So if you haven’t come across the Kony 2012 campaign yet, heres a short brief to bring you up to scratch.
Kony 2012, is an American initiative to take ‘Joseph Kony’ down as he is a rebel leader who seizes hundreds of child soldiers. Thus this year - 2012 - ‘everyone’ must keep the world aware of his existence and try to combat and take him down. But wait - hasn’t he been in Congo since 2006? Hmmm..
The official reason is to assist African countries —Uganda, Congo, Southern Sudan and Central Africa Republic— to defeat the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Sound familiar? Propaganda used to sway mass populations in order to enter territories with citizens backing for an alternative agenda. That of resources such as diamonds, oil, gold, and many others as well as blocking China’s entry into the continent as the next big power.
For example previous initiatives that have not benefited the continent. AFRICOM - the expansion of US military footprint on African soil. Getting involved with Libya that wanted to give a political voice to Africa with a unified africa with economic integration through a creation of a single currency made of Gold to bring back the power of their resources to the continent. But would USA ever stand for that? NEVER
Aljazeera illustrates the main incentives for the US, have been very commonly held, and continues to be held:
As a result of Invisible Children’s irresponsible advocacy, civilians in Uganda and central Africa may have to pay a steep price in their own lives so that a lot of young Americans can feel good about themselves, and a few can make good money. This, of course, is sickening, and I think that Kony 2012 is a case of Invisible Children having finally gone too far. They are now facing a backlash from people of conscience who refuse to abandon their capacity to think for themselves.
But, as I said, I wouldn’t have known about Kony 2012 if it hadn’t been for the emails I’ve been receiving from the US. And that, I think, is telling. Kony 2012 and the debate around it are not about Uganda, but about America. Uganda is largely just the stage for a debate over the meaning of political activism in the US today. Likewise, in my view, the Kony 2012 campaign itself is basically irrelevant here in Uganda, and perhaps the best approach might be to just ignore it. This is for a couple reasons.
First, because Invisible Children’s campaign is a symptom, not a cause. It is an excuse that the US government has gladly adopted in order to help justify the expansion of their military presence in central Africa. Invisible Children are “useful idiots”, being used by those in the US government who seek to militarise Africa, to send more and more weapons and military aid, and to bolster the power of states who are US allies.
The hunt for Joseph Kony is the perfect excuse for this strategy - how often does the US government find millions of young Americans pleading that they intervene militarily in a place rich in oil and other resources? The US government would be pursuing this militarisation with or without Invisible Children - Kony 2012 just makes it a little easier. Therefore, it is the militarisation we need to worry about, not Invisible Children.
Second, because in northern Uganda, people’s lives will be left untouched by this campaign, even if it were to achieve its stated objectives. This is not because all the problems have been resolved in the years since open fighting ended, but because the very serious problems people face today have little to do with Kony.
Inside Story - ‘Kony 2012’: The future of activism
The most significant problem people face is over land. Land speculators and so-called investors, many foreign, in collaboration with the Ugandan government and military, are grabbing the land of the Acholi people, land that the Acholi were forced from a decade ago, when the government herded them into internment camps.
Another serious problem is so-called “nodding disease’ - a deadly illness that has broken out among thousands of children who had the bad luck to be born and grown in the camps, subsisting on relief aid. Indeed, the problems people face today are the legacy of the camps, where more than a million Acholi were forced to live, and die - for years - by their own government as part of a counterinsurgency that received essential support from the US government and from international aid agencies.
Which brings up the question that I am constantly asked in the US: “What can we do?”, where “we” tends to mean relatively privileged US citizens.
If you keep tabs of politics for a long stretch, like anything in history, patterns emerge. it is very typical for media footage to pull people in one direction in order to allow for something else to occur. if people sign this bill all over the place - just as obama said with iran - they will stop at nothing to ‘capture’ the predator. this does in fact mean war, arms, blood, and something to be gained.
A good friend Rob Watt states
One of the biggest and most documented examples in history was in the 1930s when the Nazi Party convinced the German public via the media, that their economic woes were caused by the Jews. 6 million Jews died. Read up on Joseph Goebbels. Propaganda plays a huge role with the public forming general opinions. Don’t formulate your opinion from digesting one source, go to many, talk to other informed people and then start to formulate it.
Very true.
The fact of the matter is, anyone can shoot a great movie - look into all the corporate heads involved as well. People must stop and do their own research before jumping the gun. But wait - what about that picture with the founders of Invisible Children holding guns and posing with the Sudan Liberation Force?
USA has always had something to gain from all that they do - and unfortunately it takes years before anyone regrets the original support. I.e the infamous Iraq situation.
Please watch these links and educate yourself - because who can believe that this experiment has actually worked and may have us all participating in the next war for selfish interests. Such as who is the boss? USA or China?
Why do we have to stand for this!
http://www.acholitimes.com/index.php/perspectives/opinion/15-open-letter-to-jason-russell-ceo-of-invisible-children-inc-on-kony2012
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113956/Kony-2012-Photo-shows-Invisible-Children-founders-posing-weapons.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSSVEQp2DSU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ddYeKf6E6Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uct3dyDVgts&feature=youtu.be
