I hate #hastagawareness. For any topic. Cancer. Rescue Pets. Gay Rights. A no- makeup picture. A cock in a sock. Whatever.
Like a bunch of shitheads in West Africa give a fuck if they are trending negatively on Twitter. Or give two fucks because Justin Timberlake is upset with them.
Nowhere in the world is there a cancer researcher thinking "YAY! One more share of a stupid quote on Facebook for breast cancer awareness and I'll have that cure!!!"
But somehow liberals and young people all have the impression that by sharing shit like this on twitter and facebook, they can say with a straight face that they are socially engaged. "OMG, Y'ALL!! I CARE SO HARD!!" I would be willing to bet that a good 90% of the folks that share a hashtag about the kidnapped girls in Nigeria could not find Nigeria on a map if you spotted them Africa. And I bet that if you ask who took them and why, they would have no fucking clue.
But by golly they shared the FUCK out of that #####!!!
I mean...it's not declaring war or anything. And I don't think we have to act militarily on everything in the globe we disagree with. I don't think anyone would argue that the two are equivalent.
So what's wrong with raising global awareness?
In this case, it kind of did work.
http://time.com/87431/goodluck-jonathan-nigerian-president-schoolgirls-boko-haram/President Goodluck Jonathan vowed to rescue over 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram three weeks ago after being blasted for failing to respond
by Taboola
After weeks of silence, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan pledged during a nationally broadcast speech on Sunday to find an estimated 276 Nigerian girls who were kidnapped from their school by insurgent group Boko Haram in mid-April.
“Wherever these girls are, we’ll get them out,†said President Jonathan on live television Sunday.
However, he accused some of the victims’ parents of withholding information about their daughters and called for “maximum cooperation†from parents.
Jonathan’s speech comes in the wake of heavy criticism both internationally and domestically of his government’s fumbled response to the kidnapping and of the failure to quash Boko Haram’s increasingly brazen campaign of violence across the country, which has seen more than 1,500 people killed during the first four months of 2014.
Following a successful media campaign featuring the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, thousands of people rallied across the world over the weekend demanding action from the Nigerian government.
“I think it’s so important that the Nigerian government do a lot more in finding these women,†Matilda Egere-Cooper, a demonstrator of Nigerian origin in London, told CNN during a protest on Sunday.
Last Friday the President met with his top advisers and called for the creation of a “fact-finding committee†to investigate the April 14 mass kidnapping in Chibok, Borno state. He also promised to beef up security measures in the nation following a string of bombings in Abuja last month.
“[The] government strongly believes that the people of Nigeria, standing together, will overcome the current security challenges,†said the country’s Minister of Information Labaran Maku, according to a press release published after the meeting.
“The President assures Nigerians that ‘wherever the girls are in the world, we will get them back, apprehend and punish the culprits.’â€
While the U.S. has been hesitant to provide security assistance to Nigeria because of ongoing human-rights concerns in the country, Secretary of State John Kerry promised to provide support to the beleaguered administration during a speech over the weekend.
“The kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable crime,†said Kerry during a press conference in Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa on Saturday.
“We will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and to hold the perpetrators to justice.â€
Their president's name is Goodluck Jonahtan?
Anyway, he did basically try to cover this up. Social media got ahold of it and it could no longer be ignored. Forced him to take action.
I guess I'm not necessarily saying that some fifty-something-year-old housewife posting about shit like this on facebook is changing the world for the better necessarily. But collectively, calling attention to things like this isn't worthy of getting all frothed over in anger about like this...
How is this Obama's fault? Other than the belief that everything always is. This is not some Obama initiative. This is one thing that one group of people are doing to raise awareness to get the public worked up about this issue. And yes, Michelle as first lady (she's not Secretary of State) also did her part to raise awareness. So what does Rush want here exactly? Take military action? Surely, he would praise the Obama administration for getting involved in another foreign war over some kidnapped girls. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Again.
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