It's something that happened years ago.


Exactly. This is for the kind of person who finds a new cause every week and signs a petition, is all vocal about it for a couple of days, then moves on to something else and forgets the old idea.

http://pictube.ru/images/3YmZE.jpg

i read that close to 70% of donations go towards supporting the guy who's running the whole kony 2012 project. i don't see how buying a bracelet helps making this guy more famous, just send the video to people and that's it. maybe let the governments of the world do the rest?

Yes, nobody cared about it before they saw the video... but now its on the news. Now its a popular discussion topic. Now we're talking about it.

The purpose of the video campaign was to raise awareness of a problem. It did that. What does it matter if that objective was accomplished through fashionable facebook posts and trendy tee-shirt sales? If the outcome of this campaign is freeing child soldiers, then what does it matter if everyone in that campaign was a phony social activist? In the end, its all about the effect, not about how it was effected.

I should add that for the most part, I agree with you and HNM. These campaign are for those who... love fashionable campaigns. But, fashion or not, popular campaigns can sometimes add political awareness, even if it amounts to nothing. So, although I'm not a huge proponent of KONY (I actually know little about it), I wouldn't dismiss it just because its a fad.

*Raising public awareness is good - if it results in something meaningful and real (and not just numbers of people who "like" something)
* Viral marketing works, it feeds of the concept of internet memes and I feel that PR companies and lobbyists of all sorts are getting the hang of how to make such campaigns work successfully and exploit the trust people have in "the internet" as a true grassroots form of activism. See that "viral video" that was made by the EU that I posted yesterday for an example of something that mostly failed (but was a success in the target group by the way)
* Invisible children and Kony2012 seem to have a strong affiliation to christian missionary groups. As I understand it, they are collecting donations and use quite a bit of it to bring christianity and christian values to Uganda because they think that this will cause peace there. I will not give my money to any christian church...
* There is a RAP NEWS about this : RAP NEWS 12: Yes We KONY? - YouTube

Indeed, such fast postings on social networks (I include this forum for the moment for sakes of exemplification) for welfare causes and reasons appear being good... face-value: I did look it up, felt bad, did something to feel good again - and that's it, mainly: taking action to make me feel good - rather than the victims of atrocities, hunger, turbo capitalism rendering indigenous people homeless for building dams or needing their land to reap ores and oil from Mother Earth... you know the bad things happening, you know that there's communication means to make your voice heard...

That's the other face of the medal - web presence means a lot of news from different sources and the need arising from it is to scrutinize bits of news and create your own plan to help from it. Even more so, than just TV news are presenting their own truth, web news and blog postings are highly individual in their viewpoints - and that applies here, as well.

I say, that's a good thing - showing that we are a diverse community.. and also that we can voice our opinions, too...

I also say, however, be careful! Make up your own mind, before following and liking it - and don't just hang out in front of the computer... Even though a German celebrity blogger and tweet person just wrote today: "The only way out of this society's self-induced immaturity is nerdification" (Original German quote: "Aus unserer selbstverschuldeten Unmündigkeit kann uns nur Nerdigkeit retten. " - Sascha Lobo, tweeting his own article on Der Spiegel online...).

Oh, and yes, I wouldn't want to back up an initiative working on Christian mission, either, leaving the people alone with a fear-mongering religion (old-testament style...).

Wiggling bare toes, finding worthy initiatives and projects to back up on my own, thank you,

~*Txim Asawl*~

P.S.: The Piratenpartei in Germany just issued a tweet, needing 100,000 signers of a petition fighting ACTA... one good cause, isn't it...?
https://epetitionen.bundestag.de/ind...petition=22697

I find it ironic also that I saw so many on facebook precede the Kony video & other stuff with an advisory not to repost unless you really know about the issue and are 100% behind it :xD:

I dont know how christian and missionary these people are. I hope not as bad as these guys here:
Joshua Project - Unreached Peoples of the World

If any of you have the chance to do a DDOS attack or hack a site, it would be good work, I think. I have to puke even reading all the stuff...

Obligatory anonymous is not your personal army.

:xD:

Nice one... but sometimes, we can't hide behind or perhaps - when very brave - within armies... sometimes we have to take steps on our own two feet...

Just making it clear, Agents, that I'm not officially condoning to DDoS attacks. No one in here does!!!
;)

Hey, by now, those spooks and feds are reading along.

Wiggling bare toes,

~*Txim Asawl*~

That's even worse... scum like that who pose as charities to get funding, the 'Salvation Army' is a prime example :(

Terrorist.

"Yeah, but he said Jehova!" *pelt*
:P

I don't think you know what you're talking about...


Salvation Army volunteer here, confirming that they do in fact feed and clothe the needy.

I don't think you know what you're talking about...

Why You Shouldn't Donate to the Salvation Army Bell Ringers | The Bilerico Project

Salvation Army Complaints, Reviews - Religious Discrimination

The fact that they do help homeless people doesn't change the fact that it comes with strings attached and people they deem 'not worthy' often can not access anything.

Don't live in the bible belt.