Thread: Kony 2012

Oh, just in case anyone's wondering why we should all suddenly care about Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army, it turns out that that area of Uganda is sitting atop a giant oil reserve.

But don't worry, the nation and her people won't be benefiting from the oil revenues at the expense of oil company shareholders. Phew! Close call there, A developing country almost got rich.

That cant be true we hit "peak oil" 20-30 years ago and there are no reserves. Just more of your left/right/centrist hate mongering! Next you wiil be telling me that we have plenty of oil here at home. I think it is entirely irresponsible of you to wage this kind of class warfare, after all they are the minority, being only 1%. Besides, the people of the country would only spend it on goats, grains and clean water, maybe even such frivolities as shoes.. Surely the country's despots and those already well heeled oil magnates can truly manage the worlds economy to suit themselves. You have a lot of nerve!

Originally Posted by joesixpack

Oh, just in case anyone's wondering why we should all suddenly care about Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army, it turns out that that area of Uganda is sitting atop a giant oil reserve.

But don't worry, the nation and her people won't be benefiting from the oil revenues at the expense of oil company shareholders. Phew! Close call there, A developing country almost got rich.

That's a blatant lie Joe.
It's oil AND minerals.... So There!

Sierra Leona is a prime example of the problem. It is at the same time the world's richest country in terms of ores and minerals, and the world's poorest country in terms of actual money. We like it that way. If we suddenly had to start paying them market value instead of getting the mining rights for a crate of guns, that iThingy would suddenly be more expensive. And the computers. And the TVs. And pretty much everything that contains electronics or other applications of rare eath metals. And gemstones of course...

Kony 2012 founder hospitalised after stripping naked in the street | The Sun |News

Sigh.

Look, this is a little disappointing.

I know the whole Kony 2012 movement seems like "slactivism" to a lot of people. And maybe just watching a video, kicking in a few bucks, and signing a petition is slack. But at least it is acknowledging that the situation with child soldiers in Uganda is wrong, and at least the Kony 2012 people have brought it into the open.

Is the money spent as wisely as it could be? I don't know.

And am I naive enough to believe that arresting Kony will fix the problem? No, it is probably about as likely as getting rid of Osama was going to end terrorism. But it is strange, nobody seemed to think that situation was so funny or pointless. Everybody was happy to get behind that.

Just because America has no financial or political interest in Uganda, apparently whatever terrible stuff that goes on in that country is unimportant. For all its faults, at least this Kony 2012 thing has put one world issue into the spotlight, despite offering the west no obvious advantage other that trying to help people.

Is the situation in Uganda unique? No. Terrible stuff like that is happening on dozens of countries across the world. And people like you and me sit on our internet, watch the news, read the paper, and we still don't know about it. Why? Because it is happening in poor countries who have no resources that the west needs. They are "unimportant".

Kony 2012 might be a fad. It might not yield real results. But at least it might have opened a few peoples eyes to something that they may not have been aware of, and maybe some of those people might enquire a bit further about what is going on beyond reality TV, and the Hollywood celebrities are up to.

I don't know. This whole movement seems to be the first time where "the mob", and popular culture, appear to be getting behind something good, rather than something that will benefit themselves.

I just get annoyed when it is made fun of. It could be the start of something important. Do I dare to believe in a world where being altruistic is "trendy"?

I sponsor a child in Sierra Leone. Have done so for years. I've also given quite some money to various 'Doctors without frontiers' initiatives and other things. I do care. Don't think that I don't. And the Kony 2012 has nothing to do with pop culture getting behind something.
1) Pop culture has already forgotten by now. The 5 minutes of facebook fame are over.
2) Even when it was on their minds, they still didn't care that much.
3) The people behind this seem to be living out a white savior fetish.

If you want to do something, find a solid initiative (in my case that was SOS Children's Villages International - A loving home for every child ) read up on it, and if you feel like making a difference, and engage in a continuing commitment. I cannot solve the world's big problems, but I can make life better for a small girl who is currently making it through school on my dime.

In this world, for some reason, the people with money (with the exception of rare people like Bill Gates) just don't care.
We, the middle class, may care, but we have no clout. We may want companies to act decently, but companies answer to stock holders, and stock holders are people wanting to increase their stock value. They don't want their profits to drop because companies pay fair price for humane working conditions. And consumers don't want to pay more for their shiny new toy.

I am not making fun of the problems. I am making fun specifically of the Kony 2012 marketing campaign, and the idea that those problems exist because the world doesn't know. the world does know. It just doesn't care.

Let me tell you a story about one of the worst monsters in human history. A man nicknamed 'the butcher king'. A man compared with whom Hitler is an amateur in the field of genocide. The name of that man is Leopold 2 of Belgium. Due to some political maneuvering, he personally owned Congo, right at the start of the Industrial revolution. The world needed rubber, and Leopold delivered. He supplied the world with rubber, got insanely rich (IIRC he was at one point the world's richest man). and killed between 8 and 12 million African slaves in the process. That number is without counting the people who got maimed and tortured to make an example. We are talking about true evil.

But the world needed rubber, so the world didn't care.

Eventually, it became a political booboo and his enemies were seizing this abomination to beat him over the head with. It was grotesque even for that day and age. And then the miracle happened. The great forgetting. Because Leopold at that point deeded Congo to the Belgian government (before, it was his own). And then Belgium started getting the proceeds. and overnight, all opposition was silenced as if smothered with a pillow.

No more inconvenient news. No criticism. It was not even mentioned in our history books until fairly recently. Many people even in my generation don't know. Or they're even believing that we brought them 'civilization' and 'education'. As recent as 2002 (iirc) we minted a commemorative coin for that SOB. He even got a new statue in some city near the coastline. Can you imagine Germany minting a commemorative coin for Hitler? And Leopold was worse than Hitler.

Individuals may care. The majority doesn't, especially if they benefit by the atrocities.

Wow Bruno. Are there any good books on this guy you can point me to? Sounds like an interesting history lesson.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I sponsor a child in Sierra Leone. Have done so for years. I've also given quite some money to various 'Doctors without frontiers' initiatives and other things. I do care. Don't think that I don't. And the Kony 2012 has nothing to do with pop culture getting behind something.
1) Pop culture has already forgotten by now. The 5 minutes of facebook fame are over.
2) Even when it was on their minds, they still didn't care that much.
3) The people behind this seem to be living out a white savior fetish.

If you want to do something, find a solid initiative (in my case that was SOS Children's Villages International - A loving home for every child ) read up on it, and if you feel like making a difference, and engage in a continuing commitment. I cannot solve the world's big problems, but I can make life better for a small girl who is currently making it through school on my dime.

In this world, for some reason, the people with money (with the exception of rare people like Bill Gates) just don't care.
We, the middle class, may care, but we have no clout. We may want companies to act decently, but companies answer to stock holders, and stock holders are people wanting to increase their stock value. They don't want their profits to drop because companies pay fair price for humane working conditions. And consumers don't want to pay more for their shiny new toy.

I am not making fun of the problems. I am making fun specifically of the Kony 2012 marketing campaign, and the idea that those problems exist because the world doesn't know. the world does know. It just doesn't care.
Let me tell you a story about one of the worst monsters in human history. A man nicknamed 'the butcher king'. A man compared with whom Hitler is an amateur in the field of genocide. The name of that man is Leopold 2 of Belgium. Due to some political maneuvering, he personally owned Congo, right at the start of the Industrial revolution. The world needed rubber, and Leopold delivered. He supplied the world with rubber, got insanely rich (IIRC he was at one point the world's richest man). and killed between 8 and 12 million African slaves in the process. That number is without counting the people who got maimed and tortured to make an example. We are talking about true evil.

But the world needed rubber, so the world didn't care.

Eventually, it became a political booboo and his enemies were seizing this abomination to beat him over the head with. It was grotesque even for that day and age. And then the miracle happened. The great forgetting. Because Leopold at that point deeded Congo to the Belgian government (before, it was his own). And then Belgium started getting the proceeds. and overnight, all opposition was silenced as if smothered with a pillow.

No more inconvenient news. No criticism. It was not even mentioned in our history books until fairly recently. Many people even in my generation don't know. Or they're even believing that we brought them 'civilization' and 'education'. As recent as 2002 (iirc) we minted a commemorative coin for that SOB. He even got a new statue in some city near the coastline. Can you imagine Germany minting a commemorative coin for Hitler? And Leopold was worse than Hitler.

Individuals may care. The majority doesn't, especially if they benefit by the atrocities.

Sad, but true.
The same cast of characters always at the front; until another cause comes around to spotlight themselves.

Originally Posted by medicevans

Wow Bruno. Are there any good books on this guy you can point me to? Sounds like an interesting history lesson.

There are several. the one below is written for people interested in the history. I've seen it mentioned in the news as a work of note, several years ago. It seems to be very cheap as well so I think it would be a good choice.

I would hesitate to trust any book on this subject written before the 90s. I'm not saying that there were no truthful books about it before then, but Leopold 2 is a huge stain on our history which has been minimized for a long time. It's only since the last decade and a half that people are 'starting' to acknowledge the fact that he might not have been a jolly old chap.

Amazon.com: King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (0046442001908): Adam Hochschild: Books

For online sources, just google for 'leopold butcher of congo'.

I have an adopted nephew from Uganda, I can learn all about Kony from him. He has been here for 8-9 years now and is one of the best young men you could ever hope to meet.

Bruno, I loved your dissertation of Leopold, his legacy still has central Africa in turmoil, God help us all, we seem not to be able to help ourselves. Every civilization on Earth is blood stained and it is not stopping.