Hype over Substance Kony 2012 madness!!!

[Somalicentric]

 

 

 

What are your thoughts? some people even speculate that he is dead... here is an interesting article that i agree with a lot.

 

 

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1632821/Blog:-Kony-2012:-Hype-over-substance/

 

Kony 2012 peddles a simplistic narrative, devoid of nuance. It offers no concrete plan other than to "stop Kony." It doesn’t explain what will happen if he is caught (nor the means by which he will be caught), whether the child-soldiers he recruited should be punished along with him or whether government troops, who were also responsible for countless atrocities, should too be brought to justice.

 

Its disempowering narrative takes agency away from so many of the people who are working on the ground to help rebuild northern Uganda and its communities; people who understand the complexities and politics behind this conflict because they lived it. This campaign fashions itself the lone wolf stopping at nothing to seek justice for the hapless people of northern Uganda yet it avoids complex questions such as: what if they don’t want justice? This may sound absurd but many northern Ugandan families have children who were abducted by the LRA and subsequently became the LRA. They want to see them return home and if that happens who is responsible for their reintegration? Not Invisible Children I suppose.

 

The truth is Kony 2012 is not about the conflict in northern Uganda. It's a story of victims, villains and more importantly heroes - foreign, white people like us with power and money and influence, sitting before our keyboards, on our proverbial white horses striding into the country to save those whose voices and faces tell us they need saving, voices and faces that almost can’t say anything else because – like me with Coincy – we fail to understand them when they do. They no longer fall perfectly into that neat little "victim" box we’ve spent so long fashioning for them.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

What about our 'Konies'?

[Somalina]

I think the video is wonderful because It calls us all to action. It calls us to protect all children not just African children. It was very well done and I dont think it was a advertisement for the organization at all (I had a debate about it 2 hrs ago lol).

[Che -Guevara]

UNMUTED:YOU DONT HAVE MY VOTE

 

You must have heard of the viral video created by Invisible Children (IC), a U.S. organization that has launched a one-year campaign (expires December 31, 2012) to eliminate Joseph Kony, the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group in Northern Uganda that has been embroiled in civil conflict with the Ugandan government for 25+ years. The LRA has admittedly used atrocious tactics such as abductions to engage children in conflict, using boys as soldiers and girls as sex slaves. Needless to say, Kony and LRA must go. That’s where my agreement begins and ends with Invisible Children’s work. I appreciate the organization’s commitment to the issue and can see its good intent, but I strongly question the group’s approach, strategy, and work. Below are some of the reasons why.

 

Lack of context and nuance: in the video, the founder of Invisible Children tells his young son that Kony is a bad guy and he must go. Daddy will work on making sure he is caught. He goes on to state later, “if we succeed, we change the course of human history.” Such a humble undertaking! Simply, a long socioeconomic and political conflict that has lasted 25+ years and engaged multiple states and actors has been reduced to a story of the good vs bad guy. And if a three-year-old can understand it, so can you. You don’t have to learn anything about the children, Uganda, or Africa. You just have to make calls, put up flyers, sings songs, and you will liberate a poor, forgotten, and invisible people.

 

This approach obviously denies realities on the ground, inflates fantasies abroad, and strips Ugandans of their agency, dignity and humanity- the complexity of their story and history. The work, consequence, and impact are all focused on Uganda, but the agency, accountability, and resources lie among young American students. Clearly a dangerous imbalance of power and influence; one that can have adverse lasting effects on how and what people know of Uganda. It reduces the story of Northern Uganda, and perhaps even all of Uganda, into the dreaded single narrative of need and war, followed by western resolve and rescue. As we have seen from the past, without nuance and context, these stories stick in the collective memory of everyday people for years in their simplest forms: Uganda becomes wretched war. Whatever good IC may advance in raising more awareness on the issue or even contributing to the capture of Joseph Kony, it can never do enough to erase this unintended (I hope) impact.

 

Invisible to whom: these children have been very visible to their communities for years. After all, they’re somebody’s child, brother, sister, friend, niece, nephew, or neighbor. They’ve been visible to the shopkeepers and vendors in town who protected them. They’ve been visible to the family members who lost them and the community that cared for them. It’s because they’re so visible that Concerned Parents Association opened its doors in the 1990’s, after LRA abducted about 200 girls from a secondary school dormitory, to advocate for and bring to international light their plight. It’s because they’re visible that young people, including returnees from abductions, started Concerned Children and Youth Association. They’re visible to the people that matter, but apparently not to IC. The language we use in social change often denotes the approach we take, even if subconsciously. Since the children appear to be invisible to IC, then perhaps it’s clear why they’re represented as voiceless, dependent, and dis-empowered.

 

The dis-empowering and reductive narrative: the Invisible Children narrative on Uganda is one that paints the people as victims, lacking agency, voice, will, or power. It calls upon an external cadre of American students to liberate them by removing the bad guy who is causing their suffering. Well, this is a misrepresentation of the reality on the ground. Fortunately, there are plenty of examples of child and youth advocates who have been fighting to address the very issues at the heart of IC’s work. Want evidence? In addition to the organizations I list above, also look at Art for Children, Friends of Orphans, and Children Chance International. It doesn’t quiet match the victim narrative, does it? I understand that IC is a US-based organization working to change US policy. But, it doesn’t absolve it from the responsibility of telling a more complete story, one that shows the challenges and trials along side the strength, resilience, and transformational work of affected communities.

 

Revival of the White savior: if you have watched the Invisible Children video and followed the organization’s work in the past, you will note a certain messianic/savior undertone to it all. “I will do anything I can to stop him,” declares the founder in the video. It’s quite individualistic and reeks of the dated colonial views of Africa and Africans as helpless beings who need to be saved and civilized. Where in that video do you see the agency of Ugandans? Where in that Video do you see Jacob open his eyes wide at the mere possibility of his own strength, as Jennifer Lentfer of How Matters describes here? Can we point out the problem with having one child speak on the desires, dreams, and hopes of a whole nation? I don’t even want to mention the paternalistic tone with which Jacob and Uganda (when did it become part of central Africa by the way?) are described, not excluding the condescending use of subtitles for someone who is clearly speaking English.

 

How many times in history do we have to see this model to know that it doesn’t work? Even if IC succeeds in bringing about short-term change (i.e. increased awareness or even the killing of Kony) it won’t eliminate Northern Uganda’s problems overnight. It won’t heal and sustain communities. In this era of protest and the protester, we have seen that change is best achieved when it comes from within. Let Ugandans champion their own, IC!

 

Privilege of giving: that was quite a 30-minute production? Where did they get the resources? How do they have that reach? Well, in the nonprofit world, the one thing that we have to learn, especially as Africans, is that privilege begets privilege. The IC video is another reminder of the ways in which privilege infiltrates the social justice world and determines the voices and organizations that are heard; simply those that can afford to be heard. There are several local organizations that could offer a nuanced and contextualized perspective on and solutions to the Northern Uganda conflict. They don’t have IC’s reach. They simple weren’t born into the world of financial, racial, social, and geopolitical privilege IC members are.

 

Lack of Africans in leadership: Invisible Children’s US staff is comprised exclusively of Americans, as is the entire Board. How do you represent Uganda and not have Ugandans in leadership? Couldn’t the organization find a single Ugandan? An African? Did it even think about that? Does that matter to current staff and board members? I understand that IC’s main audience is American and its focus is on American action. However, when your work and consequence affect a different group of people than your target audience, you must make it a priority to engage the voices of the affected population in a real and meaningful way, in places and spaces where programs are designed, strategies dissected, and decisions made.

 

Clearly, I think people should work across borders to address global issues. Obviously, there is a role for Americans in this issue. The problem here is the lack of balance on who speaks for Uganda (and Africa) and how. We need approaches that are strategic and respectful of the local reality, build on the action and desires of local activists and organizers, and act as partners and allies, not owners and drivers. When it comes to Africa, we have seen the IC approach play out time and time again, whether it was Ethiopia in the 1980s, Somalia in the early 2000s to date, Darfur in 2004, or now. History is on our side and it shows that these types of approaches often fail. At some point, we have to say enough is enough. Africans, raise your voice! Now and into the future.

 

http://innovateafrica.tumblr.com/post/18897981642/you-dont-have-my-vote

[TheBlues]

Yes Kony is a "bad guy" however there are hundreds that are like Kony, do people know them no. No one knows about Kony's whereabouts. The video is misleading the viewers and misinforming them into thinking that this is still going on in Uganda. Kony left Uganda in 2006 and has moved on to Sudan. Why, then, is IC promoting the donation of money through care packages to Uganda? Possibly (or possibly not) coincidentally, IC has been losing popularity recently.The invisible children donation goes to other activities only 31% of donation actually goes to charity.

[ElPunto]

Oh God! He's a bad guy - clearly. There is an international effort to apprehend him through naming and shaming. And yet yet critics come out. Give it a rest.

[Gheelle.T]

Came across this one and found it funny:

[Somalicentric]

[Somalicentric]

Somalina;801486 wrote:

I think the video is wonderful because It calls us all to action. It calls us to protect all children not just African children. It was very well done and I dont think it was a advertisement for the organization at all (I had a debate about it 2 hrs ago lol).

 

 

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[Sensei]

Kony 2012 is an oustanding short doc, it firmly desrves all the hype and attention it has gotten. Some nomads surprise me with their conspiracies walaahi.

[Somalicentric]

^^^ Conspiracies?! How so...

or are you oblivious & easily sensationally driven... I'll go with the latter

[grasshopper]

Oh Black people. You like to complain and criticize. But where is the action, eh?? Why are we not staging sit- ins at our Ghanaian embassies around the world, demanding that OUR president take a firm stance on Kony until he’s captured. Why are Nigerians, Gambians and Kenyan’s not doing the same? Why are we not speaking out until our voices are impossible to ignore? Here’s a better question: Why did an AFRICAN not start the Kony2012 campaign? It’s because you people care, yes, but you don’t care enough

 

When the Save Darfur campaign was at its height, who did we see out on the Washington Mall at those rallies? White students! There was a sprinkling of Blacks here and there, but not en masse as it should have been. These are our brothers and sisters after all!

http://mindofmalaka.com/2012/03/09/joseph-kony-is-still-at-large-and-its-all-my-fault/

 

This blogger took the words right out of my mouth..

[BOB]

This documentary only shows how xoolo Americans are and the irony in their hypocrisy is beyond embarrassing!

 

How come nobody takes to the streets of Washington DC, London, Paris, Moscow and Berlin when Israel bombs and massacres the innocent Palestinian children or the US drops a bomb and massacres innocent children in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia?

 

There’s no question that Kony is an evil man that should’ve been stopped long time ago but there are far worse evil men in Africa right now including Yoweri Museveni than Kony and if these bored rich white kids want us (Africans) to take them seriously they should start with their own country as there’s no more evil government in the whole world than the US goverment, charity begins at home and all that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace, Love & Unity.

[Cambuulo iyo bun]

war everyone understands the meaning with this, USA want the ugandan oil, why haven't they cared the last 20 years? Why Now? Is easy Math

[Alpha Blondy]

kony eh... he's a bad man isn't he!