My response to the Kony 2012 video

So most people know that I have done a fair bit of work in Northern Uganda. My heart and passion lie up there, with my friends.

My friends have suffered. They have been invisible.

And now, because of this Kony 2012 video, people are talking about them.

I have tried for the last 3 years to tell people about what Kony has really done. And finally the pictures are being shown. The pictures of the mutilated faces, the actions taken by Kony and his band of child soldiers, are being talked about. There is a lot of criticism about this movie. But all I have to say is:

It’s about time. Thank God people are finally waking up.

The video does a good job of showing the terrible actions by Kony. But what it doesn’t show is how much, even with Kony gone, there is a need for recovery.

Northern Uganda has been destroyed by the war. At the orphanage I visited in Lira (see my post on Beauty and Pain in Northern Uganda) I heard three things.

1: a baby boy was in an Internally Displaced Person’s camp when it was attacked. Among the 300 people who were killed were his parents. He was left as a four month old baby to die. He was rescued, and is now in an orphanage in Lira. It seems like a good end to the story, his life can be said to be a success, but imagine the trauma he will face every single day. He is now 10 years old. Who is there to help him recover?

2: another young girl was tied to a tree during an LRA attack. Her parents were killed in front of her while she screamed “No, leave my mommy alone”. I heard this story from the founder of the orphanage.

3: The founder of this orphanage is an amazing woman, but she does not necessarily know how to help these kids. Something needs to be done for them.

Kony has caused these horrific things. When I spent time at Keyo Secondary School in Gulu one of the girls told me that at the primary school next door the children had been attacked. Many were abducted, and the ones who were too young were locked in a building and burned alive.

I can say that I personally saw the burned out building. I saw it. I heard the stories. I met the children who survived rebel attacks. I talked to people who came from towns where during an attack people’s lips were padlocked shut.

Did you get that?

The LRA burned children alive.

The LRA padlocked people’s lips shut.

The movie says what is necessary: Kony MUST be stopped.

But will bringing “justice” to Kony bring justice to people who have lived through these things? What is going to be done for the survivors? It is time the war stops. But it will be generations before the reverberations of the war have stopped.

Now we must stop Kony. What the movie didn’t say is that in February alone another 3,000 people were displaced in the DRC. It is time for this war to stop.

And finally people are talking. No one talked about it. And now people are talking.

There is a lot of criticism about this movie. People are saying that it’s too polished. Other people are saying that talking isn’t going to change things. But Invisible Children is right. The first thing to do is talk.

So let’s talk.

But let’s also be thinking about what WE CAN DO for the survivors of the war in Northern Uganda. There are long lasting effects of this war. So let’s think about what we can do without waiting for others to act. Let’s discuss not only Kony but the people who have survived this war.

A lot of criticism is coming out about the US involvement with the war. A lot of people are saying that the Ugandan government should sort the problem out themselves. But Kony isn’t in Uganda anymore. Kony is in the DRC, Central African Republic, and South Sudan. All three of these countries are a little preoccupied with other instability. And the Ugandan government isn’t well enough equipped to bring an end to this war. I mean, it’s been going on since 1986. This isn’t an issue of the US being the world’s police man. This is an issue of answering a simple question: is it EVER acceptable to leave people to die and suffer, or do we have the obligation to help where we can?

As far as I can see, we have an obligation to the children who are still being abducted. We have an obligation to the mothers of these children. We have an obligation to the orphans. We have an obligation, and if the only way to fulfill it is to send in troops from another country then that’s exactly what we should do.

Let’s never lose sight of the fact that we need to help end the war and bring about restoration. Thank you to Invisible Children for bringing such an important issue to people’s sight. And now:

Let’s talk.

Let’s fight.

Let’s act.

Let’s restore.