I commend you for actually having a thought-out stance, unlike most of the hypocritical, clueless denizens of Facebook who post the video and join the event and yada yada. I respect that, and I'll give you a valid response.
My stance isn't that I don't give a fuck in the context I take you're presenting it. I do have issues I care about. Mostly here in the United States, some abroad. It's that I don't give a fuck about this particular situation in the light it's being presented. Don't get it wrong, I think Joseph Kony is evil - I'm sure everyone else does as well. He's a sick psychopath, and he does need to die. I'd feel horrible if I, or my daughter, were ever in a situation like what those children are going through. I wish nothing but the most vile of deaths to anyone who makes anyone else literally hide for their life. But ultimately, I simply don't care about Uganda, or the Invisible Children project, and I do feel as if I have good reasons why. My disdain is two pronged; I have a bad taste from most of the supporters simply because of their hypocrisy and that the Invisible Children project is very vague and doesn't really seem to address any long term goals... in fact, it doesn't seem to address anything other than 'We need to kill Joseph Kony'. I'm also against it because it's not our problem. I realize this sounds incredibly selfish, so I'll go into details further down.
Like others have touched on, Uganda is not the only country in Africa with issues like this, nor is this the only frightening cause of unintended (or however you want to put it) death in Africa. The entire continent, spare a few pockets of wealth like South Africa and Egypt, is a giant shithole for one reason or another. If you're not getting shot, you have AIDS, or no food, or the water isn't safe to drink, or there's no medicines for common viruses, or there's deadly jungle diseases, or you're a sex slave until you're deemed worthless, or you're forced into whatever warring tribe. The list goes on and on. The problem with Uganda, and ultimately most of Africa, is that the entire continent needs to be built from the ground up. If we were to devote the resources into finding and killing Joseph Kony, someone else would just rise up and continue his ways/similar ways, or the people would die from something else. You eliminate Kony, and we see yet another video about people starving in Uganda next year. It's very sad, but if you truly want to save these children, you need to fix everything.
The KONY2012 video does not think out a solution very well. It calls strictly for awareness in major cities in hopes that Washington begins to support United States military involvement in Uganda to find and kill Joseph Kony. It kills me to see people complain that we're still in Iraq and Afghanistan, but support us getting involved in Uganda. This is a direct strain on our tax dollars, no matter how you look at it. Bullets cost money. Yes, killing Joseph Kony would be a very good thing, but it's a little more complicated than just posting about it on Facebook. Having the modern world be aware of it doesn't do a damn thing. Just like the video pointed out, nobody knows who or where he is. It took us 10 years to find Osama bin Laden, and we had somewhat of a trail to follow. Imagine how long it'd take us, how much it'd cost us, and how many lives would be lost for us to find Joseph Kony. Uganda makes Afghanistan look like a tropical paradise, and we'd easily be losing just as many lives in Uganda hunting Kony as we have taking down Sadam Hussein and finding Osama bin Laden. The United States is already heavily involved in several theaters in the Middle East, and our citizens seem to be waking up to how much our international involvement, whether militaristic or not, is costing us. (NOTE: I'm not taking a negative stance against our Middle East operations here, rather stating that people are beginning to notice the resources required) Our economy is already in the gutter, and with as much unbacked credit as we have floating around, we're treading very dangerous waters. Do you think our country would remain civil and have the unity to survive another real depression while maintaining, what would theoretically be, at least four major wartime fighting zones? Even without the dollar failing, can our country afford, in it's current financial mess in Washington with a complete lack of a budget, to get involved anywhere else in the world, for any issue?
Maybe if we weren't in so much debt ourselves, or had so many issues at home to address, I'd feel different. Yes, our issues are a little... softer, but they're still issues, which are only magnified if we take a 'world police' role. Being the good guys costs. Caring costs. And not just money. People, land, capital, material resources, time. For everything we give to someone else, we sacrifice something at home. And personally, so long as there is a single legitimate starving soul (read: not a worthless drug addict) in America, I have problems with us feeding others. Yes, it's a selfish stance, but we made ourselves into the country we are today. What's so special about us, as human beings? We're just as physically capable as other nationalities. By pure birth nature, we're no more intelligent than anyone else on this planet. We just happened to get our shit together, why can't <insert struggling country here>. Our history wasn't all rainbows and butterflies, we've had our struggles just the same. It's not easy, and there's gonna be some bloodshed. There's gonna be some rough times, but that's what makes ANYONE into who they are today. Why can't <insert country here> overcome just the same? We can't be taking everyone by the hand and feeding them, comforting them, protecting them when they fuck up, and figuring out how to cure their diseases. It's not good for us, and ultimately, it's not good for them either. How's that Iraqi government doing? Real stable, huh? Oh wait, we're still training their police officers for them because they can't get their shit together. (Again, not an anti-Middle East plug)
Plus, with all the international hatred we've been getting, maybe it's for the best, from a social standpoint, if we just keep to ourselves. Let's fix our economy and actually save up a little, THEN we can invest in someone else. Let's cure cancer. Let's develop foods to solve hunger as cheap and easy as possible, so nobody has to go to sleep hungry. Let's fix our political system, and rid out all the leechers, and let's get America back on track in being a very productive country. Let the world miss us for a bit, it wouldn't be so bad. I'm strongly in favor of us bringing everyone on a government dollar back home, minus a few spies and key operations with the sole intent of keeping watch and immediately preventing a World War III situation from breaking out. The world seems to hate our world police stance, so be it. It's easier for us that way, and we can focus on ourselves for a while.
Now with this said, I'm completely in support of private organizations doing whatever it is they want to support or not support other countries; just leave my tax dollars out of it. If you want to donate to a cause where only 31% of anything you donate actually leaves the country, so be it. 31% is still more than 0%, so maybe your 31% might get lucky and might reach the hands of the right individual who's able to do something worthwhile somewhere. Personally, I've donated to Charity: Water, as I think it's a very good organization with a much more important goal. And more of my donation will make a difference in comparison to other charities. I also feel as if safe drinking water is a little more important than having to hide at night, personally.
I know it's selfish, and I know it's sad, but Uganda is not our problem right now, and saving it requires far more than what we can afford. KONY2012 is not an answer.
