Joseph Kony is the Ugandan Leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. Kony and his army take children from Uganda, and other bordering countries in order to teach the children to fight for their cause. Kony has taken almost 70,000 children and forced them to fight.
A 30-minute video was made entitled "Kony 2012". It was posted on youtube only 2 days ago and already has almost 10 million views. Their goal was to make Kony famous, and raise support for his capture and arrest. This video brings attention to the vicious abuse, killing, and war crimes that Kony has inflicted with his army. The story follows Jacob, and how his life in Northen Uganda began with Kony. The filmmaker makes his promise to Jacob to stop Kony. 10 years later the filmmaker placed his video on youtube and he may finally be able to fulfill his promise to Jacob.
This film needs to be spread around, and awareness needs to be brought to the issue.
KONY 2012
6 comments:
My sister asked me this same question right as I sat down to start my homework. 5 mins in to the movie I logged on to the blog to post a quick comment or two and here was the same question, Who is Joseph Kony? I must say this youtube movie has been a huge sucess and needs to be spread even more. If left unchecked Kony is capable of starting another genocide potentially larger than the one in Rwanda. Stop Kony at all costs!!!
While spreading awareness is a noble goal, Invisible Children has received plenty of criticism and has a shady reputation at best. Past audits have shown that only 31% of the funds actually go to children. In addition, their video heavily misinforms and manipulates viewers. Not only does it exaggerate the number of child soldiers and the threat of the LRA, it fails to mention that Kony has gone into hiding, and that the US and Ugandan military are doing what they can to track him down.
The real issues, Ugandan journalist Angelo Izama says, are unemployment, child prostitution, and the "incurable debilitating condition" of Nodding Disease. Donating to non-profits such as UNICEF or Africare instead, which have higher credibility than IC, is a much more decent alternative.
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things
The KONY 2012 campaign is probably not the best way to approach the situation. It's irrational to put a deadline on when he should be captured, as if we should just give up if we do not succeed within the next nine months. It takes time to take down a leader, especially one in hiding, and we should be careful about how we choose to approach the situation. Invisible Children's funds support the Ugandan army, which is also known for raping and looting. Also, Kony moved his army from Uganda to other countries, so it is unreasonable to be funding the Ugandan army. When we tried in the past to capture Kony and failed, it only caused more LRA kilings in retaliation. The Invisible Children want to take a militaristic approach to capturing him, and that may not be a smart or safe option, especially considering that his army consists of many children. In addition to what Ivan said, much of Invisible Children's donation money goes to making its movies, and there have already been 11 of them made.
First off, I want to preface my comment by saying that I am happy to see this wave of activism amongst Aragon students. However, like Ivan and Nicola, I do take issue with the stance of Invisible Children. Kudos to Ivan for that informative post, and I'd like to share another that touches a bit more on the exact political situation in Uganda (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-deibert/joseph-kony-2012-children_b_1327417.html). I'll make my points brief.
As Ivan and Nicola said, Invisible Children has good intentions. Yet Invisible Children is struggling to break with a pickaxe a problem that needs a precise solution. Kony is not in Uganda. He has been hiding in neighboring countries, and his regime has been greatly debilitated. In fact, Kony has entered in peace talks in recent years that seem to be headed in the right direction. Invisible Children still seeks a military solution to a problem that no longer necessitates violence.
Don't get me wrong, Kony is a savage. He is bloodthirsty and heartless and inhuman in all respects. However, we cannot let the ills of the past cloud the best decision for the future. If US troops do somehow manage to facilitate Kony's termination, we could have effectively tied our interests in yet another nation that descends to strife or corruption (the Ugandan army has been accused countless times of rape and looting, yet Invisible Children continues to stand by them faithfully).
Ivan covered the worrying statistics of Invisible Children's finances. If you do care about the situation in Uganda, donate to charities that donate over 87% of their finances to the cause they support, instead of 31% (http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4943).
I would also like to draw a parallel between the Kony situation and one that may be more familiar to students. Killing bin Laden did not end terrorism. Killing Kony will not end the endemic violence that continues to plague Africa. Invisible Children does itself an injustice by isolating all the blame on one man, when the actual problem is far more complex.
Ultimately, Invisible Children is a misinformed and misdirected cause. I've listed alternatives above regarding Kony, but as a whole, society needs to think more carefully before forwarding a link to a video because an endearing blonde toddler feels sad about a mass murderer. We are all sad, but people should feel the responsibility to do their research before advocating for something so dire as a military response. Generalizing these complicated issues into good versus bad, us versus them, and black versus white only serves to make the horribly gray reality even more indiscernable.
There was not too much I'd like to say that has not already been posted by Ivan, Nicola, and Sabrina; however, I do have one last comment regarding charitable donations and NGO's.
While I believe that charity is always a worthy cause and is almost always well-intentioned, I must note that the use of money with respects to the development of society must be carefully allocated. Too often, non-governmental organizations bring money to African countries with the intention that they are going to help bring children and parents out of poverty. At the same time however, often these organizations misallocate funds. Of course I understand that the Red Cross is not simply going to Africa and giving away monetary hand outs; however, catalyzing the growing of an economy is a very delicate and easily influence-able process.
I recognize the importance of charitable donation. I realize that poverty and social turmoil is a sad thing to watch. At the same time, U.S. interests in Africa should not be akin to "the white man's burden" as Yale professor Chris Blattman has noted that Invisible Children hints at.
Sure, charity is nice, but Africa cannot survive off charity. Rather than look at charitable causes, I suggest that people start looking at Africa as a place of investment. If we are going to truly help African countries, we need to be able to respect them not as people who need help but as people who can help themselves given the opportunity. What I mean by this is we should think more about micro-finance. We should invest in Africa, not throw money at it.
When I first watched the KONY video, my initial reaction was wholehearted support. But, after hearing several logical and convincing criticisms, like the ones that Sabrina and Ivan have cited, my faith in the KONY movement was shaken, to say the least. Although I do agree that raising awareness for causes is the first step in activism, I do not think that wasting time, resources, and funds on propaganda and elaborate videos is effective, or even ethical for that matter. There is no question as to the ingenious nature of the KONY organization's propaganda usage.
My issue is not with the KONY movement, but with the KONY organization the organization itself. It's great that the program is getting the word out there and spreading awareness (quite successfully, I might add), but when an organization begins misleading it's supporters/ad viewers by excluding relevant information in it's causes, then I have a problem. The fact that KONY ignores the questionable nature of the Ugandan Army's rep, coupled with the fact that KONY refused to release past financial information, leads me to question the organization itself. I also take issue with the fact that the KONY organization exploits its audiences through transparent propaganda videos. Although I'm not a huge fan of the KONY organization anymore, the fact that the KONY project has raised such substantial awareness in a very short period of time should not go unnoticed.
I do believe there are many more, more qualified, and more deserving charities out there for us to donate money, support, and supplies to. It's just sad to see one of the quickest spreading, youth-enticing charities is turning out less than it's cooked up to be.
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