Trading with God

But what would happen if someone wishes to trade with God. How he is going to conclude the transaction? What he will offer to the God?

God is invisible and might not be attracted to-wards worldly things but He surely will be interested in human souls. And only way to trade with Him is to offer Him a soul; a pure, neat and clean soul with no sin accumulated.

Child sacrifice 

And that is probably from where the idea of child sacrifice once originated. It started long ago in ancient times and sadly it’s still practiced in some parts of the world secretly.

Child sacrifice is the killing of a child in the name of God. Usually children between the ages of two to twelve years are considered for sacrifice. The object of child sacrifice is to offer the supernatural being the life or soul of the child in some specific manner to please Him. When God is pleased one can have everything he wants.

Sometimes short ceremonies and rituals are performed before child sacrifice in order to draw the attention of the God.

A new type of business

In ancient times people usually sacrifice their own children; first born child or the most loving one is placed for sacrifice. But then with time, things have changed. Nowadays it’s not necessary that own child be sacrificed. Any child will do.

That opened a new type of business which is conducted by some fake spiritual healers. These healers are commonly known as peer, fakir, sadhu baba, sannashi, witch doctor and many other names at different places.

India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan in Asia and Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia in Africa are some of the countries where child sacrifice is silently practiced. Some recorded incidents in recent years suggest that in India and Uganda it has gone to an alarming stage.

Spiritual healers and unhealthy beliefs

The days of child sacrifice are gone yet a few people go for it, why? This is due to those unhealthy beliefs which are cultivated in places where literacy is not up to the mark.

 People believe that they can’t approach the God and their prayers will never be heard. So they look for someone who is close to God and has supernatural powers. Thus they come in contact with spiritual healers and become their followers (murid). They believe healer has a hot line with God. So they fear and obey his orders even be asked for child sacrifice.

A healer bank on these beliefs and once a follower agrees for child sacrifice he mobilizes his resources. 

Why only children are selected for sacrifice 

Requirement is a human being with pure soul, no sin committed. Only a child could fit in that category and thus becomes a target.

A child can be easily stolen or kidnapped. In poverty sticking society parents engaged in the act of survival can’t watch their children all the time.

Child sacrifice is a business 

If you want good harvest give a child sacrifice and mix the blood of child with soil and everything will be fine. Your field will be protected from the evil spirits.

For construction of big buildings or bridges child blood is needed and should be sprayed at the foot of the pillars otherwise construction might collapse.

Are you suffering from incurable disease like cancer or aids? It can be cured by child sacrifice.  Give a pure life and renew your life.

These are some of the projects frequently conducted by fake healers.

Nobody ever gained anything from child sacrifice, neither in ancient times nor today. Sacrificing a child is a murder and punishable. Yet they work on it, why?  Just for money? 

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NO SIR

It is indeed a shock to know that the West, lead by United States of America President Obama and others are pilling uttermost pressure on countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to legalize same sex marriages (homosexuality and lesbianism)

To Western super powers the rights of same sex couples are being tramples upon in black African countries hence, the need to correct it by passing a bill that would legalize same sex unions. This trend continues even when most nations are against such being made law.  This means the fundamental human rights of black African nations are equally abused because America and other developed nations are disregarding the views of majority.

Nigeria had a shock when in February 2012 the country woke up to see live debate in its upper and lower legislative houses debating on same sex marriages and their rights. This was not only disturbing but rude shocks to people that are tired of public corruption by their elected political office holders. People wondered that since its inception in1999 both the senate and house of representative have never passed any meaningful law that have uplifted the living standards of the citizens of Nigeria.

However the senate led by its President David Mark duly informed the world and sponsors of such unions that Nigeria is not interested in towing that path of life as such the bill was widely rejected by the senate and the House of Representatives. Although people wondered how did the bill get to the floor of these Houses for deliberations, when the country is being faced with pressing socio-economic issues and rising insecurity matters. A group called New World God Order (NWGO) has taken it upon themselves to push for the legality of same sex unions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 The sponsors and reader of the bill claimed that Nigerian Gays and lesbians contribute over $12 billion dollars to the nation’s Gross Development Product (GDP) and deserve to be compensated with their belief in same sex marriages. However such claims are yet to be refuted by the Nigerian authorities; people wanted to know if there was a mechanism that showed what amount same sex couples contributed to the nation’s economy.

Uganda another Sub-Saharan nation also had their own share of pressure from the U.S.A with President Obama talking tough on the issue, long term President refused to buckle under America’s pressure. The pressure train move to Zimbabwe who’s President an enemy to the West talking of Robert Mugabe outright rejected the idea, it was no surprise to the world.

Malawi was next, where two gay men decide to marry against the law of their country, the result was seven years in prison which was later reduced after pressure from gay groups. Ghana also faced its share of legalizing same sex couples the president rejected the notion also the parliament.

The lists of Sub-Saharan nations that are under pressure to legalize same sex unions are numerous. Some pro-gay and lesbian activist have threatened to as k their home government not to pass foreign aid to African countries that have refused to pass laws permitting gays and lesbian to marry. Even some developed countries have threatened to impose some sort of sanctions on some countries in Africa that refuses that deny gays and lesbians their rights. Other human rights groups made claims of going to the United Nations to make most African countries pass same sex laws perhaps the United Nations has been to busy with Syria’s and North Korea problems that thinking of same sex issues.

Few questions normally occurs to mind when this issues are being raised, they are: what does United States and its allies stand to gain by pressurizing African countries to legalize homosexuality and lesbianism? Why are they pushing for such it to be made law? Have any of the so called industrial nations taken into consideration the majority of the citizens’ stance on this issue.

In providing answers to these three question I would say that America and its allies are bent on making the whole world tow their line on any issues even when such are not in provision with various nations belief  that usually form a country’s norms and value.

The issue of gain is funny because if Canada and America and their allies claim to have gained from the legalization of same sex couples then it would be welcome to tell them that such gain are not welcome on the continent. It is also pertinent to know that a country’s value system don’t matter to the west. Let it be known to the West that African countries are not in favour of this union, they also cannot afford to have a social system that can cater for the multiple effects from legalizing homosexuality and lesbianism.

Is it not funny that during the period of early missionaries coming to Africa with the bible preached against gays and lesbian but the same are now supporting for it to be made legal, even some churches abroad perform union for same sex couples. It was bad when the missionaries spoke on it now that we are independent the same people are telling us it does not matter.

 Same sex couples are not welcome to us in Africa, we do not want them to be made legal as it is a taboo on our society and the land as a whole ,let Sodom and Gomorrah in the holy book the “Bible” come to mind when this topic I brought to the fore front.

 Africa needs help and real serious help but what it does not need is chaos from such unwholesome practices gays and lesbians would bring, technology advancement and good governance are what citizens want Obama and company please try and look elsewhere to pass what our traditional religion also rejects.

Magbegor Ovie

odyoba@gmail.com

Jason Russell, co-founder of the campaign “Kony 2012″

The creators of the campaign “Kony 2012″ to the arrest and conviction of the Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony have made ​​another video on the Internet. The 20-minute film is a response to the criticism of their actions, said the U.S. children’s charity, Invisible Children, headquartered in San Diego on Thursday. They also called for the 20th April, a day of action to arrest the commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA Lord’s Resistance Army) on.

Declaration of motives

In the new film would be the motivation for the campaign launched in March explained, progress reported and identified further ways to “stop the violence of the LRA,” said the director of Invisible Children Ben Keesey. The first half-hour video “Kony 2012″ clicked on more than 100 million people on the Internet. The Invisible Children organization has been criticized by some to represent a simplistic, outdated and simplistic view of the LRA and the Ugandan conflict. The makers of the film was the end of March in San Diego was taken up naked and confused in the street.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes and Kony investigated crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and forced recruitment of children. The LRA was originally founded to fight for the interests of the northern Ugandan Acholi ethnic group, today it is one of the most brutal rebel groups in the world. The LRA first appeared in the late 1980s in northern Uganda in appearance, and currently operates primarily in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa and Southern Sudan.

A 30-minutes documentary-video packed with emotions, sorrow, bravery and justice – KONY 2012, has made a huge impact on the social media lately with a tremendous 104.4 million views on both Vimeo and YouTube in just a month after being published on the web.

            The video is about the Ugandan Rebel Army, Joseph Kony and the LRA, along with their atrocities against humanity. This video, however, is said to be misleading with Kony actually operating in other African Countries rather than Uganda. But even though he does not working in Uganda, he still operates in other countries while still committing these war crimes. According to the LRA Crisis Tracker, since the video was released, the LRA killed 3 civilians and abducted 78 children.

            So, he needs to be stopped.

            Now, what exactly is Invisible Children?

            Invisible Children, a non-profit organization founded in 2004 to bring awareness to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and its leader, Joseph Kony. But many Ugandans say it’s already to late. He committed many more war crimes 6 years ago. Now, he’s lying low. It isn’t that bad.

            They accept donations and sell merchandise, such as bracelets, t-shirts and posters, to raise money for their cause. The money they raise is used to produce awareness films and for humanitarian aid to northern Uganda.

            At least that’s what they say it is. But behind the curtains, what is it?

The message they spread is really simple. There is a man named Kony and he needs to be stopped. He uses small boys as child soldiers and small girls as sex slaves. If that wasn’t bad enough, the child soldiers were forced to kill their parents with a face that has been deformed so the parents wouldn’t recognize them. Kony needs to be brought to justice.

So, is donating to Invisible Children a good idea?

Since 2010, Invisible Children has made almost  $9 million from donations around the world. But where is this money going?

- 37.14% is donated to Central Africa Programs ($3.3 million – 62% to improve schools and others are for clothing, medicine and other necessities)

- 16.24% is used for Management and Administration Costs ($1.5 million)

- 35.54% is spent on Awareness Products and Programs. ($3.1 million)

- 7.87% is spent on Media & Film Creation ($0.7 million)

- 3.22% spent on Fund-raising ($0.29 million)

So how much of the money is going to be put in efforts to stop Kony? None. The only thing they do is raise awareness. But does public awareness help stop Kony? Not much actually.

            I mean, think about it, do people really care that much even after watching the video? No. So many people have seen the video, yet donations, pledge signings take only not more than 1% of the viewers. People only know that Kony exists, they don’t do much action to stop him. The making of the movie probably costs a lot, and they probably did not make as much money from donations.

This video is very misleading. By donating to Invisible Children, you are helping the children get the education and other necessities, which of course, is a good thing. But, which children? The Poor African Children, not the sex slaves, not the child soldiers. Most people want to stop Joseph Kony from committing these crimes and bring him to justice. But it is just another non-profit organization like Unicef, a company, which buys stuff for itself rather than for the cause. From Unicef planes to Invisible Children vans is what the money is mostly spent on

If you want to help bring Kony to justice, then tell your local government. You must raise awareness. Create your own charity organization if you strongly believe in stopping Kony. People around the Internet say that you can donate to the government instead. But what’s the catch? We don’t know how much money will the government keep.

According to an article published by the Council of Foreign Affairs, Invisible Children manipulates facts for strategic purposes such as exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders. So we can simply say that donating here is very ineffective.

Later in the KONY 2012 film, we can see Jacob, a Ugandan child soldier who escaped, shedding to his utmost tears. Later, Jason Russell comforts Jacob by promising that he would stop Joseph Kony.

            But guess what happens? On March 16, Jason Russell, the Invisible Children co-founder and KONY 2012 Film Director is arrested for so-called “Public Exposure”. According to various reports, he was nude and masturbating under the heavy influence of alcohol. This makes the whole organization less credible.

            Looks like somebody isn’t keeping their promise.

And that is exactly what is stunning in the reaction in the West, ie where the conflict was hardly known to the public: Kony in 2012 arouses interest in Invisible Children, to be understood in the political potential of social media, but at best secondarily about who is Kony and what it is at all is in the conflict.

Stereotypes do not help here also further

Rarely, the backgrounds are even hinted at. Worse, potential ignorance by stereotyping and the imagined omnipotence of Western intervention will be replaced. These include message and rhetoric of the video itself, which the co-founder of the NGO, Jason Russell, through the eyes of his young son as a superhero who does what is evil from the world, appear to be, and the clear statement that the use of U.S. military advisers to the warlord Joseph Kony must be arrested in 2012, so that all children are born free and then return home to Uganda to return.

Even the usually critical brilliance by convincing Hans Rauscher describes the standard under the heading “Humanitarian Intervention” Kony as a “murderous [n] psychopaths [n] as in the novel Heart of Darkness.” Similarly, the video provides Kony is an evil black man, but it should be recalled that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness rests in the bosom of a European warlords and the novel is the colonial power in Africa in the pillory.

“Invisible” from a Western perspective

This corresponds to the Western reaction to the campaign in 2012 Kony interests of the NGO. Invisible content Children emphasized in information material, such as the name implies, that the children affected by the conflict are invisible – invisible from a Western perspective, it should be emphasized, because in the affected areas in Africa, the problem is very well known.

Kony 2012 calls for support for the petition and donations, with little more than the statement that a war crimes are the craft kilometer. Typical for the representation of Africa, it is assumed that the equation = violence = Africa sufficient need of Western intervention, with a minimum of argument and explanation.

The feel-good effect to go to pieces

Besides the lack of content is in the public work of Invisible Children, especially also with Kony in 2012, as the audience is mobilized. Personally, tells the story of Jason Russell, after a brief introduction which emphasizes the importance of social media, showed the birth of first son, Gavin Russell, photos and video clips from the family album and talks with Gavin.

Thus, the look directed inside, instead of providing voices of African children in the foreground, to which it supposedly goes, viewers keep seeing the blond Gavin with his dimples with the feel-good effect, that a commitment to Invisible Children a Engagement to itself, is life for this kind of Californian middle class, including a private garden with a playhouse and trampoline.

Although Russell is in front of the young Ugandans Jacob, whom he met on his first visit already in the East African country in 2003, but this has no last name, locates only as a former victim and now a friend of the family of Russell.

Eventually, Invisible Children to the rescue of the children of Uganda. Supported by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Court of Justice, Luis Ocampo, who also appears in the video is the declared goal of making Kony famous, so he was arrested in 2012 and the end of the conflict and the return of children to be reached.

Especially from Uganda have loud can hear voices that critical scrutiny that message question as naive and the official opinion of the Africa Command of the U.S. Army for troop deployment is that there can be no single military solution to the conflict – something that clear to anyone with such acts of war even in the slightest is familiar.

The regional policy context is not forgotten

Joseph Kony is neither Osama bin Laden, another Adolf Hitler, a ranking which sets up as a campaign poster. It is historically relevant to the day, 20 April is glued around the world. Kony and four other LRA leaders are under indictment by the ICC to law as a war criminal.

However, there is hardly represented, that he is the incarnation of evil in 2012. Warlords use violence as a means of achieving economic gain, usually by taking control of and trade in environmental resources, such as recordable diamonds.

They operate mostly in global trade networks, through which said blood diamonds to consumers and consumers in Europe and North America. To legitimize the use of violence and mobilization of constituencies often political objectives are used.

The LRA and Joseph Kony, are unusual in this respect, since neither political nor economic arguments are at the forefront and it is already longer than any other army of its kind in Africa.

The movement dates back to its predecessor organization, the Lord’s Resistance Movement in the mid-1980s by a Ugandan woman, Alice Lakwena, was founded to lead a “Christian” war against the Ugandan government Museveni, a movement which claims about regional grievances in the north served in the country.

Ideologically, Kony also thinks in terms of the Bible and the Ten Commandments to act, where he has built up mainly of children existing Army, which operates regionally and not just only in Uganda but also in particular in the DR Congo and Southern Sudan. A deeper understanding is only possible in the context of this regional policy. The regional deployment of troops to the African Union against the LRA takes this into account.

The conclusion is clear that Kony Joseph Kony in 2012 has actually made famous as the campaign so well intended. However, the world gets only an angry black man, who is doing harm children, and the majority of the media contributes to the fact that it remains so..

Why did Invisible Children’s 30-minute documentary KONY 2012 achieve the unbelievable goal of obtaining Americans excitedly talking regarding kid soldiering in Africa, once years of failed media efforts by a constellation of anti-Kony NGOs and 4 national governments?

The video is closing in on a hundred million YouTube views however has been heavily criticized for its partial and un-nuanced presentation of a posh tragedy. For filmmaker Jason Russell, Uganda’s agonizing history is boiled all the way down to a straightforward demand the arrest of Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) originated during a 1986 insurgency against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that was led by a girl who known as herself Alice Lakwena and is believed to possess been Kony’s aunt. Lakwena claimed to possess supernatural powers and to be possessed by the spirit of an Italian army officer. She left the armed rebellion in Kony’s hands within the late-1980s, fleeing to Kenya where she died during a United Nations-run refugee camp in 2007.

Kony’s movement is credibly accused of slaughtering thousands of civilians and kidnapping youngsters so as to force them to become troopers or sex slaves. Invisible Children’s latest video is a shot to “make Joseph Kony famous, to not celebrate him, however to lift support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.” The video appears to advocate a military intervention to capture or eliminate Kony for smart, however a part of Kony 2012’s charm is that the video makes its goals appear as content-free because the presidential campaign slogan implied within the title.

Over the past few decades, efforts on the a part of each the Ugandan military and joint missions involving foreign facilitate have did not snuff out the LRA, that has fled Uganda and operates during a remote, loosely ruled space that encompasses elements of southern Sudan, northeastern Congo, and jap Central African Republic.

“The LRA could be a raggedy bunch of a number of tons of at most, poorly equipped, poorly armed, and poorly trained,” writes Mahmood Mamdani within the Ugandan Daily Monitor. Mamdani, who grew up in Uganda, is director of the Makerere Institute of Social analysis in Kampala and professor of presidency at Columbia University. “In short, the LRA isn’t any military power.”

Mamdani additionally notes that within the mid-1990s, whereas on missions ostensibly to produce protection from the LRA, the Ugandan military allegedly murdered Acholi folks (Kony’s ethnic group) in northern Uganda, even burning entire villages. Museveni continues to be in power these days, and his government encompasses a recent diary of stifling freedom of speech and press with jail time, tear gas, or rubber bullets.

Nevertheless, the non-profit Invisible youngsters, Inc. has gotten seventy seven million folks to look at KONY 2012. This production is that the eleventh such video released by Invisible youngsters since founders Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole began operating in Uganda in 2003. The film’s superficial, simply digestible message and shiny production price make a case for a number of the success, however the organization’s masterful P.R. campaign additionally deserves credit.

Invisible youngsters promoted the video through myriad social media platforms, notably by reaching out to celebrities with huge Twitter followings. Justin Bieber, Rihanna, and P. Diddy combined to tweet regarding the video to over thirty eight million followers.

This is time the movie director of the ‘Kony 2012′ popular movie had an obvious predicament while exposed on the roads of San Paul.

Jason Russell, co-founder of the charitable organisation Unseen Kids, was hospitalised after being found acting curiously on the roads of San Paul.

He was caught for purportedly being intoxicated and self pleasuring in community last night day following reviews that he was seen vandalising vehicles and managing through traffic dressed in just his lingerie.

Mr Russell’s spouse has now verbal out to protect her spouse’s ‘irrational’ behavior – indicating that it was due to the surprising interest and critique that his movie about the Africa warlord John Kony produced.

Danica Russell  released a declaration saying her husband: ‘did some unreasonable things due to excessive tiredness and contamination.’

‘We thought a few million individuals would see the movie, but in less than per several days time, many individuals around the world saw it,’ she said. 

‘While that interest was great for increasing attention about John Kony, it also introduced a lot of interest to Jerr and, because of how individual the movie is, many of the problems against it were also very individual, and Jerr took them very hard.’

Mr Russell, 33, was relaxed and co-operative when caught by law enforcement, according to NBC San Paul, but seemed to be under the effect of liquor.

Danica has declined that her partner has any abusing drugs or consuming problems.

Although he was not incurred with a criminal offense, authorities determined that he should be dedicated to medical center for therapy following the event.

‘During the assessment we acquired that we probably needed to take care of him,’ a law enforcement spokesperson said.

‘So authorities caught him and relocated him to a local medical center for further assessment and therapy.’

Ben Keesey, us president of Unseen Kids, the charitable organisation set up in 2004 by Mr Russell and two buddies, released a declaration of assistance for his associate.

‘Jason Russell was unfortunately hospitalised last night being affected by tiredness, contamination, and lack of nutrition,’ he said.

‘The past two several days have taken a serious psychological cost on all of us, Jerr especially, and that cost demonstrated itself in an regrettable event last night.

‘We will always love and assistance Jerr, and we ask that you give his whole family comfort during this problem.’

The charitable organisation, which is designed to increase attention of the atrocities dedicated by the Lord’s Level of resistance Military in Uganda, jumped to globally popularity the other day after launching an movie eligible ‘Kony 2012′.

The 30-minute movie, instructed by Mr Russell, records the actions of LRA innovator John Kony, infamous for his rule of fear in main African-american and particularly his use of kid defense force.

It has obtained 80million visits on YouTube, and drawn extensive assistance from superstars and individuals.

However, experts declare that the movie over-simplifies a complicated clash and diverts interest from more pushing causes.

Father-of-two Mr Russell is an evangelical Religious who is described by Unseen Kids as ‘our lavish storyteller and dreamer’.

The video was about a young Boy and a Girl, friends, but you know that they also liked each other. I think the video was shot in Northern Uganda. The boy got abducted by the rebels who trains child soldiers. And the girl patiently waited for the boy’s return. The boy eventually managed to escape, (not easily of course), and then he and the girl reunited once more with their families.

I have embedded the video for all of you to watch. The Title is Me and You, by Fall Out Boy.

Translation:

Beginning of the video:

“How long must this go on? We are sick of it! So, so many children dragged into this war.

Let me tell you the story of Lacare and Okello..”

End part of the video:

“We have to do better, if not for us, for our children”

This video already touched my heart a long time ago. Even before the video Kony 2012 spread on social media sites. Its important to stop this child abduction. The people in Uganda are fighting for their lives, working hard to earn enough to support education. These kids have dreams, and we do not help them, they will just die in this useless war that is happening in the area of Africa.

“Over the last 20 years, as many 38,000 children have been abducted and forced to fight as child soldiers in the war in Northern Uganda… Thousands have yet to return home…. Visit Invisiblechildren.com“

Kony No Dae That (Photo credit: www.jerkalert.co.uk)

I first learned of Joseph Kony about six years ago.  I was reading some articles posted on the Amnesty International website when I came across his story.  The article explained in detail about how Kony would ransack a village and murder all of the adults.  He would then force the children to become sex slaves or fight as soldiers in his army.  It was stated that Kony would tell the children that one day in the near future, God would render all automatic weaponry useless, and an army skilled in machete warfare would rise to conquest.  He would also give them sacred rocks to wear around their necks.  Kony told the children the rocks were blessed by God and that all those who adorn them will be safe from gunfire.

After reading about these horrible atrocities being committed in Uganda, I was disappointed that this wasn’t a bigger story at the time.  So when I logged into my facebook account three days ago I was happily surprised to see a number of posts discussing Joseph Kony, and a link to a video.  Unfortunately, after watching the documentary Kony 2012, I was left with an uneasy feeling.

The first thing that struck me was how good the film looked.  I’ve watched many documentaries over the years, and this one had the best production by far.  Someone spent a lot of money to produce this movie, much more than most lesser known grass-root organizations have to promote their cause.  A cause to stop a man, that by their own admission, nobody knows about.

According to the Invisible Children website, the organization behind Kony 2012, they raised over 8,000,000 USD last year.  All of this money was raised before they started selling their “Action Kits” for thirty dollars a pop on their website.  And just so you know, they are currently sold out, so you will have to wait a few days if you want to order yours.

Finances aside, lets focus on the actual content of the film. As the movie begins we are introduced to Jason Russel, the filmmaker and his young son, Gavin.  Throughout the film Jason explains to young Gavin who Joseph Kony is and why he’s a bad person.  While this dialogue is being played out on the screen, I cant help but feel as though Mr. Russel is using this opportunity to spoon feed me the information as if I, and the rest of the intended audience, all possess the mentality of a young child. 

He tells us about what Kony has done, but not where he came from.  How did Kony become so powerful?  Why hasn’t the Ugandan military been able to stop him in all of this time?  It is alleged that Kony has kidnapped over 60,000 children over the course of 20 years evading capture by the Ugandan government.  Russel claims that the only way to stop Kony is to make our government know that we care about this issue.  This will all be achieved by ordering bracelets and plastering posters, making Kony 2012 even bigger than the Occupy Movement of last year.

Russel tells us that the United States government typically doesn’t get involved in foreign conflicts unless there is a eminent security risk or a financial gain.  In October of 2011 it was announced that President Obama would send military personnel to assist in the the capture of Joseph Kony.  The filmmakers are shown celebrating and state that this is the first time in U.S history, that our government’s military actions were influenced by the people and not corporate America.  Invisible children would like you to believe that it was because of their efforts that this all came to pass but what they fail to mention in their thirty minute documentary is that in 2008 George W Bush involved our military in an effort to stop Joseph Kony and the L.R.A.

In February of 2009, The New York Times published an article whose headline read: U.S Aided a Failed Plan to Rout Ugandan Rebels.  The article goes on to describe operation “Thunder Lighting”, which involved 17 U.S. military advisers and approximately 1,000,000 USD in supplies to aid the Ugandan army in a mission to catch Kony.  Kony 2012 fails to address this detail.  In fact, they mislead you into thinking that our government has had no interest at all in the affairs of Uganda, which is entirely not true.

So what was the motive behind the military involvement in Uganda back in 2008?  This conflict has been going on for over twenty years. Why would our government, during the midst of our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, decide to extend our helping hands and tax dollars, to the people of Uganda in an effort to liberate them? Were they just being compassionate, or were they just being greedy?

The last, but biggest omission from the Kony film, is the fact that oil was recently discovered in Uganda.  In 2006, Tullow, an Ireland based oil company discovered oil beneath the sands of Uganda.  It was reported that in 2009 they were pumping more than 25,0000 barrels a day with plans to expand in 2011.  Tullow has invested a lot of money in the region since the discovery.  They have created jobs, built new roads, and even new schools and clinics in an effort to improve the infrastructure of the area.  Perhaps this could be the reason behind the sudden interest in helping Uganda.

After watching the video and doing some further investigating, I got the feeling that our government and Invisible Children Inc. are working in conjunction to prime us for a larger scale commitment to Uganda.  If we make this our cause from the onset, then no one will think twice if we commit a hundred thousand troops and a couple of billion dollars over the course of the next five years to fight the good fight.  No one will be waving “no blood for oil” signs this time, because this will be a conflict that we asked for.

In regards to the motives behind our government’s involvement, the ideas that I express are nothing more than speculation.  You have the right to agree or disagree with my opinions, but don’t overlook the facts.  While I believe that Joseph Kony needs to pay for his crimes, and I am happy to see this news being brought to forefront, but I am also leery of the heightened interest of a conflict that has been going on for more than two decades that suddenly becomes hugely popular overnight. I had a hard time taking the young advocates that stared blankly into the camera while holding their banners seriously.  It looked a little too Hollywood for me.

There are many other horrible war crimes being committed all over the continent of Africa right now at this very moment. You don’t have to wait for a youtube video to go viral before you act.  If you truly want to make a difference, educate yourself about any cause that you plan to support so you can make an informed decision and not an emotional one.

The group, Invisible Children have the backing of celebreties like, Bona and Oprah to name just a few of them. But there is also many stories going around on how this oraganization is spending this money and many poeple are sceptic.

Well whatever the case is, this video is going

Image via CrunchBase

to go to record views in no time, just watch this space.