Fwd: Using the bizarre 'Kony 2012' video to teach our kids about real global justice

[Sid Shniad]

Hi,

A teenager in our family insisted we sit down and watch the viral video "Kony 2012" this morning over breakfast. It went like this: "So, like 30 million people have seen it, it's so amazing! You HAVE to watch it!" She wanted our opinion, or maybe our approval, because she plans to go out with her friends and plaster "Kony 2012" posters everywhere. 

Joseph Kony for those of you who have not been connected to the media buzz in the last few days, is an African leader of the Lord's Resistance Army that kidnapped children for his murderous army that terrorized Uganda. He is now on the run in neighboring countries. Invisible Children's campaign to capture him, is suddenly the hot cause. Not surprisingly, they are coming under flack from Ugandan human rights activists for misrepresenting the issue, and the fund-raising community for pocketing most of the donations.

But that is not why I'm writing this letter.

How do you explain to enthusiastic kids that this persuasive video, urging them to do human rights direct-action, is, uh, well... Great, but... there's a problem...?

I believe the video can be used as a 'teaching moment'.

The video is brilliant propaganda that both grabs attention, uses multiple social media technology and most amazingly, holds teenagers' attention for 30 minutes. It seemed until yesterday, that any "message" video would be doomed if it was longer than 7 minutes. Those of us isolated for campaigning against the Israeli occupation of Palestine or the rush to war on Iran are mighty jealous, that's for sure.

The dilemma we faced when talking to our teenagers is: Is it wrong to mobilize popular power to force our government to arrest a war criminal?

No, but it is wrong to mislead our kids who sincerely desire global justice to believe that this campaign to capture Joseph Kony is doing the right thing. So let's fix some of the problems with this viral campaign.

Here is my take on the video and the campaign:

"Our goal is to change the conversation of our culture, and ask, 'Who is Joseph Kony?' " by "demanding justice on every corner" says the campaign's leader. They are recruiting kids and young adults to blanket cities with their posters modeled on the pop-art posters from Obama's 2008 election.

There is no doubt that Kony and people like him are war criminals and deserve to be captured.

But the video is marketing propaganda.

It juxtaposes scenes of African war criminals and victims, with white American human rights activists.  (I kept flashing on the Republican's old Willie Horton ad which lead to George Bush's victory - stoking white fears about a black criminal let loose by the Democratic challenger).

Invisible Children's objective is to create massive popular pressure on the US government to send the US military to Africa to capture Kony. Whoa!

Invisible Children steals our progressive message that could have been stated by the Occupy movement:

"It's always been, that the decisions of the few, with the money and power, dictated the priorities of their government and the stories in the media. They determined the lives and the opportunities of their citizens. But now there is something bigger than that. The people of the world see each other, and can protect each other. It's turning the system upside down. And it changes everything."

Those last two lines were what provoked me to write this letter.

Like Obama's masterful 2008 election rhetoric of "Yes we can, Hope, Audacity, and Change", this arrest Kony campaign grabs hold of people's best humane impulses, and leads them into a dead end that fights a lesser evil (the Republicans in 2008, a marginal war criminal on the run now). Meanwhile we ignore the corrupt system that continues these horrible crimes.

We are shown that the International Criminal Court lists Kony as the world's No. 1 war criminal along with other people, mostly from Africa. However, Western names like George Bush, Dick Cheney, Benjamin Netanyahu, etc. are missing from the list. How can we help a kid understand what that means?

Talking points with our kids who probably have or will watch the video: 

What is the difference between a militia kidnapping children for military service, and a nation drafting children?  What does it mean when our society takes away job opportunities for young people, thereby pressuring them to join the military or security forces for a living?

What would Martin Luther King say about a campaign to send in the US military to Africa? King made a lot of enemies when he denounced the Vietnam war and US militarism, but he didn't back down.

Is it wrong to create another forward operating base for US military domination? Should the US military be dramatically scaled down to just a defensive army? Wouldn't it be better to empower the UN to send armed forces to arrest war criminals and maintain true security for vulnerable populations?

Let's talk about our cell phones, computers and other electronic devices.  Why should we demand that the mining of these minerals and the manufacturing of our electronics not contribute to the exploitation or enslavement of African, South American or Asian workers, nor fund human rights abusers who terrorize Africans for their labor? How can we get our computer and cell phone companies to sign onto fair-labor agreements that affect these African, South American and Asian children and their parents?

Do we have the nerve to show how Steve Job's genius in making Apple products so popular was also based on exploiting African and Chinese workers?

What power and responsibilities as consumers do we have to Africans and Asians?

Why do Western nations use the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank's privatization policies to undermine African infrastructure such as health care, education and city/village services? Why should we end "free trade" policies that destroy sustainable African farming and their environment?

Kids, what was it about your parents' anti-globalization movement way back in the old days of the 2000's? Why did they take to the streets and resisted the riot police - demanding our government and our corporations stop creating African poverty and starvation that breeds violence and wars?

How were Africans affected by the US government's refusal to support the international treaty to ban land mines? Where do the weapons Kony's army use to kill other Africans with come from?

How come an official global war-criminals list doesn't have any of our own notorious leaders who have murdered and terrorized millions and destroyed foreign nations? Would including them make a US-based campaign to capture one African war criminal make it less popular with Congress?

Do you think it is OK that a brilliant campaign like Invisible Children does not show that war criminals are also protected in our countries? Shouldn't upholding human rights be universal?

Finally, before you donate money to a cause, how can you find out if you money is being properly spent? Did you know that most responsible charities should use less than 10% of their money on administration costs?

It is up to us to point out to kids in our lives the serious shortcoming of Invisible Children - that a campaign for true global justice should always shine a light on the real connections between the crimes committed against African children and their parents, and our current Western leaders and policies. 

Rather than just come off as cynical, we should encourage our children to use this dramatic opportunity to better understand what is really going, as they take action in solidarity for global justice. 

Our breakfast conversation this morning went better than I expected. She is still going to plaster posters of Kony, but she won't be having illusions.

-Scott