Kony Discussion

[Tas]

You may remove the overt carrying of weapons on the street in those places, but I garentee you thats all you do. Even the so called gun buyback in Aus didn't do a damn thing. Most people I know laughed when the gov called for the gun buyback an amnesty. an they are not criminal types at all.

You can bet in those places where western troops go in to restore law an order that they dont get rid of even 1/3 of the weapons they say they did. Most are just hidden until you leave.
Case in point, I know of a black market gunshop about 3 mins walk from me, but the guy wont even talk to you unless you know someone who recommends you.

[Kremmen]

disarming will do bugger all as the machete is the weapon of choice.
People may be suprised by the number of deaths attributed to the humble machete.

The killing was well organized by the government.[13] When it started, the Rwandan militia numbered around 30,000, or one militia member for every ten families. It was organized nationwide, with representatives in every neighborhood. Some militia members were able to acquire AK-47 assault rifles by completing requisition forms. Other weapons, such as grenades, required no paperwork and were widely distributed by the government. Many members of the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi were armed only with machetes. Even after the 1993 peace agreement signed in Arusha, businessmen close to General Habyarimana imported 581,000 machetes for Hutu use in killing Tutsi, because machetes were cheaper than guns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide

[Nekosan]

disarming will do bugger all as the machete is the weapon of choice.
People may be suprised by the number of deaths attributed to the humble machete.

This ^

How are you supposed to disarm the populace when you have companies shipping MILLIONS of cheap, Chinese made machetes in every year? If the warlords want control then they'll just use home made spears if they have to, disarming the country isn't an option.

In this country we shoot dogs who bite someone (or put them down at vet if you live in city), but we cant shoot a pure evil feral dog like koney because "it wouldn't be nice". Fix or no fix if koney died today an it just happened to save 1 child, then his death is a good thing.

[ChainsawMcP]

You can bet in those places where western troops go in to restore law an order that they dont get rid of even 1/3 of the weapons they say they did. Most are just hidden until you leave.

disarming will do bugger all as the machete is the weapon of choice.
People may be suprised by the number of deaths attributed to the humble machete.

I'll emphasise an earlier thought

As for fixing the other issues in Africa, will never happen they have been fighting for hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, you're probably right - unless there is an ongoing effort to establish rule of law under international guidance/enforcement.

Estimates from Somalia to establish a proper police force - properly equipped and PAID so they weren't susceptible to petty bribery - about $13 million. Estimates for the US to keep their troops deployed in Somalia - about $30-40 million A DAY

If the UN had chosen to "rebuild" Somalia and restore a functioning government - instead of just "feed the starving" - they'd probably have succeeded - but they had no intention of any such thing. The US had no clear objectives - but took their mission to be security for the feed the starving mission. The Australians decided that the people were starving because the warlords were stealing the food - because there was no effective counter to them - so they solved the root problem. They re-employed former Somali Police officers as Auxiliary Security Forces to get boots on the ground (which some of the US in Mogadishu were trying to do) - then when the UN and US decided that that was a good idea - they snuck Judges on to the payroll and paid them as top ranking police officers.

Solving the root problem - rather than trying to hunt down and kill one or two warlords - worked for the Australians in Somalia. It worked because the locals saw they were there to help - and started to respond by providing useful intel and info - and standing up as witnesses because they felt safe to do so.


Maybe the best way to stop the situation which allowed Kony to exist and thrive is to restore order through the region - make it possible for people to grow cash crops rather than having to only grow food crops - make it possible for mining companies to operate safely - regulate and tax the sale of diamonds instead of having half of them stolen and sold for a pittance to rebels/warlords/thugs who then sell them for greater profits to fund their conflict...

Assist the region to realise some of its potential - build infrastructure that assists the locals instead of just the well-off - pay fair prices for the oil, diamonds, uranium, etc etc that are currently ripped out of the region by multinational companies.... .... ....

Oh, **** - I'm starting to sound like one of THOSE people...

[Chucky]

20-04-2012 has been and gone, did anyone 'Cover the night' and place posters all over the place, or did this just fizzle down to being forgotten about?

[Nekosan]

20-04-2012 has been and gone, did anyone 'Cover the night' and place posters all over the place, or did this just fizzle down to being forgotten about?

Wow.... I guess people really didn't give a **** after all

[Chucky]

But of the more than 18,700 people who indicated via Facebook they would attend the Cover the Night event in Sydney, only around 25 could be seen in Martin Place on Friday night.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaki ... 6334899506

[=beast=]

lololololol

[skitzor]

that's what happens when the figure head of the campaign has a mental breakdown.

he made it too much about himself, so when he did that crazy ****, it reflected on the whole cause.

[FryzieDelta]

This is still happening?

[Vengeance47]

that's what happens when the figure head of the campaign has a mental breakdown.

he made it too much about himself, so when he did that crazy ****, it reflected on the whole cause.

I disagree.

This is what happens when a bunch of teenagers click "attend" just so they can be in on the latest fad and seem cool.

As a 20 year old myself, I can tell you right now that 99.9% of the people who shared, liked or clicked attend to any of the Kony related material just did so because everybody else was. Barely any of them would have actually had any idea about the issue at hand. They just wanted to be cool and participate in the latest fad.

Funnily enough though, more than 250,000 people signed a petition to get Apple to improve working conditions at Foxconn. When it comes to their precious iPhone, iPad, iPod, iWhateversnext, the general populous will do just about anything because Apple is the "in" thing atm. Sure, the intentions were good to improve working conditions, but if one was to look at the schemes on a grander scale, the Kony movement would have been far more productive and helped a hell of a lot more people.

So imo this failed because Kony was just another fad. Everyone totally forgot about it and have moved on to the next fad.

[Jnr]

that's what happens when the figure head of the campaign has a mental breakdown.

he made it too much about himself, so when he did that crazy ****, it reflected on the whole cause.

I disagree.

This is what happens when a bunch of teenagers click "attend" just so they can be in on the latest fad and seem cool.

As a 20 year old myself, I can tell you right now that 99.9% of the people who shared, liked or clicked attend to any of the Kony related material just did so because everybody else was. Barely any of them would have actually had any idea about the issue at hand. They just wanted to be cool and participate in the latest fad.

Pretty much this. And when I posted on my facebook about almost 80% of the people I know achieving absolutely nothing by clicking like and share, and that if they were actually interested in making a difference then writing letters to all forms of government would be a much more impacting and powerful way of going about this, all I received was 'Wow you have no idea' 'You're a horrible person' etc.

It's ridiculous how a small portion of people have to suffer under stereotypes because of every other idiot out there.

[skitzor]

So imo this failed because Kony was just another fad. Everyone totally forgot about it and have moved on to the next fad.

everyone totally forgot about it because the organisers couldn't advertise it more closer to today/yesterday.

if the guy didn't have a **** meltdown, they would have advertised heavily leading up to the big day. everyone would have remembered about it, and there would have been a bunch more people doing it.

[FryzieDelta]

when I posted on my facebook...

And that was your first mistake

You should do what I do and dump all your random and/or contraversial thoughts on GON instead so that nobody really knows who you are and it doesn't create awkward moments back in the land of the living.

See, my opinion is that if you want to change something so badly that you'll yell and rant at people for not acting then you have to be willing to sacrifice something to work towards that goal yourself. Nothing pisses me off more than a bunch of self-entitled brats and keyboard generals ranting at the government and military for not stopping these African warlords with one breath and then at their mother for buying them chocolate milk instead of strawberry with the next. You want to change the world for the better? Run for government, join the military/police/intelligence, volunteer to be a paramedic/firefighter/aid worder, become a paramilitant vigilante gunslinger, organise fundraisers for charity, whatever. Do something to earn the right to **** and moan at those actually putting in effort. Don't just click 'like' on facebook and then write an angry open letter for people not paying attention.

[skitzor]

and then at their mother for buying them chocolate milk instead of strawberry with the next.

strawberry milk is the best. a rant is justified.

Don't just click 'like' on facebook and then write an angry open letter for people not paying attention.

that's what was different about this Kony stuff. they created it to get people talking about it, so people in the congress/senate would care. it was to raise awareness so the government would do something about it. it's a different sort of activism, and it's unfortunate to see it fail because of how they decided to make the videos.

the attraction and advantage of this cause was that you could just sit back and do relatively little. let everyone you can know about it, and then if 0.5% of people who heard about this copied some letter they found on the internet and sent it to their representative, that's a butt load of letters the representatives probably wouldn't ignore.