Hi there,

The Kony 2012 video remains, to date, one of the wonders of the cyber-world, so we thought it deserved a more diverse treatment than it received in Michael’s newsletter on Tuesday. Today we have the results of a 24-hour exercise aimed at getting perspectives from Uganda, the scene of the Kony drama, and from younger people where possible. I can’t vouch for the age of all three contributors to our Kony forum, and none of them live in Uganda. But Nwachukwu Egbunike lives in Nigeria, which is certainly a lot closer to pulse of African response to the video, while Alex Perottet and Nicole van Heerden, both of whom live in Auckland, have youth on their side. I think you will find their views well worth pondering.

Controversies over religious topics surface in Joanna Bogle’s piece on a mad decision by the British government to lend its weight to the petty persecution of Christian employees who want to wear crosses, and in my piece on a rather nasty advertisement in the New York Times attacking the Catholic Church. Stephen J Heaney’s essay, published in partnership with The Public Discourse, looks at these disputes from the point of view of politicians who dither and warns that they won’t always have dither-room. And George Friedman raises the spectre of a German-Russian alliance. (Perhaps “spectre” is too pessimistic; it might do Russia a lot of good.)

There are lots of good things in the blogs, about books, feeding the world, fashion, silence, and yes, same-sex marriage and the HHS mandate. Can't get away from those two, I'm afraid.

Cheers,

Carolyn Moynihan,
Deputy Editor,
MercatorNet