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Dina Azar

Guest post: Joseph Kony is not in Uganda (and other complicated things) - By Michael Wi... - 0 views

blog.foreignpolicy.com/...a_and_other_complicated_things

KONY2012 AFRICA

shared by Dina Azar on 18 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Dina Azar on 18 Mar 12
     
    Click here to see photos of the evolution of the LRA. Thanks to an incredibly effective social media effort, #StopKony is trending on Twitter today. The campaign coincides with a new awareness-raising documentary by the group Invisible Children.
  • Dina Azar on 18 Mar 12
     
    "Coming back to the "Kony 2012" video and its celebrity endorsements, what are the consequences of unleashing so many exuberant activists armed with so few facts? Defining Uganda in the international conversation by issues that are either geographical misfires (Save northern Uganda!) or an intentional attempt to distract the international community (Death to the gays!), do a disservice to the many critical problems Uganda has."
Miriam Assaad

Kony? What about America's war criminals? - 3 views

www.youtube.com/watch

Video

shared by Miriam Assaad on 10 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Miriam Assaad on 10 Mar 12
     
    Interesting analysis of the US motives from the Kony intervention
  • ...16 more comments...
  • Brittany Frye on 11 Mar 12
     
    Interesting video, but I think anyone watching has to remain aware that it's produced by RT America, which was founded and is funded by the Russian government. Many have described its content as pro-Kremlin/pro-Putin propaganda, including The Economist, which I would say is a pretty reliable media source. But for the sake of the class, it would be interesting to compare the issues RT America highlights to the issues CNN or BBC highlights.
  • zeina ammar on 11 Mar 12
     
    The issues brought to light in this video are all very important but does that make KONY2012 any less important? A man, an organization, can only do so much. First, they can't focus on more than one issue at a time. Second, they shouldn't have to. It's not their job. It's remarkable enough that they could mobilize so many people to get interested in Uganda. No one's stopping any other man/organization from campaigning for these other causes that need attention...
  • zeina ammar on 11 Mar 12
     
    That's 1. 2- Just because Uganda has oil, it does not mean that an intervention that is strictly directed towards the arrest of a horrible psychopath would eventually aim at exploiting its resources. There are over 70 million people watching the US' steps in Uganda now. The US can't afford to make any mistakes. Besides, this whole thing would be excellent publicity for the US' role as world's biggest humanitarian heroes. So yes, it does serve US interests, just not financial ones. Not this time.
  • Miriam Assaad on 11 Mar 12
     
    To clarify I am not against kony 2012 but 100% pro... However this video raises alot of questions and it highlights some of the issues we should take into consideration before advocating the Kony case... there are hundreds of people and guerrillas in Africa that are similar to Kony for instance their is Buko Haram in Nigeria bombing the north everyday why didnt they intervene if its a humanitarian cause... Could this be part of Obama's optimism strategy to prove that American is coming back furthermore with all the success that China has and the dominance it has in the African markets there are financial benefits that can be reaped from this intervention and probably kony is a tool http://sites.duke.edu/sjpp/2011/america-v-china-battleground-africa/ this is an article that highlights the issue...
  • Hussein Khalil on 11 Mar 12
     
    Well from what the initial Kony2012 video portrays, it was purely a civil society action, fueled by one massive advocacy campaign. I agree with Zeina, the motives don't stem from pure gain, in fact their deployment of 100 troops is for advisory purposes - they are there to train the Ugandan resistance to take down the Kony and the LRA, who have been substantially expulsed from Ugandan territories. (Conspiracy theory: they're sending a few men to find the oil) And so far it has not only shown to US's hegemony in humanitarian affairs, but also civil society's direct ability to shape foreign policy without direct lobbying (through ADVOCACY CAMPAIGNS - unless we've established it under political communication campaigns)
  • Miriam Assaad on 11 Mar 12
     
    The massive advocacy campaign is due to opinion leaders dispatching the video like Oprah Winfrey with 9.6 million followers or Rihanna along with several other artists... this is why the video had such a huge number of views in a short time... However, i think the reality is far more complex and much of it has to do with Western business interests in Africa, and in African resources in particular.
  • Hussein Khalil on 11 Mar 12
     
    Well obviously, it's like Obama using Kanye West to support him during elections. The grassroots of the campaign was one man, and his personal mission to give Jacob a better life. How he did it determined the success of the actual campaign. It's not always down to the hard numbers, because if the US did indeed have business in Africa, they wouldn't spontaneously decide to enter into the Middle of Africa, a highly volatile and mostly marginalized area. They began a push in the North, with the "Liberation" (?) of Libya, and would progressively move from there. Of course this is almost all speculation, but their push for Uganda doesn't make strategic sense.
  • Brittany Frye on 11 Mar 12
     
    1. Although it's irrelevant, President Obama never recruited Kanye West to campaign for him. 2. Of course the U.S. has economic and security interests in Africa. What's inherently wrong with that? Don't make the small deployment of U.S. troops sound like a conspiracy to obtain some completely immoral and corrupt end. Here's an article from a U.S.-based political news website that usually has somewhat of a conservative slant. It discusses U.S. strategic interests in Uganda. http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2012/03/08/us_strategic_interests_in_uganda_99947.html
  • Brittany Frye on 11 Mar 12
     
    By the way, Miriam cool article from Duke's foreign policy journal about China and the U.S.
  • Hussein Khalil on 11 Mar 12
     
    1. Thanks Brittany for the clarification about Kanye, my main point was that Celebrities are the medium, and not the political communicator. 2. The article really sheds light on the context in the region and gives great background. I didn't at any point say that it was a conspiracy to reach a corrupt end, it was meant as a sarcastic observation hence the parenthesis and use of "conspiracy". The article definitely underlines a Cold War-esque push in the region, but the stages right now are embryonic, even with China's role in the region: http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/files/81.pdf the situation is contentious and it's too early to assert anything definitively. I did not say there were no interests, rather, they are not acting upon them with this deployment. Which brings me back to my point, that the current foreign policy objective is LRA over economic and security action. - I should have expressed myself in more precise terms, however, the point was aimed at being a general observation. Don't get me wrong though, the article is great. Personal Opinion Note: The Ugandan government is "stable" relative to the region, they do have a formal government, however the on the ground political situation mirrors the Lebanese in a way, seeing as how they are still recovering from sectarian strife, so economic trade coupled with regional and internal instability does not seem strategic right now.
  • Toufic Sarieddine on 11 Mar 12
     
    I'm very happy Marcel is an aware artist, I hope his album sells, however, some of his facts are wrong, but he makes very valid points still... And as for RT being a Russian-funded-and-founded news outlet, I think that's a thing to take into consideration as well, but I do find the views expressed by Marcel quite compelling.
  • Jad Rahme on 11 Mar 12
     
    I am not going to discuss US politics since you guys already did and stated different point of views. What I would like to discuss is how the controversy about Invisible Children is affecting the Kony campaign. I think we should not be naive and believe that this campaign purposes are as simple as "giving Jacob a better life". This Hollywood style video is a bit too much not to have some deeper motives. Indeed, Kony is killing people and he is a "bad guy" but he is not the only one in this world so the question that always come to my mind is "Why Kony?" and that's what support my opinion about the hidden purposes of this campaign. On March 9th Zeina posted an interesting article in French on Twitter about the critics against the KONY 2012 campaign. Some critics accuse Invisible Children of funding the regular Ugandan Army and there are even pictures showing the relation between the organization and the army. Invisible Children may be lying about their real motives but does this lessen the importance of Kony crimes and criminal behavior? Of course not! My opinion is that once an organization is dishonest about its real motives in a campaign, it automatically loses a lot of credibility and people's focus shift from the ideas presented in the campaign (which are true) to the organization itself. If we apply this to Kony, what I'm saying is that people will start focusing on Invisible Children and their motives and activities and start forgetting that Kony is a real criminal.
  • Brittany Frye on 11 Mar 12
     
    Well-said! I agree.
  • Dima Saber on 11 Mar 12
     
    Well sounds like Diigo does work much better than Moodle. And Jad, yes I agree with Brittany, well-said. This all sounds like amazing material for a position paper. More tomorrow in class!
  • zeina ammar on 11 Mar 12
     
    100%. Now I have a question for you: doesn't financing the Ugandan army feed into Invisible Children's main goal of arresting Kony? So what are these hidden motives everyone is talking about?
  • Jad Rahme on 11 Mar 12
     
    They never stated anything about this which makes it a "hidden" motive regardless if it something good or bad. Dishonesty. Great Idea Ms. Saber I'm going to write a position paper about this :)
  • Hussein Khalil on 11 Mar 12
     
    Actually, it doesn't necessarily mean "dishonest" at least in the way the campaign developed. Just because the NGO didn't roll out their entire agenda in a video doesn't mean they're hiding anything. The video itself was aimed at a component of their objective in Uganda: Make Kony a household name. Dishonest here is a matter of opinion, in terms of how the campaign construction and evolution (encoding) is done. Calling it a scam is like saying advertisers are trying to steal your money, they don't tell you we want to make profit, but rather you need to consume our product. If you choose to participate and donate, it is your job as an activist to do the necessary research, at least in my opinion. The rest can be chalked up to the debate: should campaigners give its audience all of the information or should they give them enough and have them make a decision (lethargic & informed vs. active & smart). Then we seek to define how much is enough, which gets down to opinion. The bottom line however is over such a short period of time and the quick rise of the deviant opinion is something we should definitely examine. The "hidden" motives are basically the motives that weren't included in the video KONY2012 video. However it fulfilled its purpose as a medium, raise awareness about the cause (itself, but not the NGO's agenda), involve as many people as possible. In the end it comes down to framing the issue. As for Invisible Children as an organization, it has its Vision and Mission Statement set clear on its website. There were very broad headlines concerning their Kony initiative, they offered a step by step plan when major criticism began to surface. They have updated their page accordingly: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html - and cracking down because of their funding of the Ugandan army is a matter of political debate. Either you prefer to arm the Ugandans (past human rights abusers) and have them expel the threat themselves, allow the threat of the L
  • Hussein Khalil on 11 Mar 12
     
    RA to grow, or allow foreign intervention to deal with the issue. From here it's a matter of perspective, and which proponent is thinking of the case of Uganda.
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