Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Joseph Kony

Who the hell is he, you might ask? Well, he's a monster, a rebel leader in Uganda, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. He's a monster who's army, the LRA, "turns young Ugandan girls into sex slaves and young boys -- more than 30,000 of them -- into cold-blooded killers in his force."

He's been classified by the International Criminal Court as a war criminal, much like in my mind, Saddam Hussein was classified. According to Wikipedia Kony has abducted and forced more than 60,000 children to fight for him.

Why am I taking the time to write about such a vile and despicable creature? Because there is a video making the rounds on Facebook. This video is trying to *Raise Awareness* of the cause of a Non Profit Organization (NPO) Invisible Children and their efforts to bring Kony to justice. However, this video is questionable at best. It seems Invisible Children has some problems with their fund raising, just 32% has actually gone to the cause of justice.

The Huffington Post has a few articles about the movement began by filmmaker Jason Russell, calling for a world wide movement to hunt down, capture and bring Kony to justice. Invisible Children has made a YouTube video and begun a campaign that tells us exactly how they plan to put a final end to Kony's reign. And how we can all help.

So, what's the problem Vickie? Why aren't you jumping on the bandwagon, plastering this video on your Facebook and Twitter pages? Why aren't you screaming for everyone you know to DO something? It's simple, I have a HUGE problem endorsing anything that asks me for money and then doesn't use the money for its intended purpose.

I had this video up with FULL intention of supporting this cause in any way I can...until I got an email from Facecrooks, warning that Invisible Children may not be everything they claim to be. I have since pulled the video from my Timeline and it's not going back up...at least for now. According to Facecrooks:
"Here are a couple of the allegations levied against Invisible Children:
*Last year the organization raised $8,676,614 and only 32% of these funds went to direct services. It appears that a large majority of their funding went to pay staff salaries, transportation expenses and film production. Charity Navigator rates their accountability and transparency 2 out of 4 stars. This is due to the fact that the organization has not undergone an external audit of their funds.

*Invisible Children supports direct military intervention, and their funding is said to support the Ugandan government and other military forces. The Ugandan army has been accused of rape and looting, but they are still defended by Invisible Children."

So, until I can do more research and figure out just exactly who, what where, when and why is going to actually be helping in the capture and prosecution of Joseph Kony, I will not be circulating the video produced and endorsed by Invisible Children. Does this make me a horrible person because I'm possibly hampering the awareness factor? Maybe, but I really don't care. I want to be 100% sure of the facts before I endorse anything of this magnitude.