If you are my friend of Facebook, there is nothing new on this blog that I haven't said on my FB wall. I just want to put it in a blog because in a week, the wall posts of FB will be gone. This will document my comments. I don't claim to be an expert BY ANY MEANS on this subject. As most of my friends know, I discuss what I hear and see and read in a very open and honest way.
I first came to Gulu in 2008 for a week and the experience changed my life. I returned again in 2009. I lived in Gulu for 3 months in 2010 and then again for 5 months in 2011. I am here for all of 2012. I am volunteering my accounting services for an NGO and raising donations to pay the school fees for some children. Educating the youth of Uganda is the only way to overcome the corruption here and end this horrible poverty. Now about the video.
Today is Friday, March 9th. I saw the IC video "Kony 2012" yesterday. Because the internet speed is so slow, it took 2 hours to watch the 30 minute video. So you can imagine how frustrated I was to spend the first hour watching this little white boy running around, jumping, and blowing things up when I wanted to get to the actual story of Kony! I found it irritating that at least 15 minutes of the video is the face of the video's producer, his life, and his little boy. What is that about? Think about how many more stories of other children and the atrocities they had seen could have been covered in that time....
The video will bring the spotlight to Gulu, Uganda, and if that brings even one more dollar to the area, than it is a good thing. There is so much need here right now. Before this 20+ year war, there was Idi Amin; so Gulu has been through hell for the last 50 years. It is amazing that ANYBODY is still alive here.
Kony was only part of the problem and the video never mentions WHY he was building an army or WHO he was fighting! There was another group of "bad guys" out there that were "supposed" to be stopping Kony, but they were doing just as much damage as the LRA! They were raping, sodomizing, torturing, and killing. THEY ARE NEVER MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO! Why?
The current president of Uganda was the one in power during the entire LRA war. Can you imagine this happening in the US? If our children were being kidnapped, and our women and men were being tortured and killed, can you imagine that we would still keep that president in power?
The video continues to repeat "Stop Kony". They want him captured and brought to justice. His army, the LRA, are now the grown up child soldiers that the very video is talking about. If my son David had been kidnapped at 14 (ten years ago) and he was still out there, would I want the "big powers" to come after him to capture his boss after all of these years? They will kill my son to get to Kony. There are so many other complications to this issue.
This video is about money, military positioning (look at what countries Gulu is positioned near), politics, new found oil, and did I mention money, money, and more money? There is relative peace in Gulu now. Why didn't anybody care or stop Kony 20 years ago when all of these atrocities were happening? Think about it. I do want to state that I am merely repeating stories I have been told by local people here. I am not an expert nor am implying to be one, OK? These are just my experiences.
The Acholi people got it from both sides, but the video only mentions one group. I have heard HORRIBLE stories about atrocites committed by BOTH "bad guy groups". I have heard stories that will forever be in my head all of my life and some are too horrible to even imagine or even to repeat.
Yes, Kony needs to be brought to justice, but what about the "other bad guy?" The IC Children video is 1/2 of the story. Who will tell the other 1/2?
I am not as good a writer as many out there, so I am going to post a couple of VERY good rebuttals to the Kony 2012 video. I hope these people won't mind if I post their link. They are all available to the general public on the internet. Please read these links for more excellent and knowledgeable information.
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/07/stop-kony-yes-but-dont-stop-asking-questions/
http://justiceinconflict.org/2012/03/07/taking-kony-2012-down-a-notch/
I first came to Gulu in 2008 for a week and the experience changed my life. I returned again in 2009. I lived in Gulu for 3 months in 2010 and then again for 5 months in 2011. I am here for all of 2012. I am volunteering my accounting services for an NGO and raising donations to pay the school fees for some children. Educating the youth of Uganda is the only way to overcome the corruption here and end this horrible poverty. Now about the video.
Today is Friday, March 9th. I saw the IC video "Kony 2012" yesterday. Because the internet speed is so slow, it took 2 hours to watch the 30 minute video. So you can imagine how frustrated I was to spend the first hour watching this little white boy running around, jumping, and blowing things up when I wanted to get to the actual story of Kony! I found it irritating that at least 15 minutes of the video is the face of the video's producer, his life, and his little boy. What is that about? Think about how many more stories of other children and the atrocities they had seen could have been covered in that time....
The video will bring the spotlight to Gulu, Uganda, and if that brings even one more dollar to the area, than it is a good thing. There is so much need here right now. Before this 20+ year war, there was Idi Amin; so Gulu has been through hell for the last 50 years. It is amazing that ANYBODY is still alive here.
Kony was only part of the problem and the video never mentions WHY he was building an army or WHO he was fighting! There was another group of "bad guys" out there that were "supposed" to be stopping Kony, but they were doing just as much damage as the LRA! They were raping, sodomizing, torturing, and killing. THEY ARE NEVER MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO! Why?
The current president of Uganda was the one in power during the entire LRA war. Can you imagine this happening in the US? If our children were being kidnapped, and our women and men were being tortured and killed, can you imagine that we would still keep that president in power?
The video continues to repeat "Stop Kony". They want him captured and brought to justice. His army, the LRA, are now the grown up child soldiers that the very video is talking about. If my son David had been kidnapped at 14 (ten years ago) and he was still out there, would I want the "big powers" to come after him to capture his boss after all of these years? They will kill my son to get to Kony. There are so many other complications to this issue.
This video is about money, military positioning (look at what countries Gulu is positioned near), politics, new found oil, and did I mention money, money, and more money? There is relative peace in Gulu now. Why didn't anybody care or stop Kony 20 years ago when all of these atrocities were happening? Think about it. I do want to state that I am merely repeating stories I have been told by local people here. I am not an expert nor am implying to be one, OK? These are just my experiences.
The Acholi people got it from both sides, but the video only mentions one group. I have heard HORRIBLE stories about atrocites committed by BOTH "bad guy groups". I have heard stories that will forever be in my head all of my life and some are too horrible to even imagine or even to repeat.
Yes, Kony needs to be brought to justice, but what about the "other bad guy?" The IC Children video is 1/2 of the story. Who will tell the other 1/2?
I am not as good a writer as many out there, so I am going to post a couple of VERY good rebuttals to the Kony 2012 video. I hope these people won't mind if I post their link. They are all available to the general public on the internet. Please read these links for more excellent and knowledgeable information.
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/07/stop-kony-yes-but-dont-stop-asking-questions/
http://justiceinconflict.org/2012/03/07/taking-kony-2012-down-a-notch/
My sentiments exactly! It drove me nuts how self-centered that guy was! What a waste of a viral video! Wouldn't it be great if a video about how we could actually be empowering good people in Uganda went viral?
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