Uganda: Obama's Next Target

[url=http://groups.google.com/group/sid-l/browse_thread/thread/d6289857522191... the bizarre 'Kony 2012' video to teach our kids about real global justice[/url]

Quote:

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?

ETA: I see [url=http://rabble.ca/news/2012/03/using-kony-2012-video-teach-our-youth-abou... has picked this item up.

Kony 2012: Phony Story to Whip Up More War in Africa  -  by Keith Harmon Snow

http://www.consciousbeingalliance.com/2012/03/kony-2012-a-psyop-against-...

"..The US is all over the place, with both covert and overt military programs. France, England, Canada, Belgium, Libya, Israel and China are all involved. All these conflicts are intertwined. Contrary to the proliferation of propaganda always attributing Kony's LRA with child abductions - another example of Western Orientalism that essentializes Africa to serve political purposes - is research showing that many LRA abductions are short term with children returning home from LRA abductions in less than three weeks.

Further, many children who fight with the LRA have joined by choice and they do so willingly. In 'Childhood's End', Christopher Hitchens describes the LRA as a 'grotesque zombie-like militia - that has set a standard of cruelty and ruthlessness.' American troops that have committed atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan, no less brutal or gruesome or masochistic, would never be described this way.

Yoweri Museveni and his business and military partners are responsible for millions of deaths, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Eastern Congo. The US military's invasion of Zaire (now Congo) involved US covert forces, US military, communications, logistical support, and Ugandan and Rwandan forces. Humvees, C130s, and black-skinned US Special Forces entered South Sudan and northwestern Congo through the Gulu and Arua District of Uganda, the heart of Acholiland and the center of atrocities against the Acholi people.."

This is an excellent overview of the region and 'great gaming by Western powers, including Canada

[url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/03/201231432421227462.html]Kony screening provokes anger in Uganda[/url]: Ugandans, who suffered at hands of Lord's Resistance Army, react in anger at Kony video causing internet waves.

That's an informative video.

Kambale Musavuli: wrote:

You cannot give military support to an oppressive regime. They're going to use it against the people. This is the battle that's going on in Uganda right now. Ugandans are trying to change the government. They have a dictator who was in power for 26 years. That's what they're fighting about. This is the same government who have caused the death of more than a million, actually, in Northern Uganda, you know, put them in camps. You know, people have dubbed it as death camps. You know, this is the same government who are trying to kill any homosexual. You know, they introduced a law saying that if you're homosexual, either you are arrested-. And that's the government that we are supporting right now.

Then I can move it further. On March 2 of this year it was reported that the Uganda People's Defence Force in Central Africa have been raping Congolese women who are refugees in Central Africa. Not only that, it's been reported that they were extracting, looting diamond and timber in Central Africa. So we are providing the support to this military. They are already in Central Africa chasing Kony. And as they're chasing Kony, they are doing the same exact thing they did in Congo-looting resources and oppressing the people of the region.

The U.S.-backed dictator is in trouble with his own people, and Obama and Hillary want to send more U.S. troops to help Museveni put down popular peoples rebellions against his brutal regime.

I know the bloom has largely fallen off the "KONY 2012" rose, but this is still kinda fun: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8]Yes We KONY![/url]

ETA: As is [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpuB11d0Gog]this[/url].

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Invisible Children's Kony 2012 Video: A Justification For More US AFRICOM War Over Oil  - by F William Engdahl

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29870

"...The entire brouhaha over Joseph Kony appears to be a flank in a major AFRICOM and US State Department campaign especially to undermine Chinese influence in central Africa -- now that they have successfully driven off the Chinese oil companies out of Libya, and carved out a new 'republic' of South Sudan containing much of the oil that fuels China's economy.

That splitting of South Sudan and its oil, for those that did not follow it closely, was a consequence of sending in US and NATO special forces to 'stop genocide' in Darfur. George Clooney was also the poster boy for the Darfur action. The 'Kony 2012 video is being credited with giving the US Congress the spur to demand US military forces be sent to not just Uganda but to the entire region of Central Africa..."

RAP NEWS 12: Yes We KONY?

General Baxter makes another appearance on Rap News to talk about the Kony video.