see you on the lodge too posting the same..
A very powerful message, and it surprises me that middle schools do not have social studies programs that include this study of evil people, and programs and campaigns started at grassroots levels..
When I was growing up we did not have internet but we were given up-to-date contemporary knowledge.
How the world and the young have access to internet and still for the most part be unaware of evil like the Lord's Army operating for over two decades is boggling.
There were moments when I was watching this You-Tube clip with my children that I was close to tears.
Because I am a parent, and over 750 million people have access to Facebok, and politicians twitter all day long,& 2012 is a deadline of involvement, this person Kony , needs to be frontline news and removed and children can sleep safely at night in the Ugandan -DRC-Sudan triangle.
Thanks for posting.April 20th.
Powerful video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
1461 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2012 : 1:07 PM
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The organization behind this video is a little dubious.
http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/
I do support getting this message out there but I'm not comfortable with the methods used by this group. |
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Poco
Canada
260 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2012 : 3:50 PM
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quote:
The organization behind this video is a little dubious.
http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/
It seems like another case of facebook slacktivism. Invisible children has successfully created awareness, now what? Will stopping Kony really change anything? Everyone shared the Kony video all over the internet yesterday (myself included), who's going to take the next step and actually try to effect real change? This area is way more complex than it's made out to be in the video.
Check out the tumblr link and skip down to 'we get trouble':
"the bulk of Invisible Children’s spending isn’t on supporting African militias, but on awareness and filmmaking. Which can be great, except that Foreign Affairs has claimed that Invisible Children (among others) “manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony — a brutal man, to be sure — as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil.” He’s certainly evil, but exaggeration and manipulation to capture the public eye is unproductive, unprofessional and dishonest.
...
Still, Kony’s a bad guy, and he’s been around a while. Which is why the US has been involved in stopping him for years. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent multiple missions to capture or kill Kony over the years. And they’ve failed time and time again, each provoking a ferocious response and increased retaliative slaughter. The issue with taking out a man who uses a child army is that his bodyguards are children. Any effort to capture or kill him will almost certainly result in many children’s deaths, an impact that needs to be minimized as much as possible. Each attempt brings more retaliation. And yet Invisible Children supports military intervention. Kony has been involved in peace talks in the past, which have fallen through. But Invisible Children is now focusing on military intervention."
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Edited by - ashi on 03/07/2012 3:53 PM |
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Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada
560 Posts |
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3022 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2012 : 9:59 PM
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The message is "awareness".
How you get deeper involved and how you contact politicians is up to you.
Don't need to give money until one researches all other options.
This Lord's Army has been operating in that triangle/quadrangle of human-misery-of-nations for so long now that it really is shamefull that most people are not aware.
An awful feces-hole of a place to be born into.
Damn this world has so much suffering and bloodshed in it still.
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3523 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2012 : 10:19 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by cambium
A very powerful message, and it surprises me that middle schools do not have social studies programs that include this study of evil people, and programs and campaigns started at grassroots levels..
How do you know they don't? Are you a school superintendent that is aware of the goings-on in all classrooms?
My students have seen the video and we have discussed it. My daughter's grade seven class has discussed it.
The topic of child soldiers and the LRA are not new topics in many, many classrooms.
You just spew shit for the sake of it sometimes, even when the topic might be important. |
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Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada
560 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2012 : 06:40 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by johngenx
quote:
Originally posted by cambium
A very powerful message, and it surprises me that middle schools do not have social studies programs that include this study of evil people, and programs and campaigns started at grassroots levels..
How do you know they don't? Are you a school superintendent that is aware of the goings-on in all classrooms?
Cambium knows all!!! |
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Penticton, BC
Canada
91 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2012 : 08:14 AM
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| Raising awareness is very positive, but unless it inspires real, honest action then it means nothing. Millions of views on YouTube, millions of posts on facebook and twitter don't save lives and don't make a difference. This is the problem with social media; being aware does not necessitate the need to actually do something. Sharing information across the internet is easy, and when you do that, you feel like you are involved in what is going on, even if that's all you do. But if that's all you do, you are just making noise. That's all. Maybe someone else will hear you and do something, but that's not justification for your hypocrisy. |
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1081 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2012 : 12:35 PM
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| Yeah, this is what slacktivism is all about. The guy has already been indicted by the ICC, and he is certainly already on the radar of all involved parties, especially those that can effect change. It's only people who have absolutely no bearing or capability to effect change who are being made aware by this campaign. So what's the point? There are a million similar outrageous situations like this on planet earth. While raising awareness doesn't hurt, it's not altruism that motivates these campaigns, it's people's desire to pat themselves on the back for being aware. If you want to make a difference, send some money to MSF or Warchild or some group that knows how to turn money into action, not money into sensationalism. |
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3022 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2012 : 12:58 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by johngenx
quote:
Originally posted by cambium
A very powerful message, and it surprises me that middle schools do not have social studies programs that include this study of evil people, and programs and campaigns started at grassroots levels..
How do you know they don't? Are you a school superintendent that is aware of the goings-on in all classrooms?
My students have seen the video and we have discussed it. My daughter's grade seven class has discussed it.
The topic of child soldiers and the LRA are not new topics in many, many classrooms.
You just spew shit for the sake of it sometimes, even when the topic might be important.
And you jump to conclusions & spew this vitreol for the sake-of-what? and forget I have three younger ones and I do question what they ergo I learn in their school and maybe , just maybe your Alta.Dept-of-Education has different standards & curiculum than BC does 
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map hatin', coffee perc totin', garbage collectin', backpacking, action hero wannabe, who loves to hide out in Garibaldi park and will have his scouts sing if you keep him awake at night
2479 Posts |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
2666 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2012 : 1:32 PM
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For people who want to learn more about child soldiers, there is an excellent book called "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah. Admittedly, reading a book takes a bit longer than watching a video.
http://www.alongwaygone.com/index.html |
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3022 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2012 : 1:35 PM
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regarding the link above from Marc's post...
http://boingboing.net/2012/03/08/african-voices-respond-to-hype.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29
I went thru several of those blogger's comments, & then I also researched online some of the "BoinBoing" history.
It seems that they too have it's critics...
cut & paste..."Boing Boing has been described as an "unspoken critic of censorship elsewhere" yet has been accused of practising forms of censorship itself. For example the act of "disemvoweling" was popularized by the site - literally stripping out the vowels of any comment a moderator had taken exception to. More recently it has been accused of dropping comments completely, for example dropping the first 8 or 9 comments in a software piracy related article.
And the promoters of the "Spread the Kony" word do have it's detractors too.
Still, it's the message about a ruthless child abductor moving about several country-borders that is the focus, and the question of how he funds his arms and supplies is worthwhile to investigate and interrupt. |
Edited by - cambium on 03/08/2012 1:37 PM |
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3523 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2012 : 2:50 PM
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cambium: you stated that middle schools do not have any information regarding these issues as a topic. Your blanket statement is wrong. Many schools do. I'm not making a distinction between AB and BC, as you seem to be drawing a conclusion that all teachers have lost the plot when it comes to human rights issues, specifically this one.
Last year (way ahead of you) our board had a former child soldier and escapee from Uganda visit our schools and present to teachers and students. All the teachers and students in the district.
However, you do also realize that there are a helluva lot of current events around the world and we only have 1400 minutes of instructional time per week with the students, and only a portion of that is social studies, etc? We have to pick and chose what we cover. Just because a certain topic is important to you, doesn't mean it will be covered.
But, as a parent, you have a lot of time with your own children, so instead of pouncing on schools, because, perhaps three classrooms you know of aren't on the topic, you could discuss these issues at home. You actually have more time with them than the teachers.
This is a complex issue. I get that Kony is a monster. If we intervene and he is killed, does this solve the problem? Is it systemic? If the LRA (whom I despise) are eradicated, what happens with the Ugandan military? Many feel they're only slightly less horrific than the LRA. |
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2421 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2012 : 2:59 PM
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| Thanks, John. The voice of rationality speaks again. |
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 Best grilled cheese maker ever
Whitehorse, YUKON
Canada
2159 Posts |
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Van, BC
Canada
2841 Posts |
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Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada
560 Posts |
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3022 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2012 : 10:44 AM
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With over 60 million views this week alone, and extensive coverage in the media and comments from Cabinet Ministers and archive film/interviews resurfaced from this subject, it is clear that this subject has moved beyond the realm of slacktivism and ignited a debate about Kony and the complexities of the video and Uganda and child soldiers.
One agency that tracks you-tube films and rates them calls it a good film that raises awareness.
This was the intent.
Residents of Uganda and former 'soldiers' of the LRA have opinions as well, and are constructively critical of the film.
Another good critique can be found here...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/travis-rejman/kony-2012_b_1335473.html
Sigh,too much violence in the world, there and here. Blood is the rose of humans, as quoted from Jim Morrison. |
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3022 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2012 : 11:00 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by DPM
Another, slightly different, perspective on the consequences of the Kony 2012 phenomenon:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/doug-saunders/the-horror-and-the-hashtag/article2364939/
One commentator's interesting vewpoint.
Some merit to that perception.
I, however, am of the opinion that not unlike the vast majority of Nazi,Stalinists, and Stazi-torturers that faded away without accountability for their crimes against humans, Kony & commanders must not fade away either & need a reckoning and some need rehabilitation & reconciliation back into their society. |
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Spread the word Kony 2012
