I saw the video posted on my program's personal page and as soon as I noticed it was a trending twitter topic, I knew it was worth the 30 minutes.
KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.
The movie starts out as if it intends to be a happy autobiographical account of a white missionary type guy with a great life. He creates a tie between his own beloved son and the children of Uganda who have been abducted to form the atrocious army lead by Joseph Kony. Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), at my first introduction, was presented as a band of African men who are nothing more but soulless and power hungry, employing children to exterminate their families mutilate, fellow Africans, and be sexual slaves since the 80s. The 30 minute video is graphic and touching. It taps straight into the life of a young boy afflicted by the terror of Kony who personally witnessed the execution of his own brother as well as providing sample images of the harm the LRA causes people of Africa.
The video goes as far as to link Kony with Hitler. One of several slogans states "No child should sleep in fear" and presents the number of 30,000 abducted and maliciously employed child soldiers under the thumb of this one man.
The campaign is meant to create stardom of Kony; "not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice." As the lovable George Clooney is noted saying in this video, they should have as much publicity as Hollywood celebrities.
And so, Invisible Children as the group of initiators of this movement as well as creator of the viral video, Jason Russell spreads their belief in the idea that this evil man should be stopped with the help of voices being carried from one to another and to the White House and beyond. Combined with the voice that it needed to spread, the organization accepts donations to the fund as well as a kit to help promote publicity of the issue; a t-shirt, bracelet, stickers type of goody box for the greater good.
So I read the stories, watched the videos, and couldn't help but think to myself where's the counterargument? I was truly shocked when I encountered it.
Andy Milonakis, the famed star of his own self titled show which my parents loathed as I cackled during his outrageously funny and admittedly stupid antics, took the limited-to-140-character route to what I needed to see; what he called his stance as "Devil's Advocate via Kony."
Throughout his series of tweets on the trending topic, he attached a condensed and (what I found to be) well-written link to a counterargument on what Invisible Children is to those not quick to grab at a halo, appropriately titled Visible Children, by Grant Oysten.
In this article, readers are given facts as well as resources to research LRA further than the 30 minutes of sheer fear, disgust, and opposition to his actions we see through Russell's depiction.
Besides the aspect of money this "not-for-profit" organization publicizes, what Oysten stresses is that the Kony 2012 campaign is a movement to end violence in Africa by means of violence. This organization is supporting the Ugandan military which opposes Kony but also engages in acts of violence that they are working to end.
Further, Russell's video points at the fact that the American government was addressed but declined to take immediate action until they were urged again by a larger movement. This is not the only nor the first organization, however, to bring it to the White House's attention, nor is it the first time which the White House responded. Advocacy groups such as the Enough project, the Resolve campaign, Human Rights Watch, World Vision and the Canadian-based group GuluWalk have worked to get this issue addressed. The response from the United States, though it may have been muted due to it's minute correlation with the country's current and most relevant focus, existed before this campaign exploded throughout the young generation. As long ago as 2004, when George W. Bush put the LRA on the U.S. Terrorist Exclusion List, banning members from entering the country.
As all authors I have read from in my brief and non-extensive education of this topic, the cause is clearly one with "good intentions." This is not United States getting into things which don't relate to us; it is one community of people helping out neighboring communities for the benefit of all man-kind. That, to me, should be the essence of all goals in which America sets. However, for there to be claims of a strictly black and white war within a country from which only a select few people report back certainly gives an impression that King Leopold's ghost is lurking.
In conclusion: I will most likely take a stand, as a liberal, humanitarian young adult in Seville on April 20 to support the end of Kony's terror. However, I will not as a journalist only take information from one source or one point of view in making decisions. I think what this campaign (which kind of has an Occupy air to it...) is one that appeals to young people for very varied reasons. As long as the appeal is to help the greater good and not to wear a trendy bracelet, I will use my voice to support.
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