Kony 2012

It's been way too long since I've posted, but I haven't been truly inspired with something to write about. Maybe it's because I had to give up my weekly shift. I miss volunteering. I don't know who makes these decisions but whoever you are, let me know when One Fair World starts opening on Sundays again :)

Now, to the focus of this post. Most of you have probably heard about the "Kony 2012" campaign to make Joseph Kony, a wanted Ugandan war criminal, famous (or infamous). If not, you can find the video created by Invisible Children here. If you've been following the story, you've heard the controversy over Invisible Children's tactics, United States military involvement, and the recent mental breakdown of Jason Russel, the head of the Kony 2012 campaign.

Let me start off by saying that I'm not taking a side on any of the aforementioned issues. The point of this article isn't to preach my opinion on whether Invisible Children is corrupt, or whether the United States government should get involved in Uganda's affairs, or anything like that.

What's my point then? It's that people are so focused on the wrong parts of the issue that they completely forget what the issue is even about in the first place. It can generally be agreed upon that killing thousands of people and forcing children into the military is morally wrong, right? But instead of a unanimous voice against these crimes, there are people arguing over the legitimacy of the organization trying to bring attention to the issue and even whether or not these crimes were "misrepresented."

I realize the situation is way more complicated than "let's just send some troops into Uganda, capture Kony and then everything will be good again," but let's not get our differences in opinions distract us from what's really important - keeping Joesph Kony and others like him from exploiting and murdering innocent people.

Fair trade is all about preventing these same people from from being taken advantage of in the workplace and providing a way from them to live a good life - let's support these same ideals regardless of the controversy surrounding the method of achieving them.