Why the Video Kony 2012 Went Viral and Why We Should do nothing about it
Three months ago I wrote an article (The Difference Between the Qur'an and Holy Books) about the Lord's Resistance Army and Joseph Kony who wants to establish a government based on the Ten Commandments although by his actions they seem based instead on the Qur'an. (1)
A week ago (5 Mar 2012), an NGO called Invisible Children released a 30 minute documentary entitled KONY 2012 on YouTube about the wacky African warlord Joseph Kony. The purpose of the video?
The Observer, 10 Mar 2012, After Kony, could a viral video change the world?
Its goal was to raise awareness of the activities of Joseph Kony, a Ugandan warlord who leads the Lord's Resistance Army, in the hope of bringing him to justice. Kony and his LRA are distinguished by their violence and brutality, their weird ideology and – crucially for the purposes of the video – their practice of abducting children and turning them into child soldiers. This last practice has led to the bizarre phenomenon of "night commuting", in which Ugandan children leave their villages at night in order to sleep in towns, where they are supposedly less vulnerable to kidnapping by Kony and his goons.
As of this writing (11 Mar 2012 - 9:10 pm) the video has had over 71,914,200 views. How did it go viral so fast? The same Observer article suggests that Oprah Winfrey may have been responsible:
An examination of the spread of the Kony video suggests that one weak tie in particular may have been critical in launching it to its present eminence. Her name is Oprah Winfrey and she tweeted: "Have watched the film. Had them on show last year" on 6 March, after which the graph of YouTube views of the video switches to the trajectory of a bat out of hell. Winfrey, it turns out, has 9.7 million followers on Twitter.
Oprah Winfrey should mind her own business, she knows nothing about Africa and only makes things worse for those she is trying to help, see my article Oprah should have helped US Blacks.
The reason that tens of millions of people are dying in Africa is precisely because we have been interfering in Africa for more than a hundred years.
In the present case, if this video gets millions of young Americans to care about Africa and inspires the US into getting rid of Joseph Kony, then Africa, especially Ugandans will be worse off. Michael Deibert, author of Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair, makes the case that 'It is important to understand the context and the history of a region before blundering blindly forward to "help" a people you don't understand." For example, President Clinton in the 1990s tried to help in the Democratic Republic of Congo and his help ended up with over 6 million people losing their lives. (2)
That's why we should do nothing. We cannot help Africa. When we try, we only make things worse. I have written often: For Gods Sake - Stop Helping Africa. Not because I do not care - I do care; I care so much that I have spent thousands of hours investigating our actions and their results - and these results are horrible: in not a single case have we ever made anything better in Africa, not mosquito nets, not free food, not anything in 70 years.
ENDNOTES
(1):
My heart’s in Accra Blog, Just how crazy is Joseph Kony?
Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA, is one of the strangest rebel leaders to appear on the global stage. A primary school dropout, Kony became a traditional healer in an Acholi village as a young man. When Museveni seized power in 1986 and began cracking down on former soldiers who’d returned to their homes in Acholiland, Kony emerged as the leader of one of several resistance movements against the Ugandan government. Kony’s movement is notable for its religious fervor – LRA’s stated goal is a Ugandan nation run in accordance with the Ten Commandments… but Kony, a polygamist, may interpret this document in some interesting ways. Since receiving weaponry and support from Khartoum, Kony’s rhetoric has expanded to include adherance to some aspects of Muslim doctrine, prohibiting his followers from eating pork and demanding they observe Ramadan. Oh, and he’s a spirit medium, channeling the spirit of a former Ugandan minister and a Chinese general.
He’s also a wanted international war criminal, indicted by the ICC last year for crimes including murder, rape and sexual enslavement.
(2):
Huff Post, 7 Mar 2012, The Problem With Invisible Children's "Kony 2012"
By blindly supporting Uganda's current government and its military adventures beyond its borders, as Invisible Children suggests that people do, Invisible Children is in fact guaranteeing that there will be more violence, not less, in Central Africa.
I have seen the well-meaning foreigners do plenty of damage before, so that is why people understanding the context and the history of the region is important before they blunder blindly forward to "help" a people they don't understand.
U.S. President Bill Clinton professed that he was "helping" in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s and his help ended up with over 6 million people losing their lives.
