On Kony 2012 and Talking

If you haven't been under a rock for the last three days, you've probably at least heard about the Kony 2012 video produced and released by Invisible Children, Inc.  If you haven't, let me Reader's Digest this for you even moreso than the 30 minute documentary/propaganda film (depending on who you're asking) managed to:

Joseph Kony is took over leadership of a Ugandan rebel group in 1987 and renamed it the LRA (or Lord's Resistance Army).  Since then, the LRA has been responsible for the kidnapping of children who have been forced to fight as child soldiers or serve as sex slaves for higher-ranking LRA officers.  Despite having mostly left Uganda since 2006, the LRA still operates in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Kony is ranked high on the International Criminal Court's list of indicted war criminals.  Invisible Children released a 30-minute film to YouTube three days ago called "Kony 2012," the goal of which they claimed was to make Joseph Kony a famous household name by the end of 2012, as a way to push for his arrest and the disarmament of the LRA.

Now, there's also been quite a bit of blow-back since the video went viral -- bloggers, activists, and media outlets have been reacting to the video in a lot of negative ways, and for good reason.  Among those: the idea that IC supports direct military intervention by the Ugandan army, which is  responsible for some atrocities in its own right; the fact that close inspection of where and how Invisible Children uses its money is questionable; the idea that the video is framed in such a way that reeks of Western Colonialism's "White Man's Burden" to rescue the helpless Africans...  And all of these are valid complaints.

But I think about this Kony 2012 movement, and I think back to when Falling Whistles came to U of R.  I was kind of disappointed with the quality of the people who were speaking and the amount they seemed to know about a cause that they so vehemently claimed to stand for.  I remember when a woman who had worked as an activist and aide in the Congo  for years told us to keep a close eye on what Falling Whistles was doing on the ground -- and being incredibly disappointed with the answer.

But I was still happy to have the organization speaking on campus, because while they may not be going about it right, they got a discussion going.  People just generally don't know about some of the really crazy, horrible things going on in the world, and if nothing else, I stand behind IC's attempt to at least shed light on the idea that SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT about the fact that people don't even know who Joseph Kony is.  I'm not telling you to run out and donate all your money to Invisible Children or to blindly support some cause without at least thinking about it for yourself.  I'm not even saying I know what the right thing to do is... I'm just saying, I like the fact that the discussion has even started.  That's something.

Talk to me,
Rachel Leigh