I agree. Some of the comments against are listing all the other problems Uganda has. Well that's the problem if you're going to be a single issue charity, you're only going to target that one issue.Originally Posted by JMA
I agree. Some of the comments against are listing all the other problems Uganda has. Well that's the problem if you're going to be a single issue charity, you're only going to target that one issue.
Sometimes it takes the initiative of outsiders/kids/whoever to shake the professional politicians awake and to force them to take action.
In my era Band Aid (1984) - run by a bunch of long haired gits - turned 'business as usual' on its head. Magnificent work.
The spark of humanity still burns in the young.
I am always reminded by what Cynthia Ozick wrote (in relation to the Holocaust):
Indifference is not so much a gesture of looking away--of choosing to be passive--as it is an active disinclination to feel. Indifference shuts down the humane, and does it deliberately, with all the strength deliberateness demands. Indifference is as determined--and as forcefully muscular--as any blow.
Last edited by JMA; 03-11-2012 at 01:53 PM.
What will it take to end the conflict with the LRA?
A well written article that starts with:It ends with:Ending the violence and insecurity perpetrated by the Lord's Resistance Army is more about empowering civil society and developing local solutions across many countries than about keeping US military advisers in Northern Uganda. The youthful, Western attention brought to the issue by Invisible Children and #Kony2012 is not in itself a solution.Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/kennedy...flict-with-lraAchieving a peaceful conclusion to this conflict involves efforts aimed at ascertaining and closing the supply lines of the LRA. It also entails ‘taking the governments’ back to these under-governed places, addressing the development and social challenges in these neglected areas.[22] Civil society can play a critical role at all levels in promoting dialogue to promote engagement, understanding and reconciliation.
Despite enormous odds, support for a strategy based on protection and engagement is widespread among those who bear the brunt of the conflict, civil society and communities across the region. They recognise that building a just and lasting peace takes time. This is a job that requires support for local approaches and peacebuilding initiatives rather than imposing more external firepower.
The author works for:Their website is:http://www.c-r.orgConciliation Resources is an independent organisation working with people in conflict to build peace and prevent violence
davidbfpo
Joseph Kony 2012
This could only happen in America...
Joseph Kony 2012: filmmaker Jason Russell arrested on suspicion of masturbating in public
... Hollywood release of 'Kony2012 - The Meltdown' early next year?
Very little, I would cynically guess. Most of those who viewed have probably moved on by now to the next viral sensation. Clicking "like" or "share" requires little effort and is hardly an indicator of commitment.
It's also not at all certain where any of this attention is meant to lead. If the video had come out before Obama had sent men and money to the area, I could have seen the point. It seems like an effort to pressure the US government to do what they're already doing.
To some extent, but when I see items like this:
it's hard not to see "getting Kony isn't enough, you have to send lots of money and "fix Africa" and send lots more money and then send..."begin by developing a comprehensive approach that prioritises civilian protection from abductions, political, security humanitarian, development and governance efforts. It would start with ensuring civilian protection in tandem with political dialogue involving regional governments to address, for example, the political and military rivalries driving the conflict.
It is of course true that getting Kony will not solve or end the problems of Central Africa. What needs to be pointed out to many who remind us of this is that while getting Kony isn't the final solution, it is a reasonable and achievable goal for an outside power. Fixing Uganda, or fixing Central Africa, are not reasonable or achievable goals for an outside power and it would be silly for the US or any other foreign power to take them on.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
H.L. Mencken
I thought the recommendations in the article were unrealistic. First off the author dismisses the vast size of the geographical region he wants security forces to provide protection to, and apparently believes that recommending inept African governments to expand their outstanding government services to this large expanse is feasible. While there may not be a military solution to Central Africa's many woes, there certainly can be a military solution to finding and killing Kony. As others have mentioned this may send a message to other thugs in the region, but regardless it will be justice.
In summary, a military solution can remove Kony, but it can't solve all of Central Africa's woes.
Last edited by Bill Moore; 03-19-2012 at 02:58 AM.
I believe were getting lost here.
The Kony2012 video was interresting for the only purpose of flaging the issue.
Solutions in that video and in many articles are just innacurate, out of context and unrealistic. Regime change in Uganda will not stop Kony! Neither will the construction of schools or development of agriculture in North Uganda.
Mixing Kony and the actual prolems Uganda is facing, especially the post Museveni regime, is just missing the target by several univers.
The LRA has become a regional problem in 2008 as from 2006 to 2008 unsucessful peace talk took place in the trail of the 2005 South Sudan peace agreement. Before, Kony went from anti Museveni rebellion with popular support to crazy guy leading a bunch of psychopath terrorising the very same population who was supporting him. Why? Because he got defeated by UPDF.
Now, opposition is very loud in northern Uganda but for very different reasons. Mainly the grip of Museveni familly and friends over politic and economy. Solving the Karamajo and the gold mining issues will not affect Kony, never had and never will. Solving the Acholy land issues will not affect Kony, never had and never will.
Kony and Dominique and few others are just good to be sent to the ICC if caugh alive. That's all. Issues about Uganda and its necessity to find a way to ensure stable passation from Museveni dictarial regime to a democratic regime are completely different from LRA and Kony. The fact that Museveni has a long known strategy of legitimating his position by pointing out the existence of various rebel groups is well known, analysed and can be discuss in another threat (there is at least 1 on Uganda.)
LRA can be assimilated to pirats according to international laws. They have a warrant of arrest issued by ICC. Now the realquestion is not will the US catch Kony but rather why is Uganda asking for US help in that mission which should or could have been ended ages ago. (Specially when UN transported LRA and Kony from South Sudan to Garamba parc in DRC. A stop by The Hague could have been a good idea. But requested b@ll$ from the UN...)
This stuff can only happen after such a viral video success...
This reminds me a bit of some satirist's critique of the computer chair heroes who got agitated a lot about something they have only 40 minutes worth of information about...
(I am a computer chair hero nowadays as well, but I get agitated about things I knew about for a decade or more!)
edit: Just one more
Interestingly (coincidentally), it's not 100% baseless...
Last edited by Fuchs; 03-19-2012 at 11:22 AM.
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