Limerick, Ireland – When John O’Dowd’s daughter came home from school determined to help stop African warlord Joseph Kony after viewing the “Kony 2012″ viral video, O’Dowd was intrigued.

As the drama around “Kony 2012″ creator and Invisible Children co-founder Jason Russell unfolded and critics began voicing concerns about Invisible Children’s handling of funds, O’Dowd started conducting his own research. Now, the author has released his findings as a Kindle e-book and paperback as The Amazing Story of the Kony 2012 Phenomenon and the facts of the case are startling.

“Invisible Children posted ‘Kony 2012′ on YouTube on March 5, 2012,” O’Dowd explained. “By March 11, it had 100 million views, making it the most successful viral video ever. Yet only days later, Russell had a public breakdown, and within a month, interest in Invisible Children-promoted protests against Kony waned. From the rise of Joseph Kony to the apparent fall of the Invisible Children founder, it was a fascinating story that needed to be told.”

O’Dowd began by exploring the history of Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), by all accounts a brutal guerrilla organization led by a man whose “army” consists of children forced to commit atrocities across central Africa. He found that Kony had kidnapped more than 104,000 children over the last 20 years, and had 88 wives, most of whom the LRA kidnapped as young girls. However, there was much more to the story.

It turned out there was also more to Invisible Children. The charity which three college students founded with a $70,000 loan and quickly grew into a $46,000,000 organization, faced criticism following the video.

Ugandans spoke out against “Kony 2012,” and survivors of Kony’s violence protested Invisible Children’s tactic of displaying their tormentor’s name and face on bracelets, t-shirts and marketing materials. As he dug deeper, O’Dowd discovered exactly how Invisible Children was spending the donations that poured in after the release of the video. The Amazing Story of the Kony 2012 Phenomenon recounts those findings in detail.

O’Dowd then tackled the social media component of the Kony 2012 phenomenon. “Analysis of the first 1,000 people to re-tweet the #Kony2012 hashtag on Twitter shows that they were clustered around a few southern U.S. cities,” wrote Examiner.com correspondent Peter Kelton in his review of O’Dowd’s book. “… In effect, the evangelical Christian spirit pushed Kony 2012 to record heights, a view confirmed by U.S. analysts … This is not a dry, statistical history, but a lively yet deeply moving story superbly written.”

In The Amazing Story of the Kony 2012 Phenomenon, O’Dowd tells the truth behind the scandals, successes and failures of “Kony 2012.” Readers might open the book out of curiosity, but they will turn the last page armed with knowledge about a watershed cultural phenomenon.

Image Courtesy of   http://ctn.kony2012.com

The article Book Explores Kony 2012 Phenomenon appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The Board and Executive of the national Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS) has called on the U.S. government to give more attention to supporting the African Union of 54 nations in negotiating for peace in the militia‐torn areas of East and Central Africa.

“We have listened to many African people from the war‐torn areas of Congo, South Sudan, Uganda, and Central African Republic,” said David Wiley, spokesperson for ACAS, “and they are calling for negotiations and peaceful reintegration of the militias into their communities. Many are saying they do not want a widening of the war with national armies who often commit atrocities backed by U.S. troops or advisors that could continue the conflict for decades.”

The Africanist scholars said they are encouraged that so many Americans are concerned about Africa and want to help with the disorder of the militias there. However, the ACAS says:

“… After consulting with scholars of Uganda and Central Africa and with other experts in the region, we are deeply concerned that the recent campaign in the United States to pursue and arrest Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), could have dangerous unintended consequences.

Expanding U.S. military operations with the Ugandan army to capture Kony could increase the militarization of the region and lead to deaths of civilians who are caught in the crossfire or become targets of retaliatory attacks by the LRA, as has occurred in the past.”

“Indeed,” Wiley noted, “the Ugandan army itself has been guilty of atrocities and abuse of civilians both in Uganda, probably killing more people over the years than the LRA, and now in the Central African Republic while chasing Kony again.”

Dr. Mahmoud Mamdani, Ugandan director of the Makerere University Institute of Social Research, said the 70 million plus who have watched the Invisible Children video need to realize that the LRA – both the leaders and the children pressed into their service – are not an alien force but sons and daughters of the soil. “The solution is not to eliminate them physically, but to find ways of integrating them into (Ugandan) society.” Mahmoud commented.

Instead of military action, ACAS is calling on President Obama and the Congress to support and take the lead of the African Union (AU) and its new Special Representative for Counter‐ Terrorism. ACAS also urges Obama “to take a strong stand against the use of child soldiers by fully complying with the U.S. Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2009 by prohibiting military assistance to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other governments until they meet specific benchmarks,” as urged by Amnesty International.

“Much of Africa,” Wiley noted, “is awash with AK‐47s and other cheap small arms, light weapons, and mines, the munitions of terrorist militias.” So ACAS also is calling on the Administration, “…to actively seek an effective United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to end irresponsible trade in weapons, munitions, and other military and policing equipment that often inflict misery and carnage on people, especially in Africa. “

Donations by Americans are very much needed for the pressing needs of these former child soldiers, the raped, and the displaced,” Wiley commented, pointing out that the “excellent programs” of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Children’s Fund.

The article Kony2012: ACAS Spokesperson Warns of Militarization Risk appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Posted two days ago, the Kony 2012 video has garnered over 15 million views, according to the Washington Post. The speed in which it went viral can only be attributed to the power of social media, and to the number of people simultaneously connected on the World Wide Web. The video itself makes clear its intent to exploit the virtual platform, and make it its stage.

The 30-minute documentary was produced by Invisible Children, a nonprofit charity that wants Joseph Kony to face trial for his war crimes in the International Criminal Court. Kony, the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army–better known as the LRA–has been evading capture for some time. A warrant for his arrest has been out since 2005. At the height of its power, the group kidnapped, horribly mutilated and killed thousands of people.

Many of these atrocities were perpetrated by children who were kidnapped themselves. Tens of thousands of people have been estimated to have fallen victim to these crimes. The exact numbers will never be known.

What is known, is that the campaign was a hit. It is impossible to predict the factors that went behind the video’s viral success. Whatever they are, the Kony 2012 video is undeniably a successful combination of these. One of its greatest aims was fulfilled: the world, or an important platform for it, knows exactly who Joseph Kony is. Millions saw the video, and within hours of its being posted.

But a backlash has occurred regarding the du jour status of the campaign. As quickly as it burst into the scene, some are growing tired of the topic. Calling those who repost the video “internet activists,” the cynics are skeptical of the staying power of what seems to be a superficial ‘trend’ cause.

The organization itself has come under fire. The Tumblr blog of a Canadian student, by the name of Visible Children, begs to question the transparency and accountability of Invisible Children. According to the blog, only 32% of what the organization spent went towards direct services. The rest went towards “staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production.”

This is an abysmal figure that the organization disputes, stating that the reason it only has two stars for accountability, is because the charity has only four independent board members, as opposed to five. Furthermore, according to KSDK.com, Invisible Children has refused to be reviewed by the Better Business Bureau, a decidedly red flag.

The charity maintains they are waiting until they expand their board.

The article Campaigning for Kony 2012 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.