What
the Leaders Were Like
Joseph
Kony is a brutal thug who has killed, raped, and terrorized children for
decades. Joseph Kony said himself that his death would be a mystery just as
Hitler’s was. He also said that someday the world will wake up and find that he
is dead and that no one will know the circumstances, no one will know the day
that he dies or the day that he will be buried. He supposedly has direct
contact with divine powers and has 12 spirits that he takes orders from. He has
also predicted many things that have happened. He may be the most wanted man in
the world.
In
a way Hitler and Kony are very alike and very different. They both terrorized
people and used fear to keep there power. Kony as said himself that he will die
like Hitler and no one will know about or why he has died. They both had their
own beliefs were Hitler thought that people with blonde hair blue eyes were the
only people that should be allowed to live while Kony says that he is taking
orders from 12 spirits and that he only acts on their orders.
Who
Was Targeted and Why
In the 1980s,
Joseph Kony founded the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group to overthrow Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni. Kony kidnapped an estimated 30,000 children in the
north of Uganda, forcing boys to become soldiers and girls to be sex slaves.
Pushed out of Uganda in 2006, he and his dwindling force now operate in South
Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic. The
children that are made into soldiers for Kony are mostly under 15 years of age
and it is a major war crime.
While Kony forces
boys that are too young into an army and the girls to be sex slaves, Hitler
isn’t much different in forcing all of the Jews in gigantic concentration
camps. Both of them are similar because they both throw people into situations
were they barely have enough food to do anything and are forced to do all of
the dirty work with barley anything to help them to stay alive.
How
They Obtained Power
Joseph Kony came
to a power position in the mid to late 1980’s. It all started when Kony a
former altar boy was caught in the middle of a storm of violence that marked
the last years of Milton Obote’s presidency. Obote was deposed in a military
coup in 1985. Soon after this happened Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance
Army (NRA) seized power. Kony’s Lord’s resistance was one of many who rose up
against the NRA. Kony was a spiritual leader, known as a healer among the
Acholi people. He inherited a powerful support base from Alice Lakwena, a
spirit-medium. Lakwena's followers would "daub themselves in Shea butter
crosses which they believed would protect them from bullets and they believed
that stones would explode like grenades," explains Matthew Green, author
of "The Wizard of the Nile - The Hunt for Africa's Most Wanted,"
about Kony. This just speaks to how ludicrous what Kony preaches is.
Now
when we compare him to lets say Adolph Hitler there are some similarities and
differences. Just like Kony Hitler received his support because of someone
else. Hitler rose to power when he was recruited by Hindenburg. In November
1932 elections the Nazis again failed to get a majority of seats in the
Reichstag. Hitler contemplated suicide. But then he was rescued by Hindenburg. Franz
von Papen (a friend of Hindenburg) was Chancellor, but he could not get enough
support in the Reichstag. Hindenburg
and von Papen had a govern by emergency decree under Article 48 of the
Constitution. They offered Hitler the
post of vice-Chancellor if he promised to support them. Hitler refused he demanded
to be made Chancellor. So Von Papen and Hindenburg took a risk. On 30 January
1933 Hindenburg made Hitler Chancellor. He thought he could control Hitler how
wrong he was. However in the end, Hitler did not TAKE power
at all he was given it.
How
They Maintained Power
Joseph Kony was
able to maintain power through fear, some of the things that he did was he
would cut off people's hands as a kind of warning not to raise any hands
against the rebels. Kony once gave an order that anyone caught riding a bicycle
should have their legs cut off. Bicycles were a very common means of transport
in rural areas and he was worried that informers, if they saw the rebels, would
rapidly pedal away and alert the nearest army post. The violence was done in a
way, displaying a message, that their government could not protect them.
Kony
and Hitler were able to maintain there power because Hitler was given the power
and used it in the wrong way while Kony took the power and used his power to
force people to do what he wanted them to do. Both of them made up ridiculous
rules that were for their own good and they only used fear to keep everyone in
line by executing anyone who disobeyed the leg or else violently hurting them
just to show an example.
Works
Cited
Whiteman,H.
(2012,March 9). Joseph Kony: brutal warlord who shocked world.
thebostonchannel.com.
Retrieved March 14, 2012, from
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/30643943/detail.html
Davis,C.
(2012, March 14). ‘Kony 2012’ – effective or just ‘slacktivism’?. Philly.com.
Retrieved
March
14,2012, from http://www.philly.com/philly/insights/142571275.html
Lees, P. (2015,March 15). Kony
predicted he would ‘die like Hitler’. ninemsn.com Retrieved March
14,2012, from http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8435293/kony-predicted-he-would-die-like-hitler