Month: March 2012

Invisible Children: or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Jump on the Bandwagon.

So, that viral Kony 2012 documentary that has started doing the rounds is pretty darn emotive, isn’t it? Made me want to get up out of my seat and go hunt the bad man down myself.
One of the few things that I have retained from my philosophy degree other than how to argue pretty much any point (if you ever need anyone to play devil’s advocate, then I’m your man) is a degree of scepticism.
When I watched the Invisible Children’s piece of propaganda, I couldn’t help but think that there must be more going on than what they have presented. And I was right. I spent probably as much time watching the video reading articles about their activities and the goings on in Africa.
Invisible Children want to raise awareness of what Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army are up to. Which is a brilliant aim. This is an evil man doing evil things and hurting thousands upon thousands of people and forcing thousands more to live in fear.
People should be made aware of him and discussion should be had about the best way to stop him hurting people.
However, it’s not like the world’s political leaders didn’t know about him. This has been going on for 20 years. And it’s not exactly been a secret.
This viral video presents a very one-sided and simplistic view of the situation. I’m not going to attempt to go into the details fully because much more intelligent, well informed and eloquent people have done so and I have provided links at the end of this for you to read.
And I really hope you do read them to make you more informed about the situation. If you still want to go ahead and support this campaign, then that’s great. I love your enthusiasm and dedication to putting the world right. I wish I was more like you at times, in fact. And I love the fact that the film makers seem to be wanting to do that at well. 
Deep down, I really just want everyone to get along. Whilst I tease my friend Ben about being a giant hippy, it’s partly because I am one myself. 
But before you jump on the bandwagon, please please please please make sure you are informed about what you are doing.
Sometimes it is actual possible to do damage by attempting to do good and one thing we should have learnt from recent history is that when the Western world goes into the non-Western world and attempt to change things by force then we can sometimes make things worse.
I am saying this predominantly because of the way that social networking works and how the video has gone viral today.
It would be entirely possible for someone to make a similar video and get people all angry and riled up about someone who doesn’t exist, for example. Please don’t just have a knee jerk “we must fix this now!” reaction. 
Invisible Children’s stated aim is to make people aware of Joseph Kony. As I’ve said, I think this is a great aim, but don’t just make sure you are aware. Make sure you are informed. Please read these:

http://justiceinconflict.org/2012/03/07/kony-2012-the-invisible-children-advocacy-campaign-to-catch-kony/
http://www.thabusiness.com/2012/03/kony-2012/
http://whitthef.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/kony-2012/
http://www.wrongingrights.com/2009/03/worst-idea-ever.html/
http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com.nyud.net/
http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/the-visible-problem-with-invisible-children/
http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/122/ARTICLE/6586/2010-06-02.html

A person of no faith

Dear Rachel Reeves MP,
I got annoyed watching Question Time this week.
This isn’t an unusual occurrence, it actually happens most weeks and I’ll just go into a rant on Twitter about and forget about. However, this week it wasn’t to do with some fundamental disagreement on a political matter, or annoyance that the Tory was the most sensible politician on the panel although this is happening a scary amount of times as I get older.

The thing that annoyed me most was when you used the term “people of no faith” to describe non-religious people.
Now, I am a devout atheist (more on that at some point maybe, although possibly not as I don’t like to force my opinions on others) and so therefore I would fall under your  classification of “people of no faith.” However, I feel that this is a very misleading term.
Ok, maybe militant atheists might get offended at the term faith and openly embrace the idea of being someone without faith. I am not one of those people.
I may not have a religion – although saying it like that makes it sound like I am lacking something which I feel I am not – but I have a lot of faith. However, my faith is not faith in someone or something that you cannot see. I have a great faith in humanity. Sometimes, I wonder why, but other times mankind can show itself to be the most wonderful and beautiful thing.
The London riots last year showed me both sides of this. Initially I started to despair at what had happened to humanity but when everyone started to get together for the clean up action afterwards, my faith in people was increased.
I have faith in that people are underneath it all, generally good, moral and generous beings.
I also feel that this faith is stronger than many people’s religious faith as the object of it is tangible. The results are visible. But now is not the time to get into an argument about who is right or wrong on the matter of the big G.
In these days when people get offended by the silliest little slight on themselves or their beliefs and we often have to tip toe around issues, I call for greater acknowledgement and respect of my kind of people as we respect you and your kind (I’m talking about religious people not politicians as clearly politicians rarely get any respect from the public).
So, Ms Reeves, I am not a person of no faith. I am a person of strong faith, just not the kind of faith in invisible people who live in the sky. Please acknowledge this in future.
Many thanks.