Kony 2012

You will have all heard of this, unless you’re in a country without internet (rather ironically, like northern Uganda), it’s basically the biggest internet phenomenon of the year. There are a lot of different stories about it, but my biggest issue with the number of stories is that very few of them focus on Uganda. People are all too busy whining about the Invisible Children’s use of money, or laughing at Jason Russell touching himself in public (which yeah, is absolutely hilarious), but seriously, there are bigger issues here. Basically in this, I’m gonna break down the whole ridiculous video but probably not the whole invisible children thing. People should be smart enough to find out where the money they are donating goes. The majority of this is going to be about the situation in Uganda, who Kony is, and why the call to remove Kony from power is probably a bit too late.

The video is the slickest thing ever; it clearly cost a fair amount of money to produce. Most people now will have watched it, or at least have done what I did, which was watch 15 minutes and then get filled with a sense of moral righteousness that rendered the rest of the video unimportant. I also had to get to the pub, but mostly the indignation thing. There have been a ton of videos and articles on this one video, and one I watched recently was of the reaction to the video in northern Uganda. Let’s put it this way, it wasn’t great. One of my main problems with the video is that, as one of the Ugandan viewers put it “They’re all white”. Except of course for that one guy that was friends with Jason Russell. It’s all a bit odd, there is footage of the cutest, most Aryan kid saying “we need to stop the bad guy” and pointing at a picture of Kony. It isn’t just me that sees this as a weird “we whites will sort out the problems of black people because we’re just so damn good”. A few people have got this impression and it’s bizarre. Sure we want to help but this video is too much about the charity and not enough about what they do, or what the actual issues are. It simplifies it all way too much, so it’s a case of good guy’s vs. bad guys. Anyone over the age of 12 knows almost nothing is exactly that simple. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Kony is a bad guy; I’m just a bit vague on who the good guys are.

Anyway, about Kony. First thing you need to know is that he is a certifiable maniac. Like this guy is an honest to god lunatic. He thinks he’s a prophet or something, but from what the people who have met him have said, he acts like a deep spiritual kinda guy, he’s also  nervous about meeting new people. Who knew crazy people could have a softer side? Anyway, he served as an altar boy for a bit. At some point he started gaining a ton of support. He was the witch doctor in his town for a while and he and his followers all got a bit... spiritual. They belief he channels the Holy Spirit, or something like that. Now, as far as I can tell, he wants a theocracy, which is basically when a country is governed by religion, in this case Christianity. We’re not talking like the sane, love your neighbour kind though, we’re on like, crazy, literal belief in the bible territory. I mean, its fine, a load of weirdo’s in America and I assume other places, take it literally, but I think letting that sort of thing rule your country is a terrible idea. I mean, Kony LITERALLY believes that if you wear a cross on your chest, you’re protected from bullets. LITERALLY. And he tells his child soldiers this. You can see why this guy is considered to basically be a loon. Although, I think the think we mostly have an objection to is the kidnapping children, murdering their parents and turning them into child soldiers or sex workers. I don’t really need to say anything about that, we all acknowledge that anyone who exploits children in any way needs to be stopped.

A problem I encounter here though, is that I’m not sure who the good guys are. From the research I’ve done I’m fairly sure the Ugandan government are not the good guys (one article I read claimed that the Ugandan president started the damn child soldier thing there), but I’m also pretty certain we aren’t either. I mean, the support for Kony’s arrest is now largely made up of us, students, who haven’t got a freaking clue about the situation, other than the fact that “Kony is a bad guy.” I love the idea of social activism, I love that teenagers want to change things, and make a difference but can we at least but the tiniest bit of effort into finding out about it, instead of basically watching a video and going, “oh, this looks cool, Kony must be bad, the nice American guy with the cute kid says he is.” It’s like, people used to say Hitler was good, and people used to just believe it, because they couldn’t be bothered finding out the facts. It’s obviously different in this case, because Kony is actually what the video says, but STILL.

I think the point I’m trying to make is, don’t just believe the shit you’re told. It’s nice to think you can make a difference but at least figure out what difference you’re going to make first. I think the reason people have got so worked up about it being a trending topic on twitter and loads of people sharing the video, is that we went a bit brainless after watching it. Filled with a sort of insane certainty that the nice man on YouTube was going to make us part of something big and important (and you can’t deny, it was that patronising). Sure we can be part of something big and important; I just think that we should have thought a bit more about it first.

There’s also a pretty high chance this whole thing is a bit late. Kony isn’t even IN Uganda anymore, Obama sent troops there last year (Obama gets shit done), the Ugandan’s that have been interviewed said they want money to rebuild now, not to fight wars. Attempting to capture Kony by force hasn’t worked in the past 20 odd years, why should it now? I think the best course of action is to donate money to charities we know will actually put the money to good use, even if that money doesn’t necessarily go to Uganda, and if we want a change there, if we really want to remove Kony from power, the only way that will happen is if we put pressure on our governments to act, because charities can raise awareness, and help rebuild lives, but they aren’t militarised and they aren’t going to change things without the support of our governments.