There are all sorts of conditions that can cause a person to become overwhelmed: natural disasters, loss of a loved one, disease or violence. Circumstances can spiral so completely out of control it's as if life itself has been hijacked and the person is merely along for the ride, clinging desperately to any scrap of normalcy. Sometimes, the person loses hold of that grip completely. Losing your grip happens all the time, altering the course of individual lives and families. Usually, the chaotic cyclone of a breakdown is relatively contained. Last week, however, it appears one of these went viral.
Jason Russell, co-founder of the organization Invisible Children and director of the documentary "Kony 2012" was detained by police in his hometown of San Diego and hospitalized. The initial reports I saw were salacious and, thus, captivating; Russell was reportedly running into traffic, naked, possibly masturbating, possibly making sexual gestures, possibly vandalizing cars. TMZ posted a 12-second video, purported to be Russell, naked, apparently pounding the sidewalk at a neighborhood intersection.
Ben Keesey, the CEO of Invisible Children, put out a statement saying, "Jason Russell was unfortunately hospitalized yesterday suffering from exhaustion, dehydration and malnutrition. He is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better. The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday..." What happened in the past two weeks that took such a severe emotional toll that it led to Jason Russell becoming exhausted, dehydrated and malnourished? Fame, or its sometimes noxious counterparts, success and notoriety.
Two weeks ago, Invisible Children released the "Kony 2012" documentary directed and narrated by Russell, outlining the decades-long atrocities committed by Joseph Kony, a warlord and leader of a Ugandan guerilla group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The documentary urges global action on April 20 to call attention to Kony and demand he turn himself in to the International Criminal Court to be tried for crimes against humanity, especially against tens of thousands of children, abducted and turned into soldiers or sex slaves. Since the documentary's release, it has gone viral over YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. In short, the video did what it was supposed to do -- harness the power of social media to advance awareness.
The awareness was supposed to focus on Joseph Kony. Spotlights, however, cast a very large beam. It wasn't long before Jason Russell and Invisible Children got caught up in the glare of public scrutiny. Criticism began to surface about how the money raised by the organization was being spent. Some people called the efforts "neo-colonial," upset with gun-toting whites charging in to save defenseless blacks, deriding a "savior attitude." Not only did Joseph Kony come under fire, but so did Jason Russell and Invisible Children.
Danica Russell, Jason's wife, said "We thought a few thousand people would see the film, but in less than a week, millions of people around the world saw it. While that attention was great at raising awareness about Joseph Kony, it also brought a lot of attention to Jason -- and, because of how personal the film is, many of the attacks against it were also very personal, and Jason took them very hard."
One of those attacks was that the film was over-simplified. Invisible Children again put out a statement: "In our quest to garner wide public support of nuanced policy, Invisible Children has sought to explain the conflict in an easily understandable format ... In a 30-minute film, however, many nuances of the 26-year conflict are admittedly lost or overlooked."
I can only hope that those quick to condemn Jason Russell will withhold their judgment just a little longer and do a bit more digging, at least to a greater depth than 140 characters. There are also nuances to public exposure of private pain that should not be lost or overlooked by any of us in a viral rush to judgment.
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Paul Stoller: Joseph Kony and the Other Africa
Rabbi Berel Lerman: The Real (Spiritual) Message of Kony 2012
Catholic Relief Services: Q & A: On Kony 2012, the LRA in Congo, and the Catholic Response
Elizabeth and Stephen Alderman: The Victims Of Atrocities: Kony 2012 And Beyond
Tullow Oil began Ugandan exploration in 2004. Some oil was discovered in 2006. But massive amounts were discovered early 2008 http://www.tullowoil.com/index.asp?pageid=63
Oct. 2008, Bush activates www.africom.mil
2/21/12 "Tullow Oil- a long-awaited $2.9 billion deal to bring in French oil major Total and Chinese group CNOOC as partners to develop oil fields in Uganda closed on Tuesday, paving way for commercial oil production to begin" http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE81K07W20120221
JasonRussell claimed in Kony 2012 that his efforts persuaded the government to deploy 100 troops to Uganda in Nov 2011, supposedly to "get Kony". Yet Ugandan president Museveni stated that the US troops will not engage in battle http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/08/uganda-museveni-obama-troops
And that is correct - they're not there to pursue or fight. Kony left Uganda in 2006. Russell admitted this in a CNN interview. In reality, they're there to assist Tullow Oil in relocating/resettling Ugandans off land where oil was discovered so that they can begin drilling. http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/03/12/uganda-set-to-demarcate-land-for-oil-refinery-report/
House introduced a resolution last week to send more troops to "build on the momentum created by a viral YouTube video spotlighting the atrocities of LRA leader Joseph Kony" http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57396592-503544/joseph-kony-resolution-introduced-in-house/?tag=mncol;lst;2
What does Tullow Oil and KONY 2012 have in common in Uganda?
Both backed by JP Morgan, which is not to say I condone Kony, but come on people, follow the money!! JP Morgan Chase gave $1 million to Invisible Children.
http://www.tullowoil.com/index.asp?pageid=135
http://investor.shareholder.com/jpmorganchase/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=515878
More to the story than meets the eye....
Anybody who calls themselves radical or insane in their biography has something wrong with them.
I doubted this whole thing from the get go. That is not to say there aren't genuine people within this group, but the facts are it seems as though they are indeed a front for JP Morgan and Elite we don't know much about.
All we know is JP Morgan gave big bucks to this org, their CFO is a former JP Morgan Employee and JP Morgan is the Broker of Tullow Oil who got rights to the newly discover oil in Uganda.
I believe this whole thing is a front for Humanitarian intervention for resources.
There is hidden resource war going on with China and US in Africa. This is partly why Gaddafi was killed, because he was anti colonial, anti US. He was forming/did form an African Union.
Think about it
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/201231284336601364.html