If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
We have never lived in a world where things spread so quickly, at such scale. Social media has become equally a powerful and dangerous ally for marketers and for consumers -- a double-edged sword that each should manipulate with great care.
In March this year, Kony 2012 became the fastest spreading online film ever -- but our research team at USC's Annenberg School has been interviewing and observing Invisible Children for three years, long before the flurry of attention around the video.
As Uganda celebrates its 50th year as an independent nation, have things improved? Although we are a democracy, we have voted for the same president, Yoweri Museveni, a military leader, since 1986.
Becoming a hero doesn't happen by chance. It happens when we decide the crossroad we have ended up walking on can indeed become our moment to take action.
The #KONY2012 movement is welcomed for the attention it has brought to Uganda, but in reality the man and his actions are symptoms of much broader problems that must be addressed to prevent future Joseph Konys.
No matter how questionable the cause, people continue to invest in others, perhaps because to invest in a cause -- no matter how small -- is to invest in humanity.
Prominent Ugandan journalists and activists were vehemently critical of the video's factual flaws and oversimplification.
One of the ICC's major realities is that it relies entirely on states to arrest and surrender accused to the Court. In this respect, state cooperation gives teeth to the ICC's bark.
Whether we like it or not, Africa is a land where white people can make a difference in the lives of the natives. So should we?
Today's activists, however, don't typically knock heads with plastic police shields or get hosed down by a coercive stream of water. Why put yourself in harms way when you can sit at your Ikea desk, open up your MacBook Air, and click a few electronic buttons?
Kony 2012 has garnered more than 100 million hits and has motivated viewers to support the arrest and trial of one of the world's most monstrous war criminals. What it misses, though, are the voices of ordinary Ugandans who have responded quite differently.
The apparent disconnect between Invisible Children's White House-enabled public relations push and on-the-ground sentiment of Ugandans whose needs IC purports to champion can be in part explained by a little-known fact -- Invisible Children is a ministry, tied closely to the evangelical right.
The Arab Spring will span many, many seasons. Free speech is a necessary but not sufficient condition to create better government, long-term stability and better economic opportunities in the developing world.
Preventing violence against the local population means a commitment to army reform, more accountability toward affected communities and development of isolated areas.
L.E.A.D Uganda's children do not want your pity. They do not need charity. Africa's youth want your support as an active, equal partner, so they can transform their communities, their country, and their continent.
Social media is becoming an increasingly valuable tool for social justice advocates through its capability to help shape the national discourse surrounding issues, as two recent examples from two very different spheres of the web prove.
