Why Kony 2012?

Had I thought ahead, I would have posted this yesterday, before I participated in the corporate blowing up of Facebook via the Kony 2012 video. Because, this isn't the first time that Invisible Children has come across my radar screen.

I saw the movie for the first time in 2004 or 2005, had a friend who interned with them in 2006/2007, studied the war and its beginnings in school (Joseph Kony was not the founder of the LRA, it was a woman named Alice Lakwena who claimed to be channeling the spirit of a dead general. Kony is the current leader, who claims to be channeling the Holy Spirit.) and have been following their work since that first showing. There have been hours of conversation - and weeks of internet scouring - regarding the good, the bad, and the ugly of the organization.

PROS:
Invisible Children was, is, and will continue to be primarily a group of film makers with a story that they feel the world needs to hear.

When it comes to film, they are good, very good.

They are passionately and possibly naively optimistic 

They do have a story, and the world needs to hear it. The LRA has been in operation since the late 1980's, and many (most) people still don't know what is going on. Twenty-five years of ignorance desperately needs to be dealt with. 

Cons:
Invisible Children was, is, and will continue to be primarily a group of film makers with a story that they feel the world needs to hear. (This is where most of their money, time, and effort goes.) They are not experts when it comes to aid, foreign policy, or book keeping, and passion can only take you so far.

Much of their work is born out of the naive optimism of Americans who have never lived in a war zone, never been on the receiving end of international aid, and understand the effects of colonization only from the viewpoint of the victors.

As an organization, they are overwhelmingly young and white (Which shouldn't have anything to do with anything is good for getting the attention of policy makers, but bad when it comes to trying to understand a problem that is largely effecting a non-dominant culture.)

The world this conflict isn't divided into good people and death eaters Joseph Kony and a horde of innocents. No one with a gun is a "good guy" here, even when they come in wearing American uniforms.

As a pacifist, I don't believe that military force is the answer to anything. As just war theorists, Invisible Children disagrees.

So, why Kony 2012?

Because, Kony has already been indited by the ICC as a war criminal (I got to have that little party with my teammates in Kenya). His name should be as common as Hitler's. I may not agree with the way that Invisible Children is pressuring the US government to deal with the issue, but I agree that Joseph Kony ought to be famous, and I intend to continue to do everything in my power to make him so.

Media is what is needed on the American side of this issue, and media is what they do well. So, I will take advantage of anything I can get my hands on.

Finally Most importantly, I refuse to allow this generation to be the one who has to sit down with a history book and their children and explain why they did nothing when it was in their power to add even a single drop to the bucket of justice. This might not be the step that causes that bucket to overflow, but it might be the first important step that some people have ever taken.

In 2012, let's make Joseph Kony famous.

Because, believe me, 2013 will come with more than it's share of new problems to focus on.

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. 

Source: invisible.tumblr.com via Jessica on Pinterest