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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Kony Video Campaign Shakes Up Advocacy World
Like many other human rights campaigns, the video released by the organization Invisible Children got help from celebrities1.
One of them was Angelina Jolie. The Hollywood film actress spoke2 out against the elusive3 Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony at a recent appearance.
“He is an extraordinarily4 horrible human being," she said. "His time has come, and it is lovely to see that young people are raising up as well.”
A collective of some of the biggest U.S. media and entertainment personalities5 used social media to promote the 29-minute video when it was released March 5. So did high school and college students across the United States and elsewhere.
The Kony video has become the fastest growing ever on the Internet in terms of views.
On Tuesday, it prompted U.S. lawmakers to introduce a resolution calling for increased efforts to boost the number of forces deployed6 to protect civilians7 and pursue LRA commanders hiding in Central Africa.
Last year, U.S. President Barack Obama sent 100 U.S. military advisors8 to help with ongoing9 efforts against an insurgency10 which for decades has been abducting11 children, displacing civilians and mutilating the faces of victims in Central Africa.
An international human rights and development expert at American University in Washington, Lori Handrahan, thinks the Invisible Children campaign is revolutionizing advocacy. She says other advocates should build new activist12 communities by using video, social media and celebrities.
“I believe that the professionals who have been working in humanitarian13 response for decades really need to start to embrace this [social media] element and understand that it is here and it is for the good," said Handrahan.
A long-time advocate against the LRA, Washington-based Michael Poffenberger with the group Resolve, says a video can be very effective in bringing out new human rights activists14.
“Even experts get started on these issues somewhere," said Poffenberger. "Most people who have worked on these issues for decades can still point to some transformative experience in their life, whether it is a good teacher or a moment where their eyes were opened to something going on in another part of the world.”
Poffenberger also says this highly polished video is just a hint of what groups like Invisible Children and Resolve are doing.
“I know that there is a big strategy that has gone on behind this effort that will be taking steps to channel that awareness15 into concrete measures that actually help protect people on the ground who are suffering LRA attacks," he said.
Invisible Children and Resolve have been working together on an online LRA crisis tracker, which includes a map and timeline for current and past LRA attacks. Most recent attacks have taken place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while LRA commanders, including Kony, if he is still alive, are believed to be hiding in the Central African Republic.
The stated goal of the video is to bring about Kony’s capture, so that he can be tried at the International Criminal Court for alleged16 war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Poffenberger also is pushing for more international emphasis on development and social projects in LRA-affected areas.
Lots of the social media commentary spawned17 by the video has been negative, ranging from criticism of the inadequacies of Western-style justice, to the fact that the much diminished LRA has already been pushed out of Uganda, or that U.S. activists should focus on American problems.
Handrahan, the American University professor, sees a lot of misplaced jealousy18 in these comments, some of them directed at the movie’s main character, American filmmaker Jason Russell.
“I do not think there is any place for jealousy when we are trying to take down international war criminals," said Handrahan. "I think people who do not understand what Jason Russell and Invisible Children and all the people who are supporting him are trying to do, they need a wake-up call and this is it.”
In one of his rare interviews several years ago, Kony himself said he is innocent, blaming Ugandan troops for atrocities19. He also said he lacks the tools to communicate his own message to a worldwide audience.
Experts have described his fighters as highly trained and motivated by long-standing grievances20 against Uganda’s government for past abuses committed on northern Acholi people.
1 celebrities | |
n.(尤指娱乐界的)名人( celebrity的名词复数 );名流;名声;名誉 | |
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2 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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3 elusive | |
adj.难以表达(捉摸)的;令人困惑的;逃避的 | |
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4 extraordinarily | |
adv.格外地;极端地 | |
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5 personalities | |
n. 诽谤,(对某人容貌、性格等所进行的)人身攻击; 人身攻击;人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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6 deployed | |
(尤指军事行动)使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 ); 施展; 部署; 有效地利用 | |
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7 civilians | |
平民,百姓( civilian的名词复数 ); 老百姓 | |
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8 advisors | |
n.顾问,劝告者( advisor的名词复数 );(指导大学新生学科问题等的)指导教授 | |
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9 ongoing | |
adj.进行中的,前进的 | |
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10 insurgency | |
n.起义;暴动;叛变 | |
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11 abducting | |
劫持,诱拐( abduct的现在分词 ); 使(肢体等)外展 | |
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12 activist | |
n.活动分子,积极分子 | |
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13 humanitarian | |
n.人道主义者,博爱者,基督凡人论者 | |
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14 activists | |
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 ) | |
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15 awareness | |
n.意识,觉悟,懂事,明智 | |
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16 alleged | |
a.被指控的,嫌疑的 | |
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17 spawned | |
(鱼、蛙等)大量产(卵)( spawn的过去式和过去分词 ); 大量生产 | |
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18 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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19 atrocities | |
n.邪恶,暴行( atrocity的名词复数 );滔天大罪 | |
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20 grievances | |
n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 );苦衷;不满;牢骚 | |
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