Here we go again... *sigh*

[bladespark]

Look, you can't believe everything you read or see on the internet, okay? This Kony video that's going around... well, let's let wikipedia put in $0.02 on that.

"Invisible Children launched a major marketing campaign in 2012 targeting Joseph Kony (leader of the LRA) despite the fact that the LRA has not been active in Northern Uganda since 2006."

The video in question is frankly nothing more than a blatant attempt at emotional manipulation. It seems to be succeeding. But any time somebody goes right for your heartstrings and starts tugging, that's when you MUST be on your guard. Lots of real, legitimate causes use emotional appeals, there's nothing inherently wrong with them, but an emotional appeal makes it easy to fail to notice when you're not being given accurate facts!

And before giving some charity your money, find out what they're going to do with it!

Seriously!

Let's check wikipedia again. "Despite written BBB Wise Giving Alliance requests in the past year, this organization either has not responded to Alliance requests for information or has declined to be evaluated in relation to the Alliance's Standards for Charity Accountability."

That means that this bunch of yahoos REFUSES TO TELL how they're spending their funds. Biggest frigging red flag in a charity ever, folks.

I could bankrupt myself giving to charities, even if I just gave a dollar to every cause that sounds like it might be worthy.  I have to pick and choose.  So I choose to give money to people I know I can trust.

Edit: Here's a really good article about the REAL situation with Kony and Uganda. http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/the-visible-problem-with-invisible-children/

Edit again: Oh this one is FUN. http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble Apparently Invisible Children takes a "fight fire with fire" approach to rape and murder. *wince* They fund another one of those "Liberation Army" groups, and even have photos of themselves posing with guns. Not exactly the kind of "charity" I want to get behind.

Comments

[ellixis]

Thanks for the heads up. I did a little poking around and scrounged up a couple links, gonna post public on my journal too.

[armaina]

It seems like Kony is still at large, actually, (I'm also noticing a huge lack of sources in the article you linked) but still, the stuff by the invisible children group is still full of misinformation and sensationalism. Misinformation is always damaging, even if you have good intentions.

http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble

[bladespark]

He is still at large, I never said otherwise. But "at large" and "free to roam the countryside actively raping kids" are not the same thing.

Here's another article. http://whitthef.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/kony-2012/

I keep finding more info, and every bit of it is pointing to Kony not being any kind of threat right now, and the charity being utterly useless.

[armaina]

Yeah, he's still a threat and there's still a problem in Uganda in general and not just with him, is something to be aware of. Aaand so is checking your facts to know what exactly you're dealing with.

Charity for the sake of sensationalist advertisement is useless. And really you have to wonder, just how exactly does money for it help, where does it go, what am I paying for, are questions that really are not addressed with that movement and that bothers me. 'Money does things' is pretty much all it's going under :/

[bladespark]

I actually found another article that claims (and has photos and links that seem to back it up fairly well) that where your money is going is at least in part to fund a *different* terrorist organization, *also* accused of rape and murder, just apparently they confine that to adults and not kids. >.< "Fight fire with fire" isn't really a great strategy when the problem is terrorism and violence.

http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble

[armaina]

Uhh... heh that's the first link I posted :V

[bladespark]

Sorry, I've been discussing this mess with so many different people that it's hard to keep track.