Response to Kony2012

Short Blog in Response to Kony2012

OK my 2 cents - In terms of the Kony2012 thing - everyone here thinks its surprising this has come up now, as he has been gone from Uganda for 6 years. However he is a scary evil dude and the world would be better without him - I am working and living in the aftermath of Kony's legacy and yes it was horrible!!! 

An IDP camp (Internally Displaced Persons camp) was across the road from our school. The entire community slept at the camp every night for many years to avoid abduction - they cut the trees down to stop rebels from hiding in them.

However not just kids were abducted and killed - thousands of adults / parents were killed - there are so many orphans and people who lost one parent. These are my students - the orphaned and the returned child soldiers. Most have been returned from the "bush" but all are scarred. The students here have lost siblings just like the kid in the movie - often burned to death in their huts.

I have met people aged 16-30 who escaped but have burns and stab wound scars to prove it. 20 years it went on and we never knew. On top of that AIDS was rampant in the camps as people had little to do but drink and have sex - so there is a huge HIV positive percentage in these communities.

By the way - Invisible Children sponsors several kids at my school. So they are here on the ground helping kids get educated.

I personally like his idea and tactics but its a little after the fact. The biggest problem now however is that 20 years of aid has led to a society of dependency. People don't want to work for school fees when foreign aid will pay for it. Everyone asks me for money because I am white and that is what white people do. A whole generation grew up with food relief so people dont want to farm. There are numerous programs now to jump start the farming process again.

USAID has been very involved here for a while as well - so dont write off the American Govt for not helping. There was no mention of that at all in the movie.

So I like the idea of empowering people to stop a war - I just think its after the fact - but still a good thing to do. Like killing Osama 10 years after 9/11 - a nice closure but not changing a lot.