We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, March 11, 2012

New film on LRA courts controversy

Click here to access article by Tabu Butagira from Sunday Monitor (Uganda).

A film entitled "Kony 2012" has been inundating the internet with well over 32 million hits and social media comments. It is a film produced by the Invisible Child charity and features endorsements from numerous media celebrities. The film appears to be another Hollywood-Pentagon type film to promote more military intervention in Africa under the guise of "humanitarian" concerns. This seems to be how some Africans see it:
A sensational video released by Invisible Children, a US charity, chronicling LRA anarchy in northern Uganda, has raised suspicion after its maker exhorts immediate American military action at a time the rebel force poses no threat to the country.
For 15 more African reactions to the film, read this source.

In this video interview from RT Keith Harmon Snow, an expert independent journalist on African affairs, war correspondent, genocide investigator, and UN testifier, sees the film as another propaganda stunt to justify more military intervention in Africa to secure more resources for the Empire's corporations. In this interview he claims that the film was heavily financed by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and specifically mentions the Enough Project headed by John Pendergast who he suggests is an intelligence operative. I can't verify that, but then who could since intelligence operatives are never identified as such. However, I have followed Snow for a number of years and I absolutely trust what he says. Also, Wikipedia states this about Pendergast:
At the end of 1996, he joined the National Security Council as Director for African Affairs and thereafter served as a special adviser to Susan Rice at the United States Department of State.
These agencies are filled with CIA agents.

While films like this (another example: "Act of Valor" extolls the heroics of Navy Seals) get abundant funding from the Pentagon and the CIA--honest films like The Genocide of Politics have to beg for money from among the 99 Percent. We must support such efforts!