The controversy over the KONY 2012 video should not prevent us from acknowledging and commending the remarkable and valuable impact of the Invisible Children movement. By demonstrating how policy can be influenced through mass mobilization and awareness, KONY 2012 may set a precedent whose value could extend beyond the current conflicts in central Africa.
In her recent column ("Keeping Kony Current," March 26), Leah Feiger argues that the KONY 2012 filmmakers are "sensationalizing a dead horse" because Joseph Kony is no longer active in northern Uganda. I agree that a sensationalized movement like KONY 2012 shouldn't overshadow equally effective organizations dedicated to rebuilding communities in Uganda. However, as Feiger admits, the Lord's Resistance Army is still active in nearby countries. Therefore, by suggesting that the issue is no longer relevant is simply incorrect. In fact, Invisible Children has a website that monitors the continued crimes by the LRA in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan. More broadly, KONY 2012 remains current because it provokes dialogue on America's inconsistent and complex history of humanitarian intervention and promotes a model of awareness that can produce results on both the social and political level.
Moreover, just two weeks ago, the International Criminal Court issued its first conviction, a transformative moment in the history of international criminal law. Kony has been indicted by the ICC and indeed, in the KONY 2012 movie, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo describes how KONY 2012 will help bring Kony to justice. Through widespread international indignation the Invisible Children campaign will contribute to Kony's arrest, enhancing the ICC's efficacy and cementing its relevance at a critical moment for the court. That seems pretty "current."
Other critics argue that KONY 2012 overlooks the complexity of the political situation in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, oversimplifying the issue with misleading results. They also contend that the film's promotion of intervention in internal African problems represents a neocolonial mindset. This logic represents a gross exaggeration that has proven destructive in the past. During the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide, political leaders cited the "complex" nature of the crimes as a reason for non-intervention. As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently argued, "Each episode truly was complicated, but, in retrospect, we let nuance paralyze us." Arguing that the Uganda and Congo conflicts are too multi-dimensional for the United States to take a side and obsessing about KONY 2012's oversimplification of the conflict is equally dangerous.
Indeed, after his presidency, Bill Clinton regretted that he had justified non-intervention in Rwanda by citing the "deep" tribal origins of the Hutu-Tutsi conflict. When Invisible Children created enough pressure to compel President Barack Obama to send 100 military advisors to Uganda in August 2011, it may have saved Obama from similar regrets. KONY 2012 seeks to ensure that these military advisers remain in place, cementing this valuable precedent.
Invisible Children should serve as a model for grassroots mobilization in the face of humanitarian crises abroad. KONY 2012 now has received nearly 100 million views on YouTube alone, and the filmmakers have effectively used social media to an unprecedented extent, mobilizing citizens and galvanizing America's youth to help the potentially "invisible" children of central Africa. Due to their sheer size, the atrocities in Rwanda and Darfur were more highly publicized than Uganda's civil war and the happenings of Congolese villages. Jason Russell has singlehandedly ensured that 100 million people are aware of an issue they might otherwise not have known existed.
In the last two months, the LRA has launched over 20 raids in Congo. With the attention that KONY 2012 has already shined on the situation in the lead-up to the official April 20 "cover-the-night" campaign, it would be hard to argue that Kony's ability to wreak greater havoc hasn't dwindled. KONY 2012 may be creating a precedent that will enable everyday Americans to help stop future atrocities in similarly remote and complicated places. As the debate and fervent blogging over the flaws of KONY 2012 continues, the movement overall remains a driving force for better humanitarianism. Let's not slow it down.
