So last year, as I’m sure your Facebook feed was littered
with the Kony 2012 video being shared and commented on nonstop for what seemed
like forever.
As this video has just under 100 million views on YouTube alone, everybody
seemed to jump on the bandwagon of wanting to help these poor Ugandan children.
When I first saw this video I must admit, like millions of others who saw the emotional
message this video tried (and very successfully) conveyed, I was touched. The
problem was however, by the end of the thirty minutes, I was a little too
touched, and something seemed suspicious about this video. While some of my
friends scrambled to donate money, or spread the word about this campaign, I
was hesitant to fully jump of the bandwagon and I was skeptical of this whole
situation. Don’t get me wrong, I am by no means against helping out poor
Ugandan children, boys and girls, who are being forced to do horrible things by
groups such as the Lord’s Resistance Army and individuals such as Kony, but
what made me hesitate joining this cause
was after I did some research about Kony. Rather than ramble a bunch of dates
and statistics I will just sum it up to say that basically (according to some
basic sources like Wikipedia, to various academic papers written about
conflicts in Africa) Kony was and has been for several years now on the downfall,
the LRA has been dwindling in numbers, and Kony is not even in Uganda anymore
(so why should we send our own troops to train Ugandan soldiers to find a man
not even in their country?). You might be thinking to yourself: “Wow jackass
this article would’ve been helpful last year, why are you writing this now?”
The reason I am writing this is because of a recent Associated Press article
that was released that basically reiterates all of the objections I had about
this whole Kony 2012 thing since the first time I watched that video. The Article, which I specifically retrieved from The Washington Post goes into detail about where Kony is
now, how he is unable to be apprehended
due to some political refuge he has found, and how is LRA group (the same big bad group we were warned about just one year ago) has less than 500 members at this point in time. With the
United Nations hot on his trail, and after eliminating most of his head officers, they are just waiting for the
opportune time to capture Kony. The purpose of me writing this is that in today’s
day and age with anybody being able to make anything available to the public,
be careful about what you believe because it could not be as legitimate as the
fancy looking internet campaign makes it seem to be. There are plenty of other
perfectly fine charities, both that seek to assist in domestic problems and
those in problem countries such as Uganda, just do the research and pick a
cause that you care about, not just one that is the newest, trendiest thing to
support.
While I understand where you're coming from, you have to realize that this isn't a recent thing that just started, these men founded this non-profit organization (Invisible Children) and started this campaign to bring Joseph Kony to justice almost 10 years ago now. It may have become more popular in the last year due to social media and other forms of mass communication, but this is something that these men have been working towards since 2004. They have tried for years to find him, along with the help of the Ugandan government as well as our own. There have been mass movements such as 3 years ago when many students and citizens in the US gathered in different cities throughout the U.S. and wrote letters to our state representatives and senators asking for their attention and their help in this matter - I even participated in the event. This has been an ongoing fight that people all around this country and other nations have been fighting for for almost a decade now. While I do understand your point, I think you need to make a stronger argument for your case other than the idea of "well, he's not in Uganda anyways so why should we help or train their soldiers?" I don't agree with that as a correct way to address exactly what it is that you're trying to say. These are people that we should help and just because Joseph Kony may have fled the country doesn't mean that we shouldn't help this country protect their children should he ever return. I think you're correct when you say that people should research something before they decide to back the idea, which is what people did here; however, I also think that you should do more research to understand the mission of Invisible Children. Their mission is to bring a complete end to the LRA, Joseph Kony and the atrocities that they have committed and bring them to justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity that they have committed. He (Joseph Kony) may have left the country, but he hasn't stopped his efforts in regards to the LRA - the article reference you cited even states that quite clearly. It is correct that the overall members is less than it has been, but that doesn't negate the fact that this man and group have been committing these crimes for the last 30 years. Basically, my main point is that this campaign on behalf isn't just about looking cool and being popular, it's about putting an end to Joseph Kony's reign and the LRA; however, the "Kony 2012" initiative was enacted to spread the word to help put pressure on the US government to help bring this to an end once and for all - what better way to do that than through Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media? That's where I think you're mistaken - this isn't a popular movement, this is an ongoing battle that has been taking place for a decade to combat atrocities that have been occurring for three decades.
ReplyDeleteI will admit, I am not too familiar with any of the work Invisible Children has done previous to the Kony 2012 campaign, so I cannot speak too much about what they have done in years past, as I became familiar with the organization and their cause through the viral video (which I'm sure was the first time for many out of the tens of millions who watched the video) it just seemed to me while watching it that they were making Joseph Kony and the LRA a relatively new force that has sprung up in Uganda and that this issue needed to get stopped before it could manifest itself. So when I found out that he has been doing these things for over thirty years, I just feel that is something they could have emphasized in the video. I am not denying the work they have done to fight against Kony and the LRA, but my first impression was that Invisible Children wanted the people to help in stopping this massive regime when in reality their numbers (the LRA's) were much smaller than the video made it out to be. Also, I could not agree with you more that although Kony is gone, we should still work on protecting the children of the country, but I think that it should be done using a big picture perspective rather than making it seem as if the LRA is the only evil entity in Uganda that these people have to worry about. I feel that a focus of the group could be to just protecting the citizens from any group that wants to cause harm to the people, not just Kony and the LRA. What I am trying to say is that I do not disagree with you about the points that you have made, I think they are all valid and have substance, I just think that the video was not as explicit about the history of Kony and the LRA and their current numbers as they could have been. I just believe a campaign focusing on the welfare of the Ugandan people as a whole would have been more effective rather than saying Kony is the sole cause of their problems.
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