I am not inclined to after reading the following two articles
Kony2012: What's the real story? in the Guardian
Joseph Kony is not in Uganda (and other complicated things)
which was reprinted in the Weekend Australian
A goal of the video is to get the US government to continue to support using their military to support the efforts of the Uganda military to track down and kill Kony. Such endeavours have a terrible history. Often they result in arming and empowering tryants who themselves commit atrocities: Osama Bin Laden and Manuel Noriega were both originally funded by the CIA for "nobel causes".
The video seems to be largely a fund-raising tool for a "charity" which has poor governance and uses only a fraction of its fund for activities of direct benefit to needy children.
To me this is a new web-based colonialism. In past eras Africa was mined and stripped bare of natural resources and dignity to fuel Western economies.
Now Africa is being mined to fuel the moral indignation and self righteousness of a new generation of Westerners who yearn for meaning and purpose as they seek to be fulfilled by "changing the world" while sitting at their computers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Ross, just wanted to comment about a few things:
ReplyDeleteKony2012 does not state that the aim of the film was to raise funds specifically; rather to raise a general awareness of the horrific situation in central Africa. Which I might add it is doing very successfully going by the number of views of the video...
Rather than a "charity" it is an advocacy group. With all due respect, if you haven't yet seen the video, why do you say that 'the video seems to...'? If you truly want to get to the heart of the debate, I suggest that you need to see the video for yourself...who knows you may even be spurred into action more positive than regurgitating arguments and passing judgement on a video, which although having shortcomings, none-the-less is fighting hard for what it believes in...
Rather than contemplating watching the video, why not contemplate finding a way to help the children in Africa? And as a good starting point consider Invisible Children...
I hope this is not too aggressive,
God Bless.
Ross, I wrote a few thoughts about this in a blog I posted last week.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dlipparelli.blogspot.com/2012/03/kony-2012-scam.html
It is very interesting how fast this campaign has captured the attention of the world.