I go offline for one week, and…

…KONY 2012 happens.

I only realized this by accident, when I peeked into my email Inbox for one measly second (I am still on vacation, dammit) and notice a gazillion comments and pingbacks on a post I wrote three years ago about Invisible Children. In the past three days, that post received roughly as much traffic as the entire blog in 2012.

As it happens, I have no desire to watch the new video or comment at the moment. I count myself fortunate that for the past three days I was bobbing on a small junk in the South China Sea, cut off from all Internets.

For wisdom on what the world ought to do about Kony, I can do no better than point you here.

Meanwhile, to all newcomers to the blog: welcome. For the most part, this blog is about why some places are poor, violent, and unequal, and what (if anything) the West can do about it. If that interests you, please tune in.

I’ve spent many years in northern Uganda studying the LRA and the impacts of war on children. You’ll find some of my work here. Probably the most readable summaries are on why the LRA recruits children and what’s the impact of child soldiering?

If you are interested, here is a northern Uganda reading list. There is also this new book on the LRA, which includes my “why child soldiers” piece as a chapter.

I would look more closely for readable summaries, or have more to say, but I’m still on vacation for a couple more days and this is the limit of my online interest. Farewell for now.

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