By Michelle Eigenheer–
The non-profit organization Invisible Children returned to the activist spotlight last week when their 30-minute video, released on March 5, went viral, seeming to instantly become a huge global movement. The video raised awareness of Joseph Kony, a man who spends his life kidnapping Ugandan children who are then forced to become child soldiers or prostitutes. The outrage at such a disgusting idea has pushed Kony into a place of infamy – #stopkony is trending on Twitter and the thirty minute film, called ‘Stop Kony,’ is flooding Facebook across the world.
Invisible Children’s website for the movement, kony2012.com, encourages people to join the movement and raise awareness. The website even contains links to directly tweet celebrities and prominent politic figures about Kony, without having to do any work – Just click ‘send’.
Invisible Children is an organization that deals mainly with advocacy and raising awareness in today’s youth. That’s great – It’s good that an organization wants the current up-and-coming generation to get involved and make the world a better place. Seriously, this generation needs more of that and social media alone tells us that the Kony 2012 campaign is having an impact. Friends and followers alike are calling for action from U.S. leaders in order to put an end to Kony’s war crimes.
However, a large number, if not the majority, of these new activists are the same people who have spent the last 10 years screaming at the government for their involvement in the Middle East. For several years, people, like former president George W. Bush, have been openly criticized and attacked for trying to piece together devastated countries, such as post-Hussein Iraq. Opposition has repeatedly questioned why the United States is devoting money, tim, and military to help other countries when “there are big problems here.”
Well, sure, there are big problems here. There have been for a long time. Why, then, has this standard changed with the Kony movement? There are still a large number of unemployed people in the US, still a War on Drugs, still street violence and prostitution, still illegal immigration and child abuse. Did domestic problems become less important because an organization that appeals to young people launched a movement that says, “Stop at nothing??”
One of the “Policymakers” that Invisible Children urges supporters to contact via Twitter is George W. Bush himself. Why is it okay to ask this man, who has been openly criticized for his actions overseas, to advocate for another overseas endeavor? If I were Bush, I would have more than a few choice words for someone who badmouthed my name because of my action in the Middle East, only to turn around and ask for my help for a similar matter.
It is not at all a bad thing to want Joseph Kony to be apprehended by the International Criminal Court, who has been after him since 2005. Joseph Kony deserves to die a horrible death, preferably at the hands of his victims – That’s what Saddam Hussein got. But it is not okay to have a double standard when it comes to issues such as this. People like to forget that conflict in Iraq took place to overthrow a leader who killed his own people based on which kind of Muslim they were and to establish a government that would never again let that happen.
Tragedy happens all over. How can this genocide be more important than another one?
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Photo courtesy Kony2012
