As many of us know parts of Africa (specifically Sudan and Uganda) have been having lots of trouble with an organization called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). what this organization is doing, is not only slaughtering innocent towns people of Uganda and Sudan (men, women, children, elderly) but also kidnapping children and forcing them to fight for the Lord's Resistance Army. the LRA is lead by one man, by the name of Joseph Kony, who sees himself as a living deity. For the past 23 years this man has been kidnapping and killing people, innocent people, in his home country to fight for his cause. The government of Uganda has tried many times to negotiate peace with Joseph Kony, however it so far has been to no avail. It is time that we, the people of this world say "STOP"! Stop killing innocent people! Stop kidnapping children to fight for you! The Children that he kidnaps are the same age or younger as some of us on this game, and for others the same age or younger than some of your children! Joseph Kony and his army are kidnapping and taking kids between the ages of 7-17 years old! Many of which are never seen from or heard of ever again. They are told that if they show fear, or cry, or try to get escape that they will be killed. Those that do escape do so with a price. That is, having to live the rest of their lives knowing the things they have done. Some have told stories about throwing new born babies into the rivers because their mothers would not move fast enough. or massacring whole villages of people who have nothing to do with this war. In the last two years, an estimated 900,000 of the 1.8 million Ugandans have been displaced to other countries because of this war. Mothers and Fathers never seeing their kids again because they were kidnapped by the LRA, children having to grow up without parents because the LRA has killed them. No where to go, No where to turn, No one to stay with. whole families literally ripped apart! In December of 2008 alone More than 104,000 Congolese have been displaced since Christmas in attempts to escape the LRA forces in this month ALONE! the people and government of Uganda need our help, they need us to help and say "enough, no more violence!" this is why groups such as The Invisible Children, or STAND have started. most of this is mainly just school participation however the solution to his problem cannot be for just us students alone to handle! we need everybody, and anybody, to help stop the fighting, stop the mindless killing, stop the kidnappings and bring home the Invisible Children of the Lord's Resistance Army! there are many programs that any and all of us can get involved in to help do our part and End this Genocide. such as:Schools for Schools - http://s4s.invisiblechildren.com/what this is, is a program run by (hopefully) your local school system where students, falcality, and families can help raise money to rebuild damaged, destroyed, and new schools for the Children of Uganda. talk to your local school system to see what they are doing to help raise money for the Schools for Schools programThe Invisible Children Bracelet Campaign - http://www.invisiblechildren.com/theMissio...acelet_Campaignwhat this is, is a campaign program for displaced children and families of Uganda to be provided jobs to make bracelets to be sold overseas this helps provide the displaced citizens with a job and an income to help try to make their lives better. all proceeds from these purchases go right back to The Invisible Children campaign to help end this GenocideMEND - http://store.invisiblechildren.com/mend/MEND is a non-profit organization in which fashionable bags, handbags, and other clothes are made to be sold with all of the proceeds going directly to the Invisible Children's campaign. this project started Sept 1st of 2009.Visible Children Scholarship Fund - http://www.invisiblechildren.com/theMissio...ucation_programthis is a program in which people can donate money to the cause inorder to help the children of Uganda pay for school so that they might yet still have a decent living and make a difference in not only their country but in this world.here in the United States, The Invisible Children campaign is petitioning directly do President Obama to get directly involved and help end this Genocide. for those residents of the United States check out this link to sign the petition and help stop this madness. http://www.invisiblechildren.com/obamafor those who do not live in the United States, write to your government officials and petition them to help stop the mindless war in Uganda and the surrounding area. Campaign and do your part in your respective countries! alone we may not be heard but together we can all make a difference! while many of us may not share similar views in or about this game, heck some of us may not even like others in this game for various reasons i think that one thing we can all agree on is that the mindless killing and kidnapping of innocent people is not something to be tolerated! i beg you all to do your part and help end this violence!you can help the people of Uganda regain their country and in many cases their lives.

Sadly, nobody gives a damn about the entire continent. Death, disease and poverty have become so associated with Africa that it rarely shocks you to hear that people are dying by the thousands everyday.

What's strange is...it isn't that other countries no longer have a vested interest in Africa. Africa is a continent rich in resources that the modern world needs and wants, meaning other nations should and do want access to materials...yet we all just take from the continent with little to no regard of the suffering population.

I think the last time the US got involved in an African country to bring order back a few helicopters got shot down and 20 people died.

To be fair, the US did a !@#$ job of planning and running the operation, which ended up getting its men killed.

Also, I don't think it was the last time the US has been involved in peace keeping in Africa, though it might have been its last effort at peace making on the continent.

would it not be better to hunt down and kill the leaders of this group instead of going around and cleaning up after them? It would be more economical for the money donated to pay professional mercenaries to go in and kill the leaders in my opinion.

The best thing we can do for Africa is not let Western companies (or governments) subsidize warlords and dictators to serve our short-term interests, and let Africans sort out their own problems.

Our meddling caused a good portion of this, and no matter how well-intentioned it is, the *last* thing we should be doing is more meddling to choose governments and institutions in that part of the world. If we can actually stop contributing to the problem it will be the best thing we've done for Africa in centuries.

My little sister is really really into this organization and it looks legit for what they're trying to do. They're helping people, which is great work, so you can't criticize them, but I wouldn't say they'll necessarily be able to "end the genocide" by themselves or their current methods.

I would say it's more the Europeans than our (American) meddling that caused all this. When they divided up Africa into colonies, they $%&@ed up tribal boundaries, which caused tribal wars whenever they didn't maintain enough of an armed presence. In the current day and age, there's too much bad blood from the past (see Rwanda as an example) for them to be properly reconciled within the current political boundaries. Aid to the "legitimate" (definition seems to change daily in Africa) government needs to be severed (aid groups like this provide a more direct approach with less possibility of corruption or diversion of funds) and there needs to be a Pan-African meeting about not only situations in their current countries, but whether or not the current political divisions are correct and promote peace in Africa.

As it is, the political climate on the whole of the continent is too $%&@ed to do anything but what these guys are, alleviating what bit of suffering they can.

My school does a lot of funding for this organization. It was this huge thing with a lot of people involved among other things, it is legit.

america has pumped billions into aid to Africa, yet it never gets better there. i think Africa can never get better unless we liberate them from their corrupt governments, like Iraq.

And then watch as the violence and our deficit go up ten-fold, as well as our bad image to the rest of the world. Good idea, western.

if it means doing the right thing, cuz our money aint getting to the villages and cities cuz of the coorupt government and the violence from the guerrillas (you know hat i mean)

And, as someone mentioned earlier, the last couple of times America has tried to "liberate" (my @%!) a country, it's ended horribly. Black Hawk Down, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, etc etc etc etc etc.

Korea worked pretty well, I'd say; South Korea is still standing eh?



Iraq is in Asia

how can you say Iraq is a failure? how? just another example of how some are soo uninformed...

Yes, but I said it more as a mention to all the stupid wars America's gotten in over the last 60 years due to blatant fear mongering (ZOMG! RUSSIANS, COMMIES, AND TERRORISTS, OH MY!).

Not really. Mercenaries have been involved in Africa for quite some time and they haven't helped. Plus, even if you kill the leaders of these groups, more pop up anyway. You can't solve the problem until you get to the root of the situation...which is essentially poverty.



Easier said than done. Governments have money riding on these companies, as well as votes... As long as there is money to be made in Africa, foreign governments will be interested in propping up whatever government serves their best interests...




Too bad people have been doing this for years, and it only makes the situation worse... Besides, the US has let plenty of corrupt, brutal dictatorships take over democratic African nations, in order to access their natural resources. We've never been ones to promote democracy if it gets in the way of our profits...

i do believe that Russians with nukes aimed at us... and terrorists hijacking planes is no joke. Its called "the REAL world", you should look into it.

Yup, because Iraq is such a vibrant liberal democracy now.

Iraq is now having fair elections, it now safer to walk in the streets, and their economy is growing. i do believe thats another win for america.

Well, UN mandates and all I believe were responsible for the US's involvement in Korea, although your other points tend to hold

This site also gives help to Africa.

www.myc4.com

I can recommend this project.

Safer to walk in the streets compared to before or after we toppled Saddam?

Hmm.... somebody believed the "Mission Accomplished" banner a little too much. There are so many different groups of people trying to kill each other and us all at once that I've honestly lost count of them all.


Because Russia was jumping at the chance to end the world. And must I remind you that one event is not justification for a long line of wars and unconstitutional behavior (PATRIOT Act, etc)?


Iraq is having elections in the puppet government we set up there. It is safer to walk the streets now compared to right after we invaded, but nothing even remotely close to how safe it was under Hussein. And their economy is growing because we're pumping billions of dollars into it (not to mention we managed to lose a large truckload of it at one point, don't remember the exact event though).

The biggest problem with Africa is the way it's been split up, as somebody mentioned earlier. It's almost as though they were carved one from the other - to ensure that there are not enough resources for any one African state to sustain itself without taking foreign money in exchange for valuable resources at extortionate prices.

What compounds this problem is when certain states or viable traders, banks, international corporations, etc. Refuse to trade with these states due to their history, style or form of government or the fact that there is conflict in the region. What this does effectively is breeds corruption and causes warlords or mobsters to take control of the resources, move them out of the country and then sell them at piss-poor rates. This is especially true with diamonds, minerals (bauxite, cobalt, etc) and precious metals (gold, platinum).

An example of where this has come back to shoot the west in the foot is with Sudan. In '93 the US listed Sudan as being responsible for 'state sponsored terrorism' which effectively banned US traders from dealing with Sudan. China took Sudan up as a trading partner and in recent years it was discovered that Sudan was sitting on a mountain of oil (over 5 billion barrels of oil).

A new trend has developed though with Latin America, China, etc. Being more friendly with the African states, and so it's likely that as these rising powers begin gaining influence and continue trading with Africa this problem will mend itself. However it will contribute to the end of the Euro-centric view of the world.

My thought is to kill the warlords, arm the general populace, and teach them how to defend themselves against anybody else who tries to become a warlord. Then help them hold elections for the first year.

Not a puppet government, no funding extremists, just get the people themselves up on their feet representing themselves. Give it enough time, and we can become their allies the normal way, diplomacy, instead of trying to make a puppet state.

Don't give guns to everybody if you don't want everybody to have guns.

More importantly, you morans who are going to derail this into a US invasion debate are taking attention away from the main focus of this thread.

Isn't that always a lot easier said than done?

Oh it's simple, put the warlords to "sleep" by using special operation troops or mercenaries (while reminding them to avoid killing too many innocents) and show future warlords what will happen if they try to go lolrage.

Then you give aid supplies to the civilians and teach them how to make a living.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, feed him forever.


Indeed, but it's the fastest way to stop the massacures. Hoping that the civilians will stop the warlords with aid supplies will take a while, if ever.

Give a man a !@#$ ton of money, watch him grow to a warlord in a day. Teach him that you can kill and get money, watch him stay warlord forever.

Learn a warlord to steal food and water that was meant for his people... well you get it.

thank you for contributing to this thread. anything anybody can do helps. people dont realize that governments are only as powerful as the people they serve. all us as citizens need to do is get the ball rolling and any and all contributions help!

I would prefer to stop the suffering of American children first.

That isn't to say the children in Africa are not important.

A noble cause. However, sad to say a lost one. Until there is united, well funded, African backed international action in all parts of Africa, little can be done.

However, I always support these efforts because change starts small.

^ this. Give a man a match, he's warm for a minute. Light him on fire, he's warm the rest of his life.


^ this too. So many kids here in the US are struggling to live each day.

I must disagree. Not nearly enough kids here in the US are struggling to live each day. The lack of hardship is the reason why America is falling as a society. Things are just way too easy for kids here.

That too. Some of us are too pampered. Half the people I know can't survive without their BlackBerries.

Kids are spoiled in America. Let them live in Africa for two weeks (I mean the stereotypical bush jungle Africa) and they'll have died because they don't want to mess their jeans up in the dirt to get food.

They'd survive longer in the jungles than they would in a refugee camp or a war torn city...

So true. I know some people who'd just sit down and not move at all just so they wouldn't kick up any dust. They'd rather die than get down on their knees and hunt for food like some others.

Leave Acholiland alone guys.
Joseph Koni wouldn't have as much influence today if the Ugandan government hadn't been such a bunch of Bantu-supremacist, genocidal fruitcakes about the Acholi in the first place.

The whole world basically told the Acholi that they weren't allowed to be independent, that their land belonged to Uganda and that their president in Kampala has the right to take everything they own because .. well just because.

The result of this line of thinking are people such as Joseph Koni.

What's the answer? There isn't one, at least not anymore. The time that this conflict could have been resolved peacefully was 50 years ago.

Amen.

We have a winner!

Or the internet *cough* CyberNations/Facebook/Myspace/Twitter/Youtube *cough*.

On top of that, I have seen people who can not survive without Gatorade, energy drinks, or soda for more than an hour.

Depends, would you like being taken away by the police and tortured for no discernible reason? and more infact having your family forced to not only witness your torture in person, but to applaud it aswell?

You forget how $%&@ed up Saddam was.

Everybody wants to help those in need in other countries but not in our own.

I never said it was perfect under him. But the daily civilian death toll was definitely lower than after we toppled his regime and opened up the country to terrorism and sectarian violence...

Europe has had an interest in Africa for centuries now. No one gives a crap about the problems in Africa because it's difficult to solve them. Nation-building isn't easy, as Somalia, the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan have demonstrated.

Novel idea here, how about we do both the type of problems are different and require different approaches. Even within Africa there's a multitude of different problems, which isn't surprising seeing as it's a continent made up of a large number of individual states.

Somebody mentioned earlier that the main root of many of these problems is poverty and whilst that may be partially true in some areas the problem isn't so much poverty but the resulting instability and lack of infrastructure that makes recovery from that poverty impossible. Some of the worst affected nations are beyond the point of recovery and it is in these cases that the international community needs to step in. Not only with money, seeing as giving already corrupt regimes cash is akin to handing out free firearms and face masks to bank customers, but with boots on the ground.

It's really REALLY sad that the governments there are soo corrupt not to care about the population. So many problems in that continent >_> will take centuries of revolutions and radical changes to that continent to sort all the problems out

edit: It's also largely the press' fault. News Corporation (what an interesting name) owner of Fox (including Fox News) and MANY of the world's newspapers...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asset...ews_Corporation
And there are similar corporations which own large chunks of the companies which bring information from all over the world to other parts of the world, including to the places with power, America and Europe. I know for a fact that most of what goes on in South Africa (very serious by European standards) isn't reaching the world. So the world can't speak up about the crime, homicide, and racism (towards white people by black people, and towards other black people by black people), and rape which happens there... and what the police is doing about it (absolutely !@#$%^&*). South Africa is the New Zimbabwe, in at least 20 years, if the government doesn't change it's act, and fast*.
And why was Zimbabwe reported as it was? Because Mugabe used to be a hero to the West. He was knighted in the UK. He was being watched. He also accused Britain and the West of the country's current problems, something which isn't true, something which immediately caught the BBC's eye. At least people in Zimbabwe reported the violence directly to the internet, not relying on international news corporations, who often have an island mentality. Most people in Uganda and those places don't have the internet access South Africans and Zimbabweans did/do.

*Although people coming from South Africa say that the new president is sending the right signals.

Nothing's going to change as long as Africa has one third of all the arid land in the world, and unfortunately that's not changing any time in the next few millennia. When it only rains for 3 months out of the year and you're living on the poorest soil in the world, your people are pretty much condemned to poverty no matter what you or anyone else does. That doesn't mean we shouldn't send them any aid, but we need to be realistic and accept that they will probably never attain our level of development, or at least not until terraforming or weather control are invented some time in the distant future (if they ever are).