"Can I say you're my girlfriend on Facebook?"

I don't want to watch the video, can someone summarize it for me plz?

Video: "Joseph Kony is a bad man." (And he is, indescribably so.)

This, however, is also making the rounds:

http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/

The video itself is really boring and patronising too, at least usually these things are engaging or funny.

Related:

http://jezebel.com/5891269/think-twice-before-donating-to-kony-2012-the-meme-du-jour

Please tell me if I have this correct:

A long (relative to most viral videos) video about this murderous, insane Ugandan paramilitary monster goes viral.
People feel a little self-congratulatory about watching/sharing it.
Somebody made a tumblr criticizing the motives/method/efficacy of the organization that made the video.

xp I will read that article TIA

Yeah pretty much.

Oh, okay, the video is soliciting money for a charity that sounds about as ultimately useful as Children International or whoever those shitbirds that send earnest college students out into the streets to solicit donations from passersby.

Jezebel article was a good summary. Thank you!

wait, I'm reading the Jezebel article - and it quotes something saying that their finances haven't been externally audited, but then it links to audited financial statements prepared by an independent firm. The audit shows two years of financials, and maybe it was undertaken in response to the Charity Navigator complaint? It would be quite o_O for an organization with that large a budget to not conduct an independent audit. I'd imagine that some of their institutional funders would require it.

But looking at the financial statements - they show that the vast majority of their expenses were program-related. It is unclear whether the travel and compensation were for people providing services in Africa or not. It is unclear what "production cost" is.

It generally raises my hackles when people that aren't familiar with non-profit accounting and finances make statements like that.

http://i.imgur.com/c2W4b.jpg

Everyone I saw post that works for Boise State's college radio; I assumed it was some fundraising thing for a radio station (KONY) and an indie band I'd never heard of (Visible Children).

when you ass-ume

looking at their most recent tax return, the three key employees don't make outlandish salaries -- under $100k -- but the weird thing is that there's over $1 million in compensation paid to disqualified persons/entities and no salaries/wages for non-key employees, which is potentially very o_O.

Well looks like they've worked out a response:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html

i definitely have mixed feelings about how they used timeline to structure the beginning part of the narrative.

yeah i get a little suspicious when co-workers who generally comment solely about the Kardashians are posting about this nonstop

i saw the video a couple of days ago at the insistence of a friend, and was pretty satisfied today when my feed was overloaded with the appropriate level of skepticism rather than the "omg u must watch this for the babies"

People have been posting things like "I don't normally care about politics and this kind of thing but this video really moved me" and I think that says a lot more about the people than the video, I would love if this became some sort of massive awakening that encouraged people to get more involved and pay more attention to global problems etc but I'm not holding my breath.

clicktivism

i of all people really shouldn't be so cynical. like you say, boxedjoy, people paying attention to complicated concerns is a net plus for the world no matter what it is that gets them to pay attention. maybe of the millions who've seen this thing a few (thousand?) will actually get involved in aid work.

What have you got against babies, Hoos?

Just have to say, I work for a nonprofit that has two stars from Charity Navigator and I'm completely confident in our work.

FB invite to a Kony 2012 event on ~4/20~

hitler's birthday. oh, fuck!

Why, where were you going to be?

The ironic thing about this photo is that I HATE guns.

and people will trust them with their donations. Hmm.

the 4/20 thing was in the video and I was like, hitler's birthday? people smoking tons of weed day? why did they pick that day?

^

was born on Nazi Weed Day

my dad was, dunno wtf happened to that post

that pic of the white bros w/guns is with the SPLA (south sudanese army) and it was taken in 2008... when the SPLA were still using child soldiers. it seems they haven't entirely demobilized them yet, too.

Just have to say, I work for a nonprofit that has two stars from Charity Navigator and I'm completely confident in our work.

― beachville, Thursday, March 8, 2012 9:08 AM (9 hours ago)

OTM. And I hate the current trend that rates a charity higher for underpaying their employees. There's a lot to be said for hiring talented people and compensating them appropriately for their work with you organization.

fwiw apparently their statement on that photo was "it was dumb, we were young and at the peace talks and thought it would be a fun photo to show to people back home--haha, they're at the peace talks with guns!"

http://blogs.reuters.com/jackshafer/2012/03/08/kony-baloney/

Jack Schafer sounds like a dong, to be honest.

Here is an interview with the woman who took the "guns" photo.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/invisible-children-founders-posing-with-guns-an-interview-with-the-photographer/2012/03/08/gIQASX68yR_blog.html?tid=pm_pop&socialreader_check=0&denied=1

I didn't watch the full video, so I can't respond to her criticisms. I have to say that this

I think there are a lot of reputable NGOs doing the daily business of development — the actual building of latrines, training of teachers, etc. Oxfam and IRC have great operations in Uganda. Lacor Hospital, Caritas Uganda, The Refugee Law Project, Christian Counseling Fellowship, and African Youth Initiative Network. I really hope that we can redirect the energy to these groups, as much as possible.

is probably OTM. However, none of those orgs have a hugely viral fundraising video. I really have to give Invisible Children respect for doing that. It can be pretty hard to raise a buck sometimes and it'll be interesting to see what other nonprofits launch campaigns like this in IC's wake.

to change the subject to, I dunno, Facebook: the worst thing about being forced into the timeline is that the thing I liked best about Facebook, the massive wall of messages on your birthday, is just not nearly as nice and impressive-looking on the timeline.

That is something I noticed today..

Happy Birthday!

I just switched to Timeline in the last week and a half or so. I like the layout, but the page loads very slowly and often when I'm trying to scroll down, it jumps back up to the top. Is this common?

Oh jesus, some friend of a friend has been going on and on and on about this video on FB all week, so last night I politely (I thought) pointed her to the Jezebel article to get another view on it. She did not like that one bit.

We need to support this new organization instead of existing ones that are proven to provide resources to people in need because they are attempting to bring to justice to an individual who was a major concern in the 80s and 90s.

After my last post, I found out there was an actual thread for that, guys.

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=77&threadid=91430

tut tut, that man.

why u link to 77, mang

another classy message from the same woman who posted the thing about god & school

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s320x320/423967_365520403482761_100000744148158_1106815_2108087670_n.jpg

Yuck.

Happy Birthday!

^^Belated Cosign

I just switched to Timeline in the last week and a half or so. I like the layout, but the page loads very slowly and often when I'm trying to scroll down, it jumps back up to the top. Is this common?

I got it right after x-mas--it did that then, and still does now...but only in Internet Explorer (I have IE, Safari & Chrome). I also have problems w/ads on the timeline in IE, but not the other browsers.

The timeline on FB mobile is better-looking.

Ah, I use FB on Explorer on my work computer. That's probably the case.

IE still generally bullshit

every time i load a profile-- any profile-- it loads it already scrolled down 7 or 8 clicks, instead of loading it from the top

why