The Truth about Kony

Three weeks ago the Invisible Children foundation uploaded a video called Stop Kony 2012, which was aimed to gain support of ending the terror Joseph Kony has brought to East Africa. While I found the idea of the “Kony 2012” movement inspiring, I was shocked at how little people knew about what was actually going on in Uganda. After doing my own research on Joseph Kony I came to learn three major things- Joseph Kony has been at this for years, he is no longer actually in Uganda and the Invisible Children are supporting the Ugandan military which is just as bad as Kony.

Joseph Kony became the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in 1986 reports the United Kingdom’s The Independent. Kony was kidnapping children and forcing them to be sex slaves and soldiers as a part of his movement. The Independent reported in 2008 that Kony had started to spread his movement into the Congo and was creating the same terror there that he had in Uganda. So my question is, why are we so concerned about Joseph Kony’s actions 26 years after he started terrorizing the people of Uganda? If The Independent is correct, his movement to the Congo was still 22 years after he started his tirade. Shouldn't we have tried to stop him 15 or 20 years ago?

All of the attention that Joseph Kony has been getting the last few weeks makes it seem as if he is in Uganda right now. In its original statement on its website, the Invisible Children foundation stated that Kony was still in Uganda. The Invisible Children foundation recently released a statement correcting this, acknowledging that Kony had left Uganda in 2006 and was currently in hiding in The Congo. Again, I believe that this man should be stopped and that it is important for him to be captured and tried for his crimes, however, why is his capture and arrest so important now, six years after he left Uganda and four years after he went into hiding? The United States military has had over 200,000 troops in Uganda looking for Kony and have come up with nothing. The Ugandan Army has also been in search of Kony and has also come up with nothing.

The Invisible Children foundation has advocated in their video and their website that we support the Ugandan Army in their search for Kony and that they are the best group to run Uganda. After an outcry from many who know of the atrocities committed by the Ugandan Army, the Invisible Children foundation released a statement saying they do not condone the human rights violations committed by the Ugandan Army, yet they still support them. In 2005, The Human Rights Watch reported that the Ugandan Army was continuing to “kill, rape and uproot civilians”. How is this group any better than Jospeh Kony and the LRA? Why should they have a free pass while we hunt down Kony?

I do not understand why after 26 years of reigning terror on the people of Uganda and the Congo, we suddenly need to take a stand. Kony has been doing this for years, is no longer in Uganda and the Ugandan Army has gained support from the Invisible Children foundation even though they have committed crimes as bad or worse as Kony has. The demand for Kony’s arrest should have been done years ago, so I find the current “movement” rather out of date.

Oral Presentations in The Business World

Oral presentations are common in the business world. Many people find them daunting or intimidating, which is why they are so dreaded by so many people. There are several ways that I have found that can help oral presentations seem less intimidating and more interesting: writing down notes on notecards, taking the time to practice what you are going to say, and having visual aids to use.

            I have been speaking in front of large groups of people from a young age. I spoke in front my local county school board on several occasions on order to improve things in my school district. I learned early that using notecards with general ideas on them was better than writing down an entire speech so I could focus more on interacting with my audience and get the results I wanted. It is better to engage your audience and have them pay attention to what you are talking about than saying every word verbatim.

            When doing oral presentations in a business setting, it is important to practice what you are going to say. It is important to have in your head what you are going to say so that when it comes time to present, you don’t appear to be unprepared. It is important to appear as prepared as you possibly can. I have found that practicing in front of several friends or family members makes it easier to be prepared.

            Visual aids add to any presentation. They make any presentation appear more professional and help when presenting. Visual aids allow for the audience to become more engaged in the presentation and create a more open environment for the presentation.

            Oral presentations can be scary for anyone but they are apart of the business world. The truly best thing to do is to spend time to calm yourself down before the presentation and do your best. However, I have found that by using notecards, practicing the presentation and using visual aids any presentation will go much more smoothly.

Working In Teams

Working in teams is something everyone encounters and presents the problems of the size of the teams, the amount of work assigned to the team and how the work will be completed by the team.

            The size of a team can be a problem. If the team is too large, sometimes there is not enough work to be done, and only a few people do the actual work. In my MGT 3500, intro class I was assigned to a group of seven and we were tasked to complete a project, which could have been done individually. This made finding something for everyone to do difficult, and several people in the group did nothing at all.

The amount of work assigned is also a problem faced when working in teams. If not enough work is given for everyone to do, the team begins to make up things for each group member to do and then the team ends up doing more work than necessary.

Completion is another problem faced by working in teams. Getting together to get the work done due to different schedules is difficult for teams. Even if the work is done separately and then emailed to one person to compile, some team members may still not do their share. I worked on a project for a human resources class where each team member did research and then was supposed to write up the results found and email them to me so I could put them in a PowerPoint. While some team members did this, others only sent links to websites or vague notes with no sources.

            Working in teams is not easy and is hindered by the size of the group, the amount of work assigned and how the work will be completed. Thus, working in teams should be avoided when possible and made flexible when teams are necessary.

What Professional Blogs can do for Businesses and Organizations

            In the last few years, people have been using blogs for much more than a constant personal stream of thought. Professional blogs have been popping up all over the Internet as a way to benefit business and organizations by drawing in more traffic, a faster way of communicating with clients and employees and by being a cheaper way of advertising.

            Professional blogs attract more viewers because they are easier to access. They have simple web addresses so people can remember them much easier than other sites. Search engines tend to favor blogs and they are usually in the top results when their topic is typed into the search bar.

            Every day policies change and news becomes relevant. People need to be updated as soon as the information becomes available. Professional blogs make it easier for companies and organizations to communicate with their employees and their customers because they can update in information instantly. Companies don’t need to worry about a server not updating it in time, as with a regular website.

            Advertising, especially now, is expensive. Most companies can’t afford to advertise during the Super Bowl or place adds all over the Internet. Professional blogs allow for free advertising.  The blog can be set up for nothing and the only cost of the blog for the future is paying an employee to update it.

            Blogging has become a faster, more efficient way for people to communicate. The Internet allows for companies and organizations to create professional blogs that can benefit them by bringing in more hits, providing an up-to-date place for communicating with customers and employees and because blogs are cheap advertising.