The 30-minute video about Joseph Kony has become one of the most watched movies ever with over 90 million views. At a forum with students in Love Auditorium, vlog President Jeffrey Herbst, , lamented the lack of more complex dialog to result from the worldwide attention.
Calling the film’s messages “overly simplistic,” Herbst challenged the filmmakers’ perspective that what Americans did would determine the course of the conflict. The Africans will be the overwhelming force fighting Kony and attention should therefore be focused on the actions of Uganda, Congo, and other countries. Further, the film’s idea that the issue must be resolved by December 31st also ignores local realities. If Kony is not caught by New Year’s he will still be an issue for those who live in Central Africa.
Critics of the film, Herbst included, believe the film creates a strawman to rally public opinion. In particular, the film urges pressure to keep 100 US Special Forces troops in Uganda at a time when, in fact, no one appears to oppose this deployment. Herbst also stressed that, counter to the film’s message, the presence or not of 100 US Special Forces in Uganda is not the point. “Kony is definitely no longer living in Uganda,“ he said, “and the country is much safer now.”
The film proclaimed today — April 20, 2012 — , hoping that people will draw enough attention to Kony’s atrocities that he will be arrested and tried in the Hague before the close of 2012.
Another vlog expert could weigh in: archaeoastronomer , author of assures that the world will still be here by then.
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