Have you ever heard of Joseph Kony?
Kony is 49 years old, lives in Uganda and is the leader of the so called Lords Resistance Army (LRA). The aim of this army is to have a theocratic governmental system based on the bible and the Ten Commandments. The pneuma itself gave Kony the order to found this army and conduct this war. His modus operandi is suspect, because the LRA is today known for its brutal abductions of approximately 66.000 children. They became the involuntary soldiers of Kony's army. He is accused to be responsible for the brutal despoilment of entire villages and for the command of murders, rapes and mutilations. All in all he terrorizes the civil population of Uganda, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and of South Sudan for more than two decades now.
A week ago the American aid group "Invisible Children" (IC) published the "Kony 2012-Campaign" on the internet. It is a 30 minutes film, made by two American filmmakers, who founded the organization IC. Within 48 hours the video had more than seven million views on the platform Vimeo, more than five million views on Youtube and more than one million "likes" on the social network facebook. Even now this campaign is one of the most impressive examples for the change of political activism through social media. The film is viral and very well produced and it has a gripping effect on the viewers. But in the same time the video aroused worldwide criticism. Can a facebook "like" save the world?
In the film you can see the little son of one of the founders of the organization and he learns in front of the camera, what his daddy does and who the bad people are. Furthermore they show an interview with one of the victims, where he describes the atrocious death of his brother. Most of the scenes are supposed to arouse compassion in the viewers and the techniques they used seem to work on the people. But it's not only the self-dramatization which provides critics with a target. In the film they call people up to buy a "Kony-Action Kit", which contains posters, a T-Shirt, Buttons, an Action Guide, Stickers and Kony-Bracelets. To buy this Action-Kit, people have to donate money to the organization on the long term. But it has been proven, that most of the money is used for running costs, promotion and the production of films. Only one third of it is used for development assistance. Further on it is said, that the research behind the film is rather poor. Some of the scenes are more than ten years old and the situation in Uganda has not only changed, it is much more complex than it is described in the campaign. So that academics doubt, that the problem would be solved with the arrest of Joseph Kony.
The Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni already made a statement, which says, that Uganda is not in danger anymore. The people actually live in peace there nowadays and Kony doesn't stay on Ugandan territory any more. He even invited the two founders of Invisible Children to come to his country and see themselves that the situation has settled down. But about this, people should also keep in mind, that Uganda is afraid now, that the tourists are put off, after they saw this movie. After all tourism plays a role in the countries economy and if the people stay off from the country, it harms them. Museveni emphasizes this in the end of his statement, when he refers to Uganda as one of the top must-see travel destinations named by the Lonely Planet this year.
However the aim of the campaign is to make Kony famous and arrest him before the deadline of the 31.12.2012.
Last october the U.S. sent 100 soldiers to Uganda, to help in advisory function on the spot. The film says that without public pressure those troops would be removed by the American government.
However, there are no indications for the withdrawal. So the motivation of the film is also questionable.
Despite all the criticism and the suspect effect on the happenings in Uganda, the film was successful in a way, that it raised worldwide awareness of a problem which shouldn't go down in the massive flow of nowadays media. That reality can't be depicted in a 30 minutes film should be clear in everyone's mind. But to write this campaign off easily and call it emotional blackmailing is not right. Because in the end this movement shows that social media is something which people can use in a much more efficient and intelligent way than creating virtual personalities or following the details of Kim Kardashian's sex life.
No comments:
Post a Comment