Joseph Kony: The man behind the crimes, and how we’re stopping him

In 1945, Adolf Hitler executed millions of Jewish immigrants in Germany he deemed Jewish people as “not important”. This social Darwinism that Hitler advocated landed him in hot water- boiling water I should say- that made him the most hated person in the history of the world. But there are many nefarious dictators and rebellion leaders that have committed heinous crimes like Hitler. Thankfully, one man was revealed to the wider audience through a YouTube documentary named “Kony 2012”. The man’s name is Joseph Kony.

 

Kony was born in 1961 in Odek, a small village from Uganda. Kony had a rough childhood for a kid with a prominent background. Kony dropped out of school at the age of 15 due to his predilection to physical altercation. When he got into an argument, Kony often let his anger control his fist, a trait that is still prevalent in him.

Kony first came to prominence when he became the leader of a premilennialist groups in 1986. However, just a year later, Kony created his own counterinsurgency, which became known as the Lord’s Resistance Army, or simply as the LRA. The LRA is a Christian militia that imposes a military threat on Uganda and threatens the general Ugandan population. The LRA is notorious for its widespread human violation, including murder, abduction, mutilation, and sexual enslavement of women. But the LRA is most notorious for kidnapping children and forcing them to fight for their militia. The children are then forced to kill their own parents and mutilate the faces of their friends. And what is the reason that the LRA provides for such heinous crimes? According to Joseph Kony, the LRA claims to establish a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments from the Bible. Kony’s interpretation of the Bible caused him to set forth one of the most atrocious military activity of Uganda history.

But the sad thing is, nobody knows about Kony’s scheme. The American federal government sent 100 soldiers to Uganda to aid Ugandan armies, but if civilian’s become disinterested in Kony’s affair, President Obama will order the troops to return, according to the federal government. That would mean Kony would be free to commit more crimes since would be less resistance. As children of Uganda slowly became victims of Kony and his militia, one organization finally took action.

On March 5, 2012, a non-profit organization named Invisible Children Inc. posted a video on YouTube entitled “Kony2012”. The 29 minute video documents the lives of Ugandan children who are living in fear of being abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Jason Russell, the director of the film, addresses the dire need for help in Uganda and implores the general audience to plaster the walls with “Kony2012” and call local governors in an effort to bring attention to Kony. The poignant stories of Ugandan children and the narrator’s audacious voice compelled citizens to take action. The video has been viewed by over 70 million people in a matter of 5 days and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter blew up with users talking about Kony.
But criticism followed the documentary’s unprecedented attention. The Foreign Affair magazine berated the documentary’s oversimplification of the situation that’s going on in Uganda. They argued that the film paints a black-and-white picture that forces people to hate Kony rather than encouraging the general audience to research and know more about the situation in Uganda. In fact, the video actually spread the LRA’s movement to Uganda’s neighboring countries, worsening the problem in East Africa. It also became evident that the Invisible Children Inc. only gave 32% of donation to relief effort in Uganda and kept the 67% for the corporation. To top it off, Jason Russell, the co-founder of the organization and the director of the “Kony2012” documentary, was arrested in San Diego on March 15 for vandalizing cars and running around the street unclothed.

An old saying goes like this: for every good, there is always the bad that follows it. The “Kony2012” movement clearly proved the aphorism right. Although the video was created in order to raise awareness, it was instead backlashed by criticism and negativity. But the video did spread the words to the general audience, and it’s only a matter of time before the audience reacts to it.