They terrorize villages, they take children into custody and turn them into child soldiers, they engage in rape and slaughter in villages they go through. “Kony 2012“ is now the most rapidly disseminated human rights video ever. Sure, it's great to raise awareness of the issue, but efforts need to be made today to help protect people in isolated areas that are vulnerable to attack. Kony 2012. We are left as the pawns in the game. 4.56pm: My colleague Ryan Devereaux has had a longer conversation with Ugandan journalist Angelo Izama. " the time when the campaign expires" -- Depending on your time zone, you'll need to update the verb tense in a few hours. Many thanks for all your contributions today. The photo was taken at the Sudan-Congo border during the 2008 Juba Peace Talks by a photographer on assignment for the Associated Press Photograph: Glenna Gordon. Uganda is strong, vibrant, developing technology, industry, the resilient women are rising in civil groups, that's what I want to talk about. This man captures children, gives them weapons,… The problem is, he’s not in Uganda. In Congo and Central African Republic, Sawyer said Invisible Children has been "some of the quickest organizations to respond to the needs on the ground, very flexible and willing to work with and listen to the local communities. An excellent story and a big marketing budget. He shrugged. Jacob Acaye, the Ugandan former child abductee at the heart of the film Kony 2012, has defended the video and its makers. "What we want to highlight is the lack of development in the area that we're talking about, where people have a lot of concerns – including the lack of access to hospitals, roads and schools – with this impacting massively on these people," Van Damme said. Kony isn’t in Uganda. It does not have have 30,000 or 60,000 child soldiers. The voice was soft. Kony is a company that provides enterprise mobility products and services, including a mobile application development platform (MADP) and mobile backend as a service. Poverty is high compared to the rest of the country. The other criticism has been that the video heavily relies on images shot in Uganda more than 6 years ago and presents it as the current situation. What they can do is provide the logistical support that is needed, the advice, the training and the logistical support that hopefully will allow this kind of stuff to stop. I second all these points, based on my own research and that of my colleagues. It'll be children who are Kony's bodyguards. In fact the late Pope John Paul sent a message to Kony which is inscribed on a stone in the school in northern Uganda. 6.31pm: We're going to wrap up our live blog coverage of the controversy surrounding the Kony 2012 viral video. According to Van Damme, military operations targeting Kony would present a host of risks. We need to change the image of Africa as a basket case. Sawyer has studied the Lord's Resistance Army for several years. Here's a quote that can be controversial and misunderstood: "Sometimes you have to lie to tell the truth." They pushed him out of Uganda but didn't effectively weaken the actual strength of the group. It also makes the point that there is currently no threat to remove the US advisers who are working with the Uganda government to track down the army – Invisible Children's key aim is to force the US government to keep them there. It's thriving, growing, people are trying to put their lives together. He was alleged to be responsible for the deaths of over 10,000 people and the enslavement of over 60,000 children. He is currently based in Goma. These stats from YouTube show how it has taken off since Monday, where it's being watched and the age profile of those watching. But if you read between the lines at the frustration that the organizers felt, it presents another type of villain: those who choose to do nothing. The Guardian has widely reported recent electoral violence and the persecution of opposition leader, homosexuals and journalists in Uganda. Viral doesn't mean cheap. I always have. They didn't sit around talking for too long and checked with experts and that the local people wanted what they were doing. Kony is the obvious villain. They have some unique ways of working, a good mentoring scheme where they pair people who have come through the conflict with people who are coming out of it now. Before we go on, let's note that there has been a flurry of backlash about Invisible Children's financial management. What will a $30 kit do? The persecution of homosexuals is also strongly driven (and funded) by American-based Christian fundamentalist groups, who also see Uganda as a frontline in the cultural war against Islam, thanks to the Museveni regimie's outspoken (and military-strategis) support of the US 'War on Terror'. If the movie Titanic were about the history of a sunken ship, it would be on PBS on a Sunday afternoon. 11.09pm GMT / 6.09pm ET: President Obama talks about Joseph Kony. We have challenges within the country, but certainly the perception of a country at war is not accurate at all. If six years ago children in Uganda would have feared the hell of being part of the LRA, a well documented reality already, today the real invisible children are those suffering from "Nodding Disease". We need to secure social stability, health and education. By focusing on Jacob, the story gives the audience someone to root for, which makes the overall emotional impact of the message stronger. He writes: They call themselves "a movement" seeking to end the conflict in Uganda and stop the abduction of children for use as child soldiers, but behind the slick website and the touchy-feely talk about "changing the course of human history", there's a hard-nosed money-making operation led by US filmmakers and accountants, commuication experts, lobbyists and salespeople. And you might even see a little bit of yourself in him. This from Save the Children's director of policy and advocacy, Brendan Cox: Anything which continues to pressurise world leaders to bring Joseph Kony to justice is to be welcomed. Critics say that the film was overly simplified and too focused on Jason Russell, his son Gavin, and the Gen Y youth that the movie was targeting -- well, it's because the movie did this that the audience of American young adults rose to answer the call to share the video. There are conflicts in the north – several small conflicts over natural resources. You see scenes of YouTube and Facebook, think about how far we've come since our days as micro-cellular organisms, and feel proud to be living in an era of innovation and the internet. KONY 2012 is a movement backed by some of the world’s most powerful entities and has precise goals. We are not defined by him or Idi Amin. The man [Kony] hasn't been in the country for over six years. I did my masters at SOAS last year, focusing on transitional justice. Kony is a sore in our history. ".He added this video is very fit for the Western world but we must not forget that there is another side of the story. But many organisations and governments are focusing on this. On the American Ebay website 1,391 items come up under a search for "Kony" including keyrings, t shirts, posters and phone covers. The enrichment schemes involve the plundering of timber and high-value minerals like gold, diamonds and coltan in eastern DRC and the creation of false payment and pension schemes for army sections that do not exist ('ghost soldiers'). The hashtag #stopkony has had hundreds of thousands of tweets, and millions of people now know something about Uganda and what is happening to children there. "I think Invisible Children is starting some of the best work there, in terms of setting up the early warning mechanism. Not everyone in Africa is dancing barefoot all day and the local leaders probably have motives of their own. They [Invisible Children] are not a member of our forum. Regardless of whether you agree with Invisible Children's methods, it's important to digest media with a healthy dose of skepticism. The Kony 2012 campaign has drawn extensive coverage from traditional journalists and sparked heated debates across the blogosphere, with many experts on African politics weighing in to complicate or challenge the film's narrative of what is occurring on the ground in Uganda and its recommendations about what appropriate responses to Kony might look like. M-u-s-k-y, also in the UK, is selling wristbands for £2.99. But Uganda is in transition. Do post any specific questions you'd like them to answer below the line or tweet @RDevro. Maybe Jason Russell's web-based film Kony 2012, calling for international action to stop the Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony, can't be considered great documentary-making. The accounts suggest nearly 25% of its $8.8m income last year was spent on travel and film-making with only around 30% going toward programes on the ground. According to informed assessments, the LRA number little more than a few hundred and are scattered over an area the size of the UK. This is nothing new in political circles - why should it be any different when it comes to charities? He learnt of a man who opposes the Ugandan government in a rebel group called the LRA. This is what we're trying to focus on. There's no indication that the profits will go to charity. No hero, no story. =) -- Khazar2 (talk) 20:22, 31 December 2012 (UTC) But it has also attracted criticism: there are questions about the charity's funding, its targeting of US leaders instead of African leaders to instigate change, and accusations that it is failing to criticise the Ugandan government, with its poor human rights record. It was quite a bad line from Nairobi airport, but this is what he told me: From what I know about Invisible Children, it's an international NGO, and it documents the lives of children living in conflict for international campaigning to draw attention to the lives of children in the north. They don't understand the nuance of the situation. The media campaigning is a different type of work to on the ground project work they do. 12.32pm: I've just been speaking with Arthur Larok, Action Aid's director in Uganda. In six days it reached an aggregate 100 million views – faster than other pop culture phenomena like Susan Boyle (9 days), Rebecca Black (45 days) and ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ (445 days). Jason Russell is a young professional, artist/filmmaker/whatever, a husband, a dad, a hipster, a dreamer. Thanks for reading – and thanks especially to all those who wrote in with valuable context and ideas. Because I have the privilege to be in the States and I have a forum which is listened to, it's my responsibility to stand up and say something. There is a strong “us versus them” storyline in the movie, and the audience is forced to decide which side they are on. 1) Joseph Kony is not in Uganda and hasn't been for six years; 2) The LRA now numbers at most in the hundreds, and while it is still causing immense suffering, it is unclear how millions of well-meaning but misinformed people are going to help deal with the more complicated reality. This is clearly sanctioned, even driven by the country's leadership. Part of HuffPost Impact. Many international organisations prefer to work and have direct contact with their quarters. During her time there she worked with Invisible Children and she gives a really nuanced views of their work. 20 Apr 2012: Kony 2012: what happens next? Among also points out that it is not first time that celebrities have been brought on board for the cause of ending war in northern Uganda. ", "If they had taken the story to where it is now, which is DRC, I think that you could still raise the question of Kony's atrocities, which are still ongoing now, but also raise the important issues that come with that, including the fact that DRC is where in 90s six or seven armies fought. People did not really know about it. We feel like we know Jacob, so the story becomes harder to dismiss as far away and irrelevant to our daily lives. Did I ask you to sell my story for an action kit to make uninformed college students feel good? We wanted to talk to them and film them and get their perspective. But everything now seems to have very short term vision. Murder, recruitment of children as soldiers, mutilation and rape. Last year Invisible Children pocketed over … Without a better brand we cannot develop better international relations. There's marketing involved in the non-profit world too, and you can't blame organizations for wanting to sell their cause. Hopefully.". Bussman said Invisible Children did what it had to do to draw attention to an important issue. Izama pointed out that the Ugandan military – which the Obama administration legally committed itself to assisting one year after the oil discovery – has been increasing its oil-related security operations. Get in touch below the line, tweet @pollycurtis or email me at polly.curtis@guardian.co.uk. to follow a social or philanthropic movement blindly. My impression over the past few years is that they've got very shiny and slick. Meaning well doesn't give you the right to march into my house and tell me how to live.
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