Saturday 14 April 2012

Einstein, His Professor & God?

This story as been circulating around Facebook, again (it's happened before - but I didn't do 'this' about it), and I've been arguing with a few people on the legitimacy of whether the conversation even happened and even concerning the topic they were supposedly talking about. You may start with reading the story below, and then I'll rant on about why it doesn't prove anything.

Professor: You are a Christian, aren’t you, son? 
Student: Yes, sir. 
Professor: So, you believe in God? 
Student: Absolutely, sir. 
Professor: Is God good? 
Student: Sure. 
Professor: Is God all powerful? 
Student: Yes. 
Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn’t. How is this God good then? Hmm?
(Student was silent.
Professor: You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, young fella. Is God good? 
Student: Yes. 
Professor: Is satan good? 
Student: No. 
Professor: Where does satan come from ? 
Student: From… God… 
Professor: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world? 
Student: Yes. 
Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And God did make everything. Correct? 
Student: Yes. 
Professor: So who created evil ?
(Student did not answer.
Professor: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they? 
Student: Yes, sir. 
Professor: So, who created them?
(Student had no answer.
Professor: Science says you have 5 Senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son, have you ever seen God? 
Student: No, sir. 
Professor: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
Student: No , sir. 
Professor: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter? 
Student: No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t. 
Professor: Yet you still believe in Him? 
Student: Yes. 
Professor: According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son? 
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith. 
Professor: Yes, faith. And that is the problem Science has. 
Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat? 
Professor: Yes. 
Student: And is there such a thing as cold? 
Professor: Yes. 
Student: No, sir. There isn’t. 
(The lecture theatre became very quiet with this turn of events.
Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.
(There was pin-drop silence in the lecture theater.
Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness? 
Professor: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness? 
Student: You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light. But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it is, were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you? 
Professor: So what is the point you are making, young man? 
Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed. 
Professor: Flawed? Can you explain how? 
Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.
Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey? 
Professor: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do. 
Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shook his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument was going.
Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor. Are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?
(The class was in uproar.
Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain?
(The class broke out into laughter.
Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room was silent. The Professor stared at the student, his face unfathomable.
Professor: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son.
Student : That is it sir… Exactly! The link between man & God is Faith. That is all that keeps things alive and moving. 

There is a lot more to the story than what is above, actually it's been slowly changed around like the game some of us may have played as children and know as 'broken telephone.' Actually, not just changed around, but there are many variations to this story. I'm going to start with the point that this isn't even Albert Einstein. If it were, we would have sources left and right to verify such a story seeing as how well known he is. However, there are no sources, the only information I can find are websites telling me that this story is listed no where in any biography that has anything about the man (or the child-er-teenager, since if this was him, he was younger at the time). Not to forget that Mr. Einstein isn't even religious and doesn't believe in having a personal god.

What they were correct to say was that cold is not the opposite to heat, as hot would be the word to use. Heat is something, cold is the (not so enjoyable) sensation we refer to when there is less heat than preferred. We actually don't know what absolute zero is, and so to say that hitting 458 degrees below 0 is the lowest we can go is just for the purpose of making people think that he actually has a point. Absolute zero is a scientific theory, which means it's not certain, but this is what we have right now, the actual number is -459.67°F (or −273.15°C since I'm up here in Canada). However, we have never actually been able to mimic or see absolute zero for ourselves. Another point that this student has made that is also correct is that darkness is not necessarily a thing within itself, it's the absence of light. This is basically the same as the cold and heat comparison, darkness being a sensation we perceive through experiencing less light. However, how does this show that there is a God and that Science is wrong? Even though we understand the difference between how we perceive light and dark through Science. This is an argument made to answer the long struggled-with question of, "how can a good God exist with so much evil in the world?" The answer of free-will, etc, are also a result of this. What the supposed Mr. Einstein was saying is that good is God and that evil is the absence of good.

Science doesn't actually limit us to five senses, actually - well, our own bodies don't limit us to just having five senses. The credit for the traditional five sense model has been given to Aristotle. Although this really has nothing to do with the conversation (other than that it's another false claim) so we won't further discuss this topic here, actually I'll just send those interested to another article I found breaking down more of our senses, here (link).

The student goes onto explain his perspective of how Science can't explain a thought and that it uses electricity and magnetism, etc. Just because one option isn't fully there yet, doesn't mean the other popular option has to be correct. Science may not be able to explain consciousness (thoughts), but Spirituality is certainly on it's way, and it has nothing to do with a God or religion. With the way this student is talking is actually basic tricks used when trying to win an argument, by using bigger terms and bringing up things that people may not fully understand, you now have the upper hand because everyone either thinks that you're simply smarter than them or they've missed something big earlier on. He is right in that we cannot measure God due to that it has no limits or bounds, for there is no exact description to what God is, one can only assume due to the extensive personification of God as a "he" in the bible or other religious books.

What is death? The student say's that death is the absence of life, some articles I've read have debated saying that it can't be for then it would work the same the other way around. I don't agree with this, I'm not even sure myself what happens after death. I think that our energy will become one with the rest of life itself, but in what sense? Obviously our body matter will merge with the Earth wherever it dies (unless you're an astronaut), but what about our consciousness? These are fun questions to ask but let's get back on track. If death is the absence of life, how would this person be able to believe a religious view which includes an afterlife as the main feature to it? That's the irony of this situation, this non-existent student has now caught up with his own foolish words. The end result of this paragraph is that death is the end of life as we know it.

What is evolution? Being a member of Science, evolution is very simply the process of change over time. If you do not believe in this, than what you're saying is that the second to come is absolutely no different than the second that just passed. They must be the exact same for they have not changed, right? So, to say that we cannot prove that evolution has occurred and that it is ongoing is absolutely insane. It isn't a belief or an opinion, it is a fact the same way we understand gravity to be a fact. The scale at which the process of evolution is looked upon can be widened in time to look at where humans may have evolved from. We've observed physical objects such as ancient writings in detail to bones and fossil records. How scientists understand this is like a puzzle with only so many missing pieces, but we have enough to fill in the blanks. I'm going to end this point with this, we didn't evolve from a "monkey," we simply share the same ancestry. The Science behind it is that at the time this monkey-like creature began to stand up right, is about the same time in Africa when the forests were slowly fading to a lesser amount due to climate change and varying other happenings. Strangely enough is the fact that the reason why they began to stand up right apparently has much more to do with mating. Let's face it, humans love sex!

This story is insulting to humanity, the students can see that the professor has a brain, however you can find out with very few household tools if you'd like. We have technology that can scan the brain, we understand that we have one through comparing our actions to those who we know to have a brain. Moving on, what exactly are the "established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol?" I have never heard of any such thing, and some simple research leads me to believe that I shouldn't have done any to begin with. The professor now smiles as he seems to be unsure whether he actually has a brain, so he seems to also decide to believe it by faith, and so the rest of the students seem to draw a similar line of thought. The best part is that the point of this conversation was to show that life is between the dualism of God and evil, as if they are opposites. To be able to believe this you have to believe in God, and that isn't proven anywhere, nor can it be. I have to say though, it makes a good point for someone who's already religious.

If God commanded people to make the Bible, but we only know about this God through the Bible, then how do we know that it's genuine? The short answer is that we don't, the long answer is - well, it's even shorter, there is no long answer. God is a thing of religious stories, we have nothing to trace this thing to before these stories except what's said in the stories. For example, how do we know that God commanded these humans to create the Bible? I'm just supposed to act on faith, right? What about Horus? The Jesus 3000 years before Jesus, or the virgin Isis before the virgin Mary? There are many beings who supposedly followed the exact same story line as those in the Bible. Where religion goes wrong with Science is that Science is built on being able to change and adapt, religion is a bunch of stubborn stories leading to a bunch of ignorant people. I generally don't have a problem with people who are religious, what I have a problem with is when these people claim to be correct but when challenged become angry and say that I'm evil - no one's said that to me yet but they're thinking it (lol). Other than that, I think the goal should be to understand your belief before you act upon it. A belief is really another word for a stubborn thought, without room for change you cannot grow. Faith is necessary, but not in the stubborn sense. Nothing is absolute, forever at least, and therefore removing any room for change is like signing the tombstone ahead of time for the death of consciousness.

If anyone is interested in understanding existence, you may look up the study of consciousness; the view of spirituality. For, where Science ends, Spirituality picks up. Spirituality is at the heart of every religion, consciousness is what God truly is. God is an exaggerated, personified thing that belongs to a series of stories for the purpose of explaining how these ancient people's perceived their own consciousness.

Monday 9 April 2012

CISPA?

Before I start with this I think it's important to understand the very recent history of these bills and laws or whatever you want to call them, seeing as CISPA is only the most recent (one up until this post.)

  • SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) October 26, 2011
    This was a bill imposed by the United States by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX). It's goal was focussed more towards online piracy, as stated in the name of the bill. It was supposed to put more restrictions on online copyrighted material.
  • PIPA (PROTECT IP Act, or Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act)
    May 12, 2011
    Also imposed within the United States, the bill was introduced on May 12, 2011, by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). It's purpose was to give copyright holders access to more tools to assist them in keeping their materials (and who can access them) within their control. It ended up being passed but was actually put on hold by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).
  • ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) November 15, 2010
    This is a multinational treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. The agreement aims to establish an international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet. In October of 2011, the agreement was signed by by Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and of course, the United States. In January 2012, the European Union (including 22 countries of which are apart of the EU) also signed, therefore bringing the number of signatories up to 31. Only 6 of the signatories need to agree on, or I guess "ratify," the agreement in order for it to come into effect, but I believe none of them have done anything yet. As far as I know, it's just sitting still. I put this one as the last because it was actually the last to be brought to my attention.

What these three bills have in common, are the infringements on our right and freedoms as human beings. After 9/11 (which I most definitely believe has a little more to it than what the Government left it at) the right and freedoms began to slowly fade away and didn't seem do seem as strong as before. Apparently, the internet is next. I don't know about you, but I hate that feeling that you get when someone is watching over your shoulder... Now, I'd like to point out that the reasons for which these bills were being imposed aren't that bad, but the solutions aren't in our favour. Before we continue on to what exactly this post is about, I'd like to leave it at this. Google, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, Reddit, and in total around 115,000 websites protested against SOPA/PIPA and or ACTA by either closing their websites completely, partly, or by displaying information about why exactly you shouldn't support these bills as well as encouraging those reading to do more research for themselves. People such as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, as well as a letter written to congress by many of the inventors of the internet - and by many, I think it was something like 81? Any ways, you get the point. SOPA and PIPA were eventually shelved... Moving on!

  • CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) November 30, 2011
    The most recent bill is apparently just the SOPA, but renamed, well - and completely re-done. This is what I've heard and read by some news source which currently escape my mind. I don't know about the literal accuracy of that but, at the very least, what I can tell you with certainty is that this bill is the SOPA's big brother and that it was brought to attention to the House on November 30, 2011 by U.S. Representative Michael Rogers (R-MI). It's actually an amendment to the National Security Act of 1947, which does not currently contain provisions pertaining to cybercrime. The bottom line about this bill is that it contains very few limits as to how the government can monitor private information.

These bills are an attack on the internet, how do you feel about every little thing you do being monitored on the internet? For the record, Canada (which is where I live - so I'll mention this) did have a part of bill C-10 (Safe Streets and Communities Act) which specifically had to do with monitoring the internet, but was taken out due to protest before the bill was passed on March 12th (a month ago).

Sunday 8 April 2012

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee is one of my greatest inspirations. Last night while bored on StumbleUpon, I came across this webpage of quotes by, you guessed it, Bruce Lee! I've never seen such a great collection of quotes before so I'm going post some of my favourite's below!

Be happy, but never satisfied.
Bruce Lee

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.
Bruce Lee

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.
Bruce Lee

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.
Bruce Lee

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

Bruce Lee

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.
Bruce Lee

The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the engagement; you ought not to be thinking of whether it ends in victory or defeat. Let nature take its course, and your tools will strike at the right moment.
Bruce Lee

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.
Bruce Lee

Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.
Bruce Lee

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.
Bruce Lee

If there is a God, he is within. You don't ask God to give you things, you depend on God for your inner theme.
Bruce Lee

A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.
Bruce Lee

Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul.
Bruce Lee

To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to either spend or waste and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.
Bruce Lee

The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a patter of systems.
Bruce Lee

If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
Bruce Lee

Saturday 7 April 2012

Living healthy inside and out!

I came across two articles, the first being 50 Life Secrets and Tips and the second being 50 (More) Life Secrets and Tips! Personally, I already understood a lot of what these articles are talking about due to my reading into the topics of spirituality. That's not to say that it's not a good thing to re-educate one's self on this topic. Any ways, I'm not going to quote their entire page, I'm just going to give some of the points I enjoyed the most.

Use your memory and read more.
This will enhance your memory as well as make you the equivalent to a human Google, which is what some of my friends call me for my ability to reiterate "random" things.

Look people in their eyes and respond to them with their name when greeting them.
Eye contact is a very important thing, that connection establishes that you acknowledge them and aren't getting bored. Stating said persons' name when greeting them also will help establish a much stronger connection with that person.

Reduce your attachment to material things.
Obviously in a world where material wealth has become more important, it's not the easiest to rid yourself of. However, I'm not suggesting that one rids one's self from a material possession, but solely from the want or need or the attachment to that possession.

Focus the mind on the present moment.
The past is something that has already happened, it's unchangeable, one should not look into the past unless looking not to repeat a mistake. The future hasn't even happened yet, most are so fascinated with the future that they look so far ahead and begin to lose sight of where they currently stand. The presence is the result of the past, and it's what creates the future, why would you want to focus on anything other than just that? The past can only bring misfortune and regret where as the future with want and desire. The present is the gift of gifts!

Smile more!
Your emotions and how you physically act are directly linked in that the act of smiling will actually make you happier. Serotonin is what we call the happy hormone, by thinking something positive or physically smiling, this hormone is released and therefore connects the two.

Develop an endless curiosity about the world, life and travelling.
There is much more to the world than confining your existence to your house - or even your neighbourhood. Your neighbourhood is definitely a good place to start, but what about the rest of the world?! Life has so much to offer!

Get physically fit!
Being fit helps to make a much healthier you as well as boost self-confidence, especially when it comes to your love life. There is no reason why you shouldn't be motivated to achieve this!

Drink more water and get in the sun!
Forget about pop or soda or whatever you want to call it, try looking up what's actually in that stuff. You need at least 8 cups of water a day, but 10 is the preferred amount! The sun is like a boost of energy, this with water is what creates life as we know it - it's what created us!

Don't take life too seriously, try to think more positively.
Learn to laugh at your own mistakes, you have the rest of your life to get it right! Thinking positively is essential to your own happiness, by whatever means necessary, keep your thoughts positive.

Help others!
Helping others is important for bettering the self in that you will feel good about yourself. It's the best possible feeling that one can achieve in this life!

Make honesty all you know.
Keeping a reputation of being an honest person is important for your own integrity.

Put aside a time each day to think of everything that's worrying you.
This can also be called meditation, practitioners use prayer beads for this and as they go over each bead, they either repeat a thought or come to a new thought. You don't need to do anything fancy, just sit down and focus the mind on what's eating at you - this will help you to better understand exactly how you would be able to solve these issues.

Get up early!
Start your day off early and set an hour or so aside for activities like mediation, but focus on the positive things, this will jump start your day!

Sleep less.
Sleep is very important for you, it's when you body takes everything you learned throughout the day and puts it away. But, being awake is much more efficient for your being!

Figure out what your goals and dreams are.
Understanding what you're interested in and what you wish to achieve is important in that it's what will help you reach these goals.

Discover what you enjoy doing and pursue it!
I personally enjoy dancing and web design, these are what I'm able to put any stress throughout my day or my week into and let it out positively. I believe that it's completely necessary to have something you enjoy doing to release any form of stress into.

Learn to forgive.
It is important to forgive, this will help you in letting go of past memories that are holding you back from further self development!

Control your emotions and your thoughts.
This is truly what ends up creating who you are and more importantly, who you will become. Control your thoughts by restricting the to the positive side of life, and as stated earlier, set aside times for other kinds of thinking. Your emotions are something that get in the way of a lot of things, specifically negative emotions like anger, etc. Love is the only emotion you need to let out!

Take the time to sit back and relax.
There may be a lot to experience but that doesn't mean you need to rush, sometimes it's better to close your eyes and focus on your breathing.

Work on good first imprssions!
First impressions are what create the base connection between you and someone. It's this base connection that determines how a relationship between you and someone will grow!

Friday 6 April 2012

Kony2012

I meant to write this earlier, and I feel that for the most part this whole thing has washed over, but I want to get it out on here so that I can just refer people to this post for future reference. By the way, don't just trust what I'm saying, (even though I believe I'm pretty accurate,) do your own research!

The Kony2012 campaign is basically explained in a 30 minute video created by the Invisible Children non-profit organization. However, this video is very biased and misleading. I want to leave something out there before I dig my teeth in to this one, IC (which is what we're going to call Invisible Children) is a marketing and advertising organization - they haven't called themselves anything other than that.

My stance on the issue: the whole campaign is a waste of everyone's time... Of course Kony is a bad guy, we get it, but that's completely beside anything that you need to understand about what this whole thing is, and by that I'm talking about the campaign itself.

What needs to be understood is that it's not just about this guy named Joseph Kony and his LRA, this issue is much bigger than that. It goes back 40 years ago to 1972 when Yoweri Musevini had began to gather a rather large group of people and later called this group the National Resistance Army (NRA). In 1986 they over threw the government, of whom apparently weren't very favourable, since they were overthrown and what not. Guess who took over, and is still in power to this day? Mr. Musevini, of course. Joseph Kony was a guy who was into some very interesting things from a young age - mainly cults and all of that fun stuff, and when his government was over thrown, he became very unhappy. I guess it would be safe to say that he really enjoyed the government that was in place. So, he as well gathered a rather large group of people and later calling it the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). They began to kidnap children and kill any adults in their surrounding, therefore not leaving them much of a choice other than to join the movement. In 1987 the LRA made their first real village sabotage, this was Kony's home village of which we know to be named, Odek. In 1988 the UPDA (Uganda People's Democratic Army) made an agreement with the NRA where most of the members of the UPDA were left unsatisfied and joined Kony and his LRA as a form of rebellion. From here on I'm going to make it really short, the LRA basically fucked the NRA up a few times, and the NRA responded by weakening the areas that the LRA was recruiting from.From there on is just back and forth fighting.

I left everything out concerning Congo, Sudan/South Sudan and the other surrounding Central African countries because that's just too much typing - I'm actually doing this from my phone, lol. Any ways, now that we understand a little more about the Kony2012 campaign and the history behind what's happening in Uganda, we get to punch some holes in the campaign. The following are five (5) strong points as to why this campaign isn't worth your time, and if you aren't satisfied then I have five (5) links to supporting articles right after that!
  1. [The NRA have done the same, if not worse.] During the civil war between the NRA and the former Ugandan government, the wars between Uganda and Congo, and the time the NRA spent trying to fight Kony, they've done many of the things that Kony and his LRA have been accused of - if not more and worse. So why are we focussing on Kony and leaving the NRA out of the issue (even though the remaining fees from IC go through the NRA)?
  2. [The remaining donations go through the NRA.] I'm not actually going to focus on the fact that IC's monetary history isn't really in the favour of what most would argue the cause is really about. By this I mean that their monetary history includes that somewhere around 30-32% of the donations actually go to the cause. But as I said, I'm not going to focus on that, the money goes through the NRA. That is the problem. IC is an advertising company, so it's completely understandable that they would need to fund that - the issue is that this doesn't actually help the problem that they're making a big deal about.
  3. [The governments already know who he is.] Awareness is great, we should all be aware about what's happening in the world. However, the point of us being aware is so that we can make a scene and force the government to take action. The problem with that is that it's not like the governments don't know about this. Think about it, why wouldn't they know about this, actually - after 9/11 the LRA was listed as a terrorist group and in 2005 Joseph Kony was listed as one of the world's most wanted. The US had later sent 100 troops into Uganda to train and assist the NRA in finding and detaining Kony. The average person in the western world may not know about something that's happening in another part of the world, but that's because that situation really doesn't apply to us directly... Does he really need to become more famous than he already is? The governments of the world understand what's happening, it's been happening for 30 years and now the world gives a shit? It's time to ask yourself, "so, what exactly is this movement really about?"
  4. [The LRA is a dying cause.] The UN stated that they estimate Kony's LRA to have been diminished down to around 200 members by now. They're a dying cause who have nothing left to do but run to South Sudan and hide until the pressures off. By the way, the LRA never had 30,000 children in their army at one time. That number was apparently created by the NRA as an estimate of how many children were abducted in total up until 2004. Although to be fair, Wikipedia states that some estimate the number goes as high as 104,000.
  5. [IC is calling for War throughout Central Africa.] Lastly, seeing as the governments understand and are aware of the situation, and that the military is already in Uganda (even though Kony isn't), what IC is calling for isn't just about awareness or sending the PoPo to Kony's front door to slap some cuffs on him. Kony is supported by South Sudan and therefore is chilling there with his LRA. The only way to actually arrest this guy is if you were to invade South Sudan, as if war will solve that one? Keep in mind this is over child soldiers, we're now talking about war between two countries that have a history of recruiting just that. So now we want to bring this even further by pushing US military involvement? I didn't know that the US military ever actually helped a country, let alone the fact that any country the US military touches ends up the complete opposite from our desired peace and stability. War is the underlining factor of the Kony2012 campaign, and that won't help anything, it never has - why the fuck would it now?
The overall conclusion from the five points I've just made is really that, why now? All of a sudden the western world seems to care about an issue that isn't much of an issue anymore... The Ugandan people, well - the whole country, has recently (over the past few years) started to recover. This attention isn't actually helping anything, actually the majority of the Ugandan people's are against the general campaign. I really hope now people understand that you shouldn't just blindly follow a cause just because it's a cause and it's the "right" thing to do. Look into exactly what it is that you're funding before you fund it, you wouldn't buy a new phone without knowing about it first, right?

If anyone wants to have some further reading, I've prepared a few informative articles below.