It's very slick, and incredibly moving, and the villain of the piece, Joseph Kony - a Ugandan rebel leader who abducts children into his military causes - looks set to be the new international guy to hate without questioning, like Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, etc... With the help of the Kony 2012 campaign I hope they succeed in making that happen.
However... like famine, poverty and war, these problems are systemic. You don't cure lung cancer by stopping the smoking of cigarettes and switching to a healthy diet.
Of course I want the people behind this video to succeed, but the kind of progress the video makes you believe is possible is horribly dwarfed by far greater problems of the world that are actually institutionalized by the structure of the global financial system itself. You can go ahead and hate Joseph Kony like he should be hated, but don't stop there! Question how he could get away with his atrocities (and they certainly are the vilest of atrocities) for the last twenty years without anyone noticing?! Or how that entire region of Africa, particularly the Congo, has suffered so much brutality for so long? Does one factor into the hate they have for Joseph Kony the horrible dictatorships of President Mobutu from the neighboring country of the Congo, which lasted for 37 years? Could this have made peace a tad difficult in Uganda at all? Or do they factor in the blood mineral trade? Or that (the Congo again) Mobutu was originally put into power by the CIA? (That's the Central Intelligence Agency. This is a government body of the United States of America- the same place Disney and McDonalds come from). Will anyone bother to ask about the context of the situation that created the monster Joseph Kony to begin with? So, okay... let's say that the video succeeds, and they arrest Kony and thousands of children go free...
The lung cancer patient just stopped smoking cigarettes.
That's great, but I can't get completely excited by this.
I am, however, far more excited from this video by the way the people of the world are organizing themselves. Now THAT'S cool. Isn't it great that when people do organize themselves they promote peace, are conscientious, and are waaaay ahead of the institutions that are supposed to be doing the things that the people of the world were forced to make happen on their own. That should tell you a lot...
I'm not sure if anyone reads these posts. I strongly doubt they're read by anyone at all. I could just as easily consider them as private diary entries, but in the off-chance someone is reading this, please know that I am hopeful about the future- even though I harbor a robust cynicism of the world in general. In fact... I'm even creating a visual essay this year (an animated chat show to be precise) that explains exactly what form my positive outlook takes.
Whoever you are, thanks for reading. :)
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