Just trying out the new blog through the school account but just for the record: none of what I say here reflects the views of the Wellesley College Administration. Just me. Saying what I think at the moment.
Anyways, I can't really fall asleep right now and I don't feel like working so I decided to do a quick blog.
The movement of the moment right now is #Kony2012.
In a nutshell, an organization called the Invisible Children released a video on March 5 to raise awareness about Joseph Kony, a Ugandan political leader who is the head of the LRA which is basically a mercenary group that forces children to commit heinous acts of violence. It is a call to arms for the American public to cover all of our major cities with posters and stickers and raise awareness that this war criminal must be stopped.
The video is incredibly well done and persuasive and incites people to take out their wallets and help the cause. It's poignant and makes it seem that if the American people really set their mind to it, they could bring about change.
That, however, is a gross oversimplification in my opinion. I'm not going to pretend I've always known about Kony and the LRA because I honestly had never heard of them until last night, when I was procrastinating yet again. And yes, I will admit that I almost bought posters to plaster all over campus. But having thought about it some more, I have a few reservations about the entire thing.
I think that it is a wonderful thing that people now know about the issues across the ocean. It's sometimes hard to keep up with what's going on to other people when we have more easy access to stories about whether or not Snooki is pregnant. However, I have always thought that foreign affairs are an incredibly touchy subject and I think that in the past few years we've had to really re-evaluate whether or not we have the power to do all the wonderful things that we want to. We care about the LRA because we would not wish for our children to go through that. But that's the problem: it ISN'T our children and we have limitations because of that.
After reading a lot of other articles being written right now, I realized that
1) there are a lot of issues in the world that have not gotten as much attention. Knowledge is power and we should be more well rounded in what we read
2) This is a situation that has been in the making for decades and is only just coming to the publics' attention. While people would like to see immediate change, I don't think that any global conflicts is ever resolved within hours(remember Saddam Hussein?). So what happens after 4/20 when people forget about all of this?
Like I said, knowledge is power and the more we know, the better. I think that this entire affair should be taken with a grain of salt though because we may not have as an immediate an effect as we might think.
Anyways, I can't really fall asleep right now and I don't feel like working so I decided to do a quick blog.
The movement of the moment right now is #Kony2012.
In a nutshell, an organization called the Invisible Children released a video on March 5 to raise awareness about Joseph Kony, a Ugandan political leader who is the head of the LRA which is basically a mercenary group that forces children to commit heinous acts of violence. It is a call to arms for the American public to cover all of our major cities with posters and stickers and raise awareness that this war criminal must be stopped.
The video is incredibly well done and persuasive and incites people to take out their wallets and help the cause. It's poignant and makes it seem that if the American people really set their mind to it, they could bring about change.
That, however, is a gross oversimplification in my opinion. I'm not going to pretend I've always known about Kony and the LRA because I honestly had never heard of them until last night, when I was procrastinating yet again. And yes, I will admit that I almost bought posters to plaster all over campus. But having thought about it some more, I have a few reservations about the entire thing.
I think that it is a wonderful thing that people now know about the issues across the ocean. It's sometimes hard to keep up with what's going on to other people when we have more easy access to stories about whether or not Snooki is pregnant. However, I have always thought that foreign affairs are an incredibly touchy subject and I think that in the past few years we've had to really re-evaluate whether or not we have the power to do all the wonderful things that we want to. We care about the LRA because we would not wish for our children to go through that. But that's the problem: it ISN'T our children and we have limitations because of that.
After reading a lot of other articles being written right now, I realized that
1) there are a lot of issues in the world that have not gotten as much attention. Knowledge is power and we should be more well rounded in what we read
2) This is a situation that has been in the making for decades and is only just coming to the publics' attention. While people would like to see immediate change, I don't think that any global conflicts is ever resolved within hours(remember Saddam Hussein?). So what happens after 4/20 when people forget about all of this?
Like I said, knowledge is power and the more we know, the better. I think that this entire affair should be taken with a grain of salt though because we may not have as an immediate an effect as we might think.
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