The Trouble with #StopKony

World Affairs' blogger Elizabeth Dickinson pointed out the problems of #StopKony Movement. The Movement is still explosive on social media especially among teenagers. She said "it’s a good reminder to all of us that we can’t ignore the things that happen on this planet, no matter how far away or buried they are." However, as we discussed in the class, she argued the problem of the Movement is that it failed to read real context of the LRA problem in Africa. In spite of the obvious overlap between the period for Joseph Kony to continue his crims in Uganda and the period for Museveni to keep his power in the state, the Movement didn’t ask its viewers to seek diplomatic pressure on President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni’s administration. What Museveni is fear of is that, like Dickinson critically argued, if we "take away the enemy of the state, and perhaps people would start asking strong questions about the state itself, which isn’t functioning terribly well and is becoming increasingly authoritarian." That is, to get rid of the bad leader of LRA cannot be one simple solution for any country in Africa. We read the very message of Nibuher: we can and should be morally outraged. But we have to be humble. We can and should act to get rid of this bad man Joseph Kony, but at the same time, we shoud be cautious of unexpected and uncontrollable result and influence from that simple act on African continent.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/elizabeth-dickinson/trouble-stopkony

Sophia Park