My son came home all up in arms last week over the KONY 2012 issue. He was quite surprised that his father and I were NOT surprised over these issues.
I was very fortunate to have a very intelligent African Politics professor back in the 90's who opened up my eyes to ALL of the pertinent social ills in Africa. I am very well aware that many are not so well informed. For many years I've read about the many different social issues that are prevalent all over Africa, such as widespread disease, lack of healthcare, homelessness, unemployment, and increased drug use. It can even be argued that these issues cause or contribute to the 'Invisible Children' syndrome. When faced with a lack of options and an unstable building ground for success, people's lives tend to take a turn for the worse. As Americans, we have to realize that the African culture is completely different from our own. Things that may cause us to be appalled and disgruntled are sometimes back burner issues for other cultures. It is not to say that these issues should ever be ignored, however, these issues must ALWAYS be prioritized. We cannot take on the task of attempting to change children's lives when the children in question have no homes to return to, nor parents to provide a moral structure. The issues at hand go deeper than what we see on the surface, and should be treated as such.
We should also remind ourselves of the age-old phrase-"people in glass houses should not throw stones". While we may not have children who are fighting wars, we do have a very large number of misguided youth for a country who is considered to be a world power. Perhaps if we took a little more time to focus on our own youth (including the task of educating them on foreign politics and history) we could make more positive strides in helping to improve social welfare abroad.
Check out this article that provides a 'Devil's Advocate' view on the Kony 2012 campaign:
http://africasacountry.com/2012/03/07/phony-2012-risible-children/
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