Uganda is a land of lies and nonsense. A free or nearly-free education in science, logic, and critical thinking is needed to save that country from itself. Something like One Laptop Per Child not mentioned in the video, and who might not align themselves with my comment is a good start, but it's going to take a lot more than that. I will point out that the Commonwealth of Nations did not stop Kony in its member state Uganda.
What good is it? Utlimately, I give the video a 7 for drawing attention to one serious problem, even if their solution is wrong. It does have people talking. Having heard about this minute feature going viral across Youtube and various social networking sites, I determined to watch this film championed by mysterious US charity Invisible Children for myself.
I found it a very slick and manipulative piece of propaganda aimed at young people and families with children. The film starts with director Jason Russell and his family, and zooms in on his young son from birth on to his preschool years before branching out to the lost children of Uganda, children like Jacob who have lost their families and have been forced to join the Lord's Resistance Army as soldiers if they're boys or sex slaves if they're girls under the sinister charismatic leadership of one Joseph Kony.
Russell dwells for a little time on Jacob and his experiences before delving into a drive for support and donations to help other young people like Jacob, and suggesting ways in which people can bring the issue of child soldiers and finding Kony to be brought to justice to the attention of others. Russell adopts a deliberate personal style to make very subjective appeals to people's emotions. His use of his son as willing collaborator is creepy as well as exploitative, to say the least.
The filming methods used are so slick as to raise my hackles: the editing and the images, even the sloganeering and strategies suggested to raise other people's awareness, all look as if they'd been cooked up in an advertising agency that's done work for past TV current affairs programs.
No historical context is given, which is extremely suspicious: the film never explains who Joseph Kony is, why he is such a bogeyman and who his Lord's Resistance Army is fighting against. Is the Ugandan government under President Yoweri Museveni so helpless that it must appeal to the outside world? Is Kony fighting the Ugandan government? Given that Museveni has just been "elected" to a 4th term and has been in power for 25 years with a blemished record in violating human rights, invading parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo and holding elections that yield suspect results that support his continued rule, perhaps Kony is doing the right thing in resisting the Ugandan government!
The film's suggested solutions are pathetic and laughable: let's make Kony famous by plastering posters of him across cities around the world on 20 April ! Buy the Action Kit package! Donate money to the cause! The Kony awareness campaign looks too much like an election campaign to ring true. And why should the public be asked to cough up money when famous Hollywood celebrities and other stars in politics and the commercial music industry have more than enough money among themselves to capture and bring Kony to justice and rehabilitate the child soldiers and sex slaves he has abused?
And now that all is said and done, one suspicion remains: the recent announcement of the discovery of at least 2. In the meantime, hundreds of children in northern Uganda have fallen victim to a mysterious and fatal neurological disease known as Nodding disease spreading across the border from the newly independent Southern Sudan.
It is arguable that this problem deserves more immediate attention and help than pursuing a shadowy warlord who may not even be in Uganda now or be alive still. So, I was watching Kony the other day and I got all emotional. It's a sad 30 minute piece of propaganda that really does get to you.
I opened up a new flick in Firefox, ready to buy the 'Action Kit' and support this beautiful thing. It was a random Ugandan girl who talked about the situation in Uganda. I watched it, did some research and changed my opinion about Kony completely. KONY is their eleventh, and they hit the jackpot with this one. Let's break it down though. I'd say around half of these 2,8 mill' actually went to the children in Africa.
The rest of the money went to a bunch of non-charity related things, such as staff salaries, travel and film production. That's right, film production. These guys refuse to have an external audit committee. That single fact says more about them than the film does. The Ugandan army has been accused of committing much worse crimes than Joseph Kony including things such as mass rape and torture and the SpLA is probably an even worse army to get hold of your money because THEY have been using child soldiers only years ago.
Some people believe they still do have child soldiers. Invisible Children has a firm goal with this Kony business. See any problems here? Almost the entire population of Uganda is convinced Kony is dead, nobody in Uganda considers him a threat. Another problem is the fact that Invisible Children is all about the children 30, in Joseph Kony's army, yet Invisible Children STILL wants to take out Kony with force; meaning they'll have to kill his army of kids.
Raising awareness does not solve anything. It's a cheap technique to use when you want people to think that they're making a difference. It's like when religious people think they can pray away global warming. It doesn't work. KONY is nothing but propaganda. Some people out there believe the American government is behind the film.
I don't. I think one man realized how much money he could make off of today's pathetic, lazy and dumb generation and took 11 shots at it. Founder Joseph Kony remains on the run but other key commanders have died or turned themselves in, among them Dominic Ongwen who was sentenced to 25 years in jail on Thursday for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court ICC in The Hague. This followed in a tradition of armed movements led by spiritual leaders among the northern Acholi people.
Kony, a Catholic altar boy, showed an early penchant for mystical pronouncements and horrific brutality. He claimed he would liberate Uganda from Museveni and establish a state ruled according to his own version of the 10 commandments. When the Acholi failed to embrace his rebellion Kony turned on them, attacking civilians, abducting women and children and massacring entire villages. In the ICC unsealed arrest warrants against five top LRA leaders, including Kony and Ongwen, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The pressure of ICC attention contributed to Kony's turning up to peace talks the following year, the first time he had appeared in public in years. People said he was crazy but Paul was not crazy, I knew him well.
Paul had a sickness that made it difficult for him to understand others, but he was nice and always helped my mother and me. We lived in Minakulu, by the big road that links Gulu with Kampala. The holies [LRA fighters] came to our village in when I was thirteen.
It was early in the morning but it was still dark outside. Kidega was the commander, I know him well now. They kicked our door and grabbed us while we slept. One of the youngus [child soldiers] held a razor blade to my neck and told me to go out.
Someone grabbed mother and Paul. Paul was only sixteen, but he was tall and strong. He refused to be dragged and ran towards mother, who was being whipped by Kidega. She was too scared and confused to sit on the floor like Kidega asked her.
Then they all beat Paul in front of us and let him bleed to death. We saw him die slowly, his blood just poured until he dried out, like a sheep being prepared for cooking.
Kidega said mother was stupid for not controlling Paul, who now was dead because of her. When I saw Paul and my mother dead on the ground covered in blood, I could not move my hands or feet. It was like an evil spirit pinned me down.
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