Why I blog. Because I believe I have a story worth telling. A perspective unseen. Insight unknown. I also know that not all my thoughts are diamonds, I know that not all my posts are thrilling and life changing. I like to think some of them are, since they in some complicated and tangled way have changed my life. My post today is one of those posts.
The kind that change your life.
Some of you may know that I am an avid believer in Human Rights. My research & thesis is on how hate is bred, specifically how that hate is used to facilitate genocide. Even more specifically in the country of Rwanda. Africa is a country that has been exploited for every possible commodity imaginable in every way imaginable.
This video is about such exploited commodities. I hope you have already seen it & if you haven't I sincerely hope you take the time to watch it. NOW. If at the end you feel unchanged you will have served a purpose still. You can share, discuss, comment and at the very least you will be one of the vast who has given up time in your life at the cost of another.
It is easy to feel hopeless & helpless when exposed to such atrocities that are in this movie. My purpose is not to overwhelm you with these feelings, it is my purpose to make you aware.
Aware of life.
While visiting Palestine inside the boundaries of the state of Israel an older gentleman who has known war & oppression his entire life changed me forever.
I asked everyone we interviewed if they had one thing for me to bring back & share what it would be. He simply stated, To live. To live for those of us who can't. To take them with me in my heart & when I see marvelous places, enjoy beautiful things, when I am surrounded by happiness & love to remember them and to share it with them.
I took them with me while I swam with turtles in Hawaii, I took them with me when I walked in my graduating ceremony, I take them with me when I hug my family and when I laugh with friends.
Experiences like these don't translate. I can never share with you the vast emotions that course through me. I can never share the best moments of my life. The same way yours don't translate and make it impossible for you to share. That is why each of us must live.
To live.
The director of this movie, Jason Russell, comes as close as most can to sharing these life altering experiences and I would beg you to allow yourself into this conflict. Allow the emotions to take over and course through your veins.
To be aware of life so that you too may live & keep them with you always.
Below are 5 articles I found about this film, so you may learn more if you choose to.
Kony 2012 sheds light on Uganda conflict
The film focuses heavily on the issue of child soldiers, with Kony’s LRA reportedly having up to 30,000 boys and girls who are used as soldiers and sex slaves.
Kony is alleged to have fathered over 200 children during his 26 years on the run from the Ugandan government. Found Here
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The Problem With Invisible Children's "Kony 2012"
Recently, a new video produced by the American NGO Invisible Children focusing on Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been making the rounds. Having just returned from the Acholi region of Northern Uganda myself, where the LRA was born, I thought I might share some of my thoughts on the subject, for what it's worth.
I think it is easy for Invisible Children and other self-aggrandizing foreigners to make the entire story of the last 30 years of Northern Uganda about Joseph Kony, but there is a history of the relationship between the Acholi people from whom the LRA emerged and the central government in Kampala that is a little more complicated than that.
Kony is a grotesque war criminal, to be sure, but the Ugandan government currently in power also came to power through the use of kadogo (child soldiers) and fought alongside militias employing child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, something that Invisible Children seem wilfully ignorant of. Found Here
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Making Joseph Kony visible in 2012
Grace Nimaro visited Weber State University with countless cards, posters, stickers and bracelets promoting the Kony 2012 campaign.
But this was no presidential candidate she was promoting.
Nimaro hails from the northern part of Uganda and grew up during Joseph Kony’s rebellion in her country. Kony has been waging a war for 26 years in Uganda, Congo and the Central African Republic, kidnapping children, forcing boys to become child soldiers and forcing girls into sexual slavery. During this time, many of Nimaro’s relatives and friends were killed or abducted by Kony’s rebel army. Found Here
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Joseph Kony 2012: Testing the true power of the social web
The social web has overcome geography, culture, even language to connect billions of people. Yet the primary use of this gift is still diversion. This year you and I will be tested to see if, indeed, there is a greater purpose to this amazing gift. It is the #KONY2012 project. Found Here
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Please share this video, this post, your feelings, your knowledge and your life.
We all appreciate your support!




