War is a hell of a thing. It can continue to define a country long after the war ends. Like Sri Lanka. Or Uganda. Right now Sri Lanka is in the middle of its yearly war flashback, which sucks, if it didn’t occasionally produce stuff like this. In the same way, Uganda finds itself at the center of a Joseph Kony social media storm, despite the fact that the warlord is no longer in Uganda.

This is my Sunday column for the Nation. Joseph Kony is the LOLcat of terrorism now, but may not have reached people that read the physical. So this is a sorta briefer for that audience. It’s called Who Is Joseph Kony?.

After an initial viral load, the Kony 2012 and Invisible Children movement have actually been getting hammered online. I recommend watching the video, reading the criticism (via Al Jazeera) and then reading their response. They’ve listened to the criticism and their response does answer a lot of questions.

I watched the Kony video, because everyone is forwarding it. While I agree with the sentiment, the video itself is a serious case of white man’s burden. They state a goal as being to lobby billionaires and celebrities to lobby the US government to support US troops in Uganda. Which is kinda dubious.

This is how you do a tourism video. It’s not a brochure, it’s a story. This film – aside from the somewhat leading voice over – tells a story visually, going from desert to harvest to end of the know world. It makes you feel but not showing faces for most of the film, and then showing them at just the right moment. Really compelling stuff.

I spend an inordinate amount of time on this Canadian based Sri Lankans Without Borders Facebook group. For the poutine. Actually, for the punishment. There are a lot of Sri Lanka haters on there, and you have to fight through to the occasional respectful conversation.

Haveeru has an interesting an article with cross-quotes from different protests in the Maldives. One side is Nasheed and the MDP, who are calling for elections after a police and politician led coup. The other is the current coalition, calling Anni (Nasheed) names and saying the current unelected government is just fine. I suppose you can tell what side I’m on. The coup was bullshit. Just let people vote.

For what it’s worth, Richard Branson has written/blogged a letter to the coup-installed President of the Maldives. It’s a letter written in a personal capacity, so read it and think about it. I think it makes sense, but I give more weight to the ongoing protests in the Maldives, demanding elections. The Maldives had an elected government that was overthrown by force. Now they’re trying to peacefully demand democracy back.

These are Tweets that can get you arrested in Saudi Arabia, and possibly killed: “On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you. On your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more. On your birthday, I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.”

I think the US sanctions on Iran are bullshit. As I’ve said, Israel is like America’s crazy girlfriend, and America is picking somewhat random fights to keep her happy. Iranian people get hurt, but so do small countries like Sri Lanka. As you can see from this Al Jazeera report, the sanctions hit Sri Lanka on everything from crude oil imports to tea exports. As Harsha De Silva says, a double whammy.