Editor's Blog Mar 08th 2012
Who really is the Bogeyman?
Joseph Kony is a name that over that last week has had over 21 million hits on the Internet, since a new video was posted on the 5th March. Kony is a Ugandan guerrilla group leader and head of the “Lord’s Resistance Army”. This group is hell bent on establishing a theocratic government based on the Ten Commandments.
So what’s new? Nothing!
I spent a considerable amount of time in Africa in the mid 90’s and I want to tell you something about Africa, Africa is beyond repair, it is a broken continent. Hunger and corruption is rife, life is cheap and bodies are allowed to rot where they fall.
What I glean from the short film is that the producer filmmaker is trying to rally support to have Kony and his group destroyed, citing that his methods of abducting children, arming them and then having them execute their parents is a crime against humanity. I don’t want to dwell in the past but how quickly have we forgotten about the western slave trade, whose members would also swoop on the defenceless during the night and kill those who fought and take those that didn’t.
I’m sorry if I don’t jump on the “hunt down and kill Kony” bandwagon. For every Kony you kill, there will be another Kony ready to take his place. Remember Idi Amin… Sound familiar? It is estimated that, during his rule, he was responsible for the slaughter of anywhere between 100,000 and 500,000 people and he called himself: “His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Alhaji Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE”. Kony is not the first and he sure as hell won’t be the last!
What I found insulting though, is the glitzy Hollywood portrayal of these peoples plight. I find it as sickening as the efforts of Band-Aid in 1984, 18 years on and Ethiopia still has one of the highest mortality rates on the planet.
“The mightier than thou” condescending tone of the American filmmaker and celebrity activists makes me gag. Is anyone actually falling for this little money making venture? Money that will eventually line the pockets of corrupt African Politicians, or worse still give the America Military a foothold in a country that, in 2006 struck oil and in 2008 / 2009 found significant quantities of petroleum in the Lake Albertine rift.
If we really want to be altruistic I would suggest to the Filmmaker that he start closer to home. In America there are approximately 46million Americans living under the poverty line, 59 million Americans that delay or go without medical care and every year just over 30 thousand people die from gunshot wounds. This means that every two years, gunshot wounds kill more US citizens than were lost by military action in the entire Vietnam War.
Don’t be blinded by the production, Kony, as abhorrent as he is, is no match for the US Government.
Ed.
