Anyway, on to the Kony video! The biggest reason I decided to blog about it is because I was amazed at the fact that it garnered over 100 million views in just 6 days. Read that again in case you didn't grasp what I just said. 100 million views! SIX days! That is incredible. And it's because people shared it on Facebook and Twitter. I'll admit, after the first few people that posted it, I thought to myself "Self, there is no way I'm wasting a half an hour to watch a stupid YouTube video." But more people kept posting and curiosity got the better of me.
I was inspired by the video. But not in the way that you would think. It inspired me because I've always wanted to do something meaningful with my life, leave the world or better place after I'm gone, or "change the world" so to speak. And this guy is doing that. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the whole Invisible Children movement, you have to admit this guy saw a huge problem with the world and he set out to solve it. At first, politicians ignored him, but eventually his actions caused President Obama to act. And this video is getting millions more people to act or at least to be aware of world events instead of just the latest episode of Jersey Shore. So yes, the video inspired me. Someday I'm going to change the world just like this guy is changing it as we speak.
Secondly, the Kony video gives me hope for our democracy. So-called "internet activism" via social media is the best thing that has ever happened to our democracy. Why? Because it gets people to act. Even if all they are doing is sharing a post, tweeting, or signing an online petition. Our collective voice is getting heard and best of all the politicians are listening.
Remember SOPA, The bill that Congress was going to use to censor the internet in the name of anti-piracy? All people did was take to their social media outlets and get people to sign some online petitions. And guess what! It worked. In a matter of days, Congress killed the SOPA bill before it was even voted on. Even Senator Hatch from Utah, who was a co-sponsor of the bill, withdrew his support. The politicians are listening.
Here's another example: the ignorant anti-sex-education bill that made its way through the Utah Legislature. People were outraged. People called our law-makers fools. But most people, myself included, weren't going to do anything about it. But someone did. They made an online petition. Again people took to their social media outlets and shared the petition with their friends. I saw it because a relative posted it on her Facebook and I signed it. As it turns out, 3700 printed pages worth of people signed it. The creator hand-delivered it to Utah Governor Herbert and days later he vetoed the bill. I'll say it again. Social media is the best thing that ever happened to democracy.
That is why the Kony video gives me hope.
Follow-up: 3/23/12
Blog Post by Norbert Mao, a Ugandan politician: I've Met Joseph Kony and Kony 2012 Isn't That Bad
"Over the years, I've spoken to Kony many times and eventually met him face to face in August 2006, when I led a community peace delegation to his hideout in the Congo. We pinned our hopes on him reaching a peace agreement with the Uganda government. Eventually, though, he walked away due to mistrust, an ICC indictment that would have sent him to The Hague, and probably pressure from his backers (the Sudanese government, among them). A great opportunity was missed.
Kony is now heading a multinational guerilla force comprised of mainly abducted children and adult soldiers who were first taken as children. He roams the bush in Sudan, South Sudan, Congo, the Central African Republic, and Chad without hindrance. He has defied the U.N. peace keeping force in Congo. He has also survived many military expeditions aimed at defeating him. He has redefined the rules of asymmetrical war.
This man with whom I've had many encounters is now the subject of a powerful video that has captured the imagination of the world. Is the video a bad thing? I would say no. Has it got gaps? Plenty.
First, to give the impression -- even by omission -- that the victims themselves were passive and did little or nothing to relieve their own suffering is wrong. Before Invisible Children there were many efforts to let the world know what was going on. But the world was distracted. In 1998, in the middle of the insurgency, Bill Clinton came to Uganda and declared the country a peaceful nation. A few weeks later, the LRA marched from Congo into Bwindi National Park in Uganda and killed tourists who were gorilla tracking. Most of the victims were American. For a moment, Kony got some international media, but it soon went quiet. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands in Northern Uganda were displaced and the killings went on.
Second, it has to be said that official neglect on the part of the Ugandan government is responsible for much of the suffering we witness in Kony 2012 -- suffering that was brought on by an incompetent counterinsurgency strategy that, at its height, herded over one million civilians into disease infested and poorly protected camps. Right now it is a point of controversy that U.S. troops are standing shoulder to shoulder with certain Ugandan officers who ought to be charged with war crimes. Americans should shudder at this partnership and demand that the Ugandan government hold accountable those members of its military establishment who need to be tried for crimes against humanity.
Having said all that, I still view the release of Kony 2012 as a positive development. To those critics who say that the video was propelled by less than savory aspects of western media culture that perpetuate the mentality of the white man's burden, I say that western advocacy matters and can make a difference. From the anti-slavery struggle to the anti-colonial struggle, voices from the West have been indispensible. The key is for Africans to influence the direction of that advocacy. We cannot stop it, but we can redirect it. So how do we respond to this video that has convinced the world to bear witness to the untold suffering of Northern Uganda? We can complain about the gaps, but we also have to celebrate the fact that at least part of our story has been told. And told powerfully.
It's clear that the aim of the video was never intellectual stimulation. I don't think the founders of Invisible Children are the foremost analysts of the complicated political, historical and security dynamics in our troubled part of Africa. They certainly wouldn't earn high marks in African Studies. But I will go to my grave convinced that they have the most beautiful trait on earth -- compassion."
