The White Man's Burden 2012

In American history class last year I remember reading a poem by Rudyard Kipling entitled "The White Man's Burden." To paraphrase the poem mocks the moral obligation western societies felt at the turn of the 20th centuries to civilize those "barbaric" civilizations around them. When I heard about the KONY 2012 video I could not help but feel this video is a continuation of that trend. We don't want to help Africa to become a power of equal standing with us, but we will only act when they are helpless and need a knight in shining armour to protect them. Invisible Children has given us a villian and a simple story that plays into this mentality. We are interested in stopping a brutal warlord but investing in infrastructure, education, transparency or civil services in Uganda? Nah, forget it. That's complicated and takes time. Killing a single person is much easier and more fun in the public eye when everyone is on the bandwagon. Joseph Kony is not the biggest menace to Africa, in fact he is a symptom. Since the collapse of the colonial system, Africa has been plagued by ineffective and corrupt governments which spawn and sustain brutal revolutionaries such as Kony. If the US were to find Kony and bring him to justice where would that lead us? If you cut off the head of this snake it will simply grow back. The Lord's Resistance Army will continue to be brutal to the populace even if Kony is no longer at the helm. If you want to make a difference the underlying economic and social problems of African must be tackled. But that will never fit in a 30 minute video or make for a nice profile picture so nevermind.

Comments

[Dylan S.]

You're right that KONY 2012 will not end the LRA in Uganda. It will not fix economic and social problems in Africa. Hell, it might not even lead to Kony's murder. But what it has done is giving a voice to a country that no one seemed to care about. Maybe the voice only provides a third of the money it receives to go to support. Maybe the voice is sugar coated. But it IS a voice. Maybe the voice won't do anything at all but at the least, at the very least, we listened. We all know who Kony is. And if anything, whether for good or bad, KONY 2012 has shown that causes, even if they aren't worth fighting for, can be heard by millions.

[Sam W.]

But if those millions will believe a sugar coated story, with most of them failing to check the facts, where does it end? Why can't a complete lie be spread around the internet and be heard? I think the main problem is speculation and the fact that there wasn't enough.

[jack Hendrix]

I agree with the fact that their is a voice and it is now being heard, but at what point does a bad voice become worse than no voice at all. If all that is being spread is lies then is it better than having no voice?

[Jiayi]

You mentioned a good point that killing Kony alone won't solve the problem. There are many Konys out there. Poverty and incompetent government are what drove them to rape, ransack and kidnaping children as soldiers in the first place.

The anti-Kony movement reminds me of getting a rabbit as a pet. I was very eager to have the rabbit but felt burdened to clean up its feces, wash its cage and feed it regularly with fresh vegetables and water. It's easy to join the movement but how much is the U.S. willing to get to the bottom of the problem, to invest in turning Africa into a safe and prosperous place when U.S. is plugged in its own set of problems and injustices?

[Veronica T.]

I never thought about it this way Joe. You bring up a good point, that most of the people who watch this video only are interested in killing Kony, not in "infrastructure, education, transparency or civil services in Uganda". I totally agree. While we can still help get these children out of the army and kill Kony, we are capable of doing so much more for that country.