Posted on 03/13/2012 8:50:15 AM PDT by tobyhill
The chief executive of a group that produced a wildly popular video about African warlord Joseph Kony answered critics Monday, defending its tactics and spending practices.
"I understand why a lot of people are wondering, 'Is this just some slick, kind of fly-by-night, slacktivist thing?' when actually it's not at all," said Ben Keesey of Invisible Children. "It's connected to a really deep, thoughtful, very intentional and strategic campaign."
In an online video that runs more than eight minutes, Keesey acknowledges the sting of criticism since Invisible Children released the video "Kony 2012" last week, becoming an Internet sensation with nearly 75 million views on Google Inc.'s YouTube site alone. The overnight success has earned the San Diego-based nonprofit organization widespread praise and brought heightened scrutiny.
The group has been criticized for not spending enough directly on the people it intends to help and for oversimplifying the 26-year-old conflict involving the Lord's Resistance Army and its leader, Kony, a bush fighter wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I got an email about this from the daughter of a man I greatly respected (recently passed away).
She is a retired Air Force officer, and out of respect for her and her deceased father, I went to the links in the passionate email about this subject.
(Note: I don’t consume television or the MSM in any of its forms and don’t use Facebook or twitter, so this subject of Kony was new to me)
I was repulsed by what happens to these children over there, but that is nothing that I didn’t know about. In my entire life this has been happening over there in Africa, children butchered, pressed into service, etc. It is a terrible, thing, but we are not doing it,they are, and it is their country, their continent doing it. We are not responsible for it, THEY are.
Then, in the videos, were the Hope and Change liberal crowd. All of them. With the same slogans, the same moral outrages, the same penetrating guilt they all seem to want to acquire and bathe in.
Their spokesman came across as a charlatan.
I will not have anything to do with any group that uses the Peace Sign in their logo. Might as well be a clenched fist with a rose.
The liberals in large crowds seemed completely choreographed with their insane “talking hands” thing (which completely creeps me out to begin with), rhyming chants and their groupthink.
Then they said Barack Obama was fully on board with this, and they were trying to deploy US Military forces to the area to address this.
At that point, I said, “Okay. We’re done here.” and deleted the email.
Later on, my wife was watching one of those Hollywood shows that comes on in the early evening, and I saw it was largely devoted to pumping up this cause. The guy’s name was “Billy Bush”, which I found somewhat ironic.
Point is, I am not allying with these people and absorbing their guilt over something my country has nothing to do with. I know liberals, schooled in the Jared Diamond school of liberalism who think we enslaved them and stole all their resources and leaving them destitute for centuries are going to disagree, but they are all brainless idiots without the capacity for a single original thought, so their opinion doesn’t register with me.
I’ll be called heartless. I’ll be called racist. I will be accused of supporting the horrible people doing these heinous things.
But I can’t control that. As other posters said, this is reminicient of “The Two Minutes Hate”, except this involves,
children, people of color and genocide. Makes Goldstein look pretty pale in comparison.
Some have said he hasn’t been seen since 2004.
Bump for later
Most of the fighting in Africa was started by Russia and Cuba in th e 1950’s and 1960’s. Money is not going to save them. Christ and good truthful education is what will save them. A T-shirt never feed anyone.
In Uganda, the Iranian leader also finds a potential business partner just beginning to tap its oil resources. Oil-rich Iran is in the running to build an oil refinery for the African country. It’s also built a housing complex with thousands of units and is looking at building a tractor assembly plant and a beef cannery. -———— “Iran to obtain uranium from Zimbabwe,” JPost ^ | 25/04/2010 06:48 | By AP , http:/www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=173845
2008 : (AFRICA : UGANDA, DRC, SOUTH SUDAN & 17 US MILITARY ADVISORS CONDUCT OP LIGHTNING THUNDER AGAINST AN LRA CAMP ) The failure of Operation Lightning Thunder in 2008 against an LRA camp by Uganda, the DRC and South Sudan, was blamed on poor coordination among the combatant forces and a lack of operational secrecy. Seventeen US military advisers provided support for the operation.
In its immediate aftermath, LRA units went on the rampage, killing hundreds of civilians and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes. —— In-depth: On the trail of the LRA , IRIN ^ | 30 November 2011 http://www.irinnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?indepthid=92&reportid=94259 ; Posted on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 9:02:41 PM by Pan_Yan,
I’m trying to find documentation linking the International Crisis Group with Invisible Children. Do you have that?
"Members of the administration, Congress...and non-governmental organizations community attended the bill signing, including... Mark Schneider, President of the International Crisis Group, ...Ben Keesey, Executive Director of Invisible Children... "
Signing of Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009 (June 2010)
And, of cause, as always, with Obama, behind the scenes, see post #14 for the Soros connection.
Now if someone had the resources to investigate the funding of the two, I'd put my last buck on another match.
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