The following links are meant to stand with the previous bit I wrote. My opinion hasn’t really changed all that much: #Kony2012 is to be applauded if it succeeds and getting people deeper into the issues of the region. If it stands on it’s own though, without deeper engagement, I don’t think it rightfully can be applauded. My concern is that it stands more often than not on its own. These links will helpfully flesh out the issues and concerns and drive us into a deeper understanding of how we can rightly be involved.
We’ll start with this: Ben Keesey, one of IC’s founders responds via video to some of the criticism. Personally, I don’t think it responds to the right pieces of the criticism, but here it is for your perusal.
Slate wrote a good article on “Crowd-Sourced Intervention”. It’s good food for thought.
One item that I’ve seen come up several times is the lack of an LRA presence in northern Uganda BUT the presence of an odd disease (nodding disease) only affecting children. Many Ugandan voices in particular would like to see more awareness about this.
Rachel Held Evans wrote about the situation for Relevant Magazine. It’s worth a perusal at the very least.
This is a video from an Ugandan journalist. Her voice is worth hearing. She pointed as well towards this coverage by Al Jazeera detailing the reaction of several thousand Ugandans watching Kony2012 for the first time.
And finally, in a more amusing twist, apparently quite a few folks have been confusing Joseph Kony with Carl Weathers.