Kony 2012: what’s the real story?

A 28-minute film about the plight of children in Africa has been watched (in 4 days since it was posted on YouTube) more than 60 million times. But the charity behind it is facing criticism for its Hollywood-style campaigning (and funds management) on the issue. Are the criticisms fair?

Kony stands accused of overseeing the systematic kidnapping of countless African children, brainwashing the boys into fighting for him, turning the girls into sex slaves and killing those who don’t comply.
His forces are believed to have slaughtered tens of thousands of people and are known for hacking the lips off their victims.Kony has been wanted by the international criminal court since 2005 on charges that include crimes against humanity. He has been living in the bush outside Uganda since that time.

The US designated the LRA a terrorist group after September 11, and in 2008 began actively supporting the Ugandan military. In October, the president deployed 100 combat-equipped troops – mostly special operations forces – to Uganda to advise regional military units in capturing or killing Kony.

With its slick Hollywood production values, the film has been an almost instant viral success, dominating Twitter worldwide and having one of the fastest ever take-offs on You Tube. The hashtag #stopkony has had hundreds of thousands of tweets, and millions of people now know something about Uganda and what is happening to children there. Support for the campaign to end the conflict in the country this year is spreading.

Kony 2012: YouTube Video

Read the entire article:
Kony 2012: what’s the real story? [ Source: TheGuardian ]

KONY 2012 Propaganda Exposed

Kony-2012-hoax-exposed

A quote from YouTube visitor’s comment:

“Yes, he [ J. Kony ] is real, and he’s probably a son of a gun big time… but having the American military sent to another country to “save” someone from the “bad guys” is becoming so common that is just disgusting. We heard the same thing in Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya – “Humanitarian wars”. That’s bullshit.. US government just wants to use them as pretexts to justify an invasion and control those countries resources, in Uganda’s case: oil !!!”

Obama sending troops to Africa

The Associated Press, Date: Friday Oct. 14, 2011 10:25 PM ET

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday he has dispatched 100 U.S. troops to central Africa to support a years-long fight against a guerrilla group accused of horrific atrocities. Obama said they were sent to advise, not engage in combat, unless forced to defend themselves. In a letter to Congress, Obama said the troops will act as advisers in a long-running battle against the Lord’s Resistance Army, considered one of Africa’s most ruthless rebel groups, and help to hunt down its notorious leader, Joseph Kony. The first of the troops arrived in Uganda on Wednesday, the White House said, and others will be sent to South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. […] Source: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20111014/us-troops-africa-111014/#ixzz1b370zAiR

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Interesting Facts about the Region

South Sudan. The economy of South Sudan is one of the world’s weakest and most underdeveloped. The region contains many natural resources such as petroleum, iron ore, copper, chromium ore, zinc, tungsten, mica, silver, gold, and hydropower. The country’s economy, as in many other developing countries, is heavily dependent on agriculture. The oilfields in the South have kept the region’s economy alive since 1999. It is estimated that around 80% of the untapped oil deposit in Sudan is in South Sudan. The oil revenues according to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), were split equally for the duration of the agreement period. Since South Sudan relies on pipelines, refineries, and Port Sudan’s facilities in Red Sea state in Sudan, the agreement stated that the government of Sudan in Khartoum would receive 50% share of all oil revenues. Oil revenues constitute more than 98% of the government of South Sudan’s budget according to the southern government’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and this has amounted to more than $8 billion in revenue since the signing of the peace agreement. [ Source: Wikipedia]

Uganda is also known as the “Pearl of Africa”. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall, and sizable mineral deposits of copper and cobalt. The country has largely untapped reserves of both crude oil and natural gas. [ Source: Wikipedia.]

Uganda’s reserves include copper, tungsten, cobalt, columbite-tantalite, gold, phosphate, iron ore, and limestone. Gold, cobalt, and columbite-tantalite are mined. Gold is an important export, but it is complicated by the fact that gold has been smuggled into Uganda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Exploration for petroleum, which had long showed geological potential, particularly under Lakes Albert and Edward, proceeded slowly until 2006, when oil was struck. Significant quantities of petroleum were discovered in the Lake Albertine rift basin in 2008 and 2009. [ Source: Encyclopedia Britannica.]

Democratic Republic of Congo. Although citizens of the DRC are among the poorest in the world, having the second lowest nominal GDP per capita, the Democratic Republic of Congo is widely considered to be the richest country in the world regarding natural resources; its untapped deposits of raw minerals are estimated to be worth in excess of US$ 24 trillion.[…]In 2007, The World Bank decided to grant the Democratic Republic of Congo up to $1.3 billion in assistance funds over the next three years. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the world and among the ten poorest countries in Africa. The Central African Republic relies heavily on its exports, of which the most important are timber, diamonds, cotton, and coffee. Situated on a fertile plateau and abundant in water resources, the Central African Republic has considerable agricultural potential. It also has a wealth of mineral resources, including diamonds, which account for nearly half of the country’s total export earnings. Gold, uranium, iron ore, copper, and manganese are mined in smaller quantities.

[Sources: Wikipedia, britannica, CIA The World Fact Book]

South Sudan, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and The Central African Republic on the map of Africa

Madness of War

And if any mischief follow, then you shall give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. — Exodus 21:23-26

Madness of war (and it goes far beyond “an eye for an eye” ) can be illustrated with this simple facts:

The terrorist September 11 attacks by Al-Qaeda resulted in 2,996 immediate (attack time) deaths, including the 19 hijackers and 2,977 victims
The decade-long War in Afghanistan (2001–present) has caused the deaths of at least 37,208 of Afghan civilians directly from insurgent and foreign military action, as well as a consequence of displacement, starvation, disease, exposure, lack of medical treatment, crime and lawlessness resulting from the war. [ Source >> ] As of 29 December 2011, there have been 2,765 coalition deaths in Afghanistan as part of ongoing coalition operations (Operation Enduring Freedom and ISAF) since the invasion in 2001 [ Wikipedia ]
The Iraq Body Count project (IBC) figure of 104,080 — 113,728 civilian deaths from violence up to November 2011 includes civilian deaths due to Coalition and insurgent military action, sectarian violence and increased criminal violence. The IBC site states: “it should be noted that many deaths will probably go unreported or unrecorded by officials and media. 4,485 US Troops killed. [ Source >> ]
Casualties of the Libyan civil war (February 15 – October 2, 2011) are estimated at 25,000. At least 5,357 to 7,018 reported civilians killed by October 23, 2011. [ Source >> ] NATO warplanes flew 18,000 sorties over Libya during the 7-month campaign, which ended in October. [ Source>>] According to the Libyan Health office, the airstrikes killed 1,108 civilians and wounded 4,500 by July 13 (2011).

Image Source >>

Photo by STEPHANIE SINCLAIR/Chicago Tribune. A mosque employee prepares the body of Lamiamh Ali, 6. Four siblings were playing outside their home in Baghdad when a U.S. cluster bomb exploded. Two of the children died that day and their brother died later as a result of his injuries. Photo taken April 26, 2003. Source: Iraq: The unseen war

Image Source >>

How many more will die if politicians create a war with Iran ??? (Population estimate for 2012: 78,868,711) [ Note: There is big difference between “self-defense” and “preemptive war”. A preemptive strike is a military raid with a limited military objective which falls short of the objective of the initiation of all-out war. A preemptive war is similar to a preemptive strike, in that both are military strategies, involving an attack on an opponent suddenly when they are not prepared for an aggressive action. ]

Was it Worth it?

It seems obvious that none of these wars were about “justice” and helping oppressed people – it is always all about control and money.

Success of “Kony 2012” Internet media campaign suggests we should use the Internet to “wake up” the people and achieve similar success in exposing (and removing from power) politicians who lead our countries to wars… Keep it in mind when you vote for the next president in the upcoming elections.

A visitor’s comment: … Why are people scared to live by what our country was founded upon. […] Time for real change in D.C. If Paul doesn’t win, prepare for WW3. Best of luck to everyone.

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Kony 2012: what’s the real story?