Thread: Kony 2012

My older daughter asked me a couple of days ago if I had ever heard about or of Kony, and I had not. She dropped it and then she mention it again yesterday, saying it was all her friends were talking about. Today, it was on the major news outlets like NBC and CNN. It seems it is a cause that her generation can get behind and quickly wants to do something about it and the filmmaker has made it very easy to do. Unlike the 99%ers, Invisible Children made it simple. They made a clear emotional message, and way to help. It has all been done using their language, the Internet. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on. It is a language they understand and in less than 3 days, the 30 minute film has had almost 37 MILLION views on YouTube.





Just a sample of articles from around the world (ever RT):

'Stop Kony' video goes viral, puts spotlight on Ugandan warlord – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

Kony 2012: what's the real story? | Politics | guardian.co.uk

Michael Deibert: The Problem With Invisible Children's "Kony 2012"

What is KONY 2012? Inside the campaign that stopped the world | News.com.au

Kony 2012: Viral video for the misinformed? — RT

This was very fascinating Rockzmom!
I had not heard of this, since I am neither a teenager, nor on facebook...
Agree with you that as a phenomenon, this is extremely interesting. What do you think, will they get him, or not?

I am never in favour of military interference in any foreign countries, but if there is one such interference I would not bother complaining about, it would be that a few Western countries help the Ugandans to put a stop to this character and his rule of terror.

There seems to be no alternative story here, no ideology, no excuse, no mitigating history - this person is simply a bully and tyrant that spreads fear and achieves nothing of value. Little children are among his main victims.

If this campaign succeds it will set an important precedence.

Uganda journalist Angelo Opi

Since 2006, Uganda discovered world class oil fields along its border with DRC. The location of the oil fields has raised the stakes for the Ugandan military and its regional partners, including the US.

British journalist Michael Wilkerson

It would be great to get rid of Kony. He and his forces have left abductions and mass murder in their wake for over 20 years.

But let's get two things straight:
1) Joseph Kony is not in Uganda and hasn't been for six years;
2) The LRA now numbers at most in the hundreds

Looks like I was wrong then! Am at work, so can't check the links from Seraph, but the Ugandan student interviewed by the Guardian seems to think it's both cynical, patronizing and possibly financially dubious. And that's not even mentioning the idea of American and other school children financing purchase of weapons for the regular army of a corrupt African state. The more I think about it, the more questionable the whole thing seems.

The thing that is new and interesting about this is the fact that it's all done via social networking. But so, I understand, are phenomenons like Occupy Wall Street and "Anonymous".

I have long been of the opinion that foreign aid to Africa achieves little, mostly ends up with corrupt locals and may also create a dependency and a lack of initiative and victim mentality in the recipient countries. The aid policy of my own country has been incredibly bizarre and contradicting through the years and it's beginning to be clear that most initiatives have achieved very little. In the UK there is a large debate about why the UK is giving aid to India, a country with a space program, or China a country that is rapidly buying up British businesses.

If I was a super cynical extremely anti-US journalist, then I'd say along the lines of some Russian tabloids that this could be fake, perhaps with some intelligence backing. "We don't want to invade [oil rich] Uganda, but our citizens are begging us to, and Kony is sooooo evil".
I'd stop short of that though, because it is too much of a consipiracy theory.

Originally Posted by Hanna

If this campaign succeds it will set an important precedence.

Call me a sceptic, but I believe that this campaign will fail. Three months from now few of them will even remember Kony's name. Facebook will save the world... yeah, right.

Sadly, it seems like the criticism aimed at the Youtube video was too much for ther man who started the campaign!?

Per the BBC:

============================
Advocacy group Invisible Children's co-founder will be in hospital for weeks after he was found semi-naked and screaming at traffic, his wife says.


Jason Russell, 33, has been diagnosed with a mental condition brought on by stress or trauma.

Last week, police found Mr Russell screaming and running through the streets of San Diego, California.
He narrated the Kony 2012 video about child soldiers in Uganda that recently went viral on the internet.
Witnesses reported a man behaving bizarrely in the street, pounding his fists on the pavement and shouting incoherently.


Some people who called the police said the man was naked, although he was semi-clad when police arrived.


The incident came after Invisible Children's 30-minute campaign video on the use of child soldiers by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda suddenly took off on the internet.

It has been viewed more than 84 million times on YouTube in recent weeks.
Mr Russell's family has emphasised that his outburst was not brought on by drugs or alcohol.
Early diagnosis suggests he is suffering from "reactive psychosis", in which the patient shows psychotic behaviour without warning.
"Doctors say this is a common experience given the great mental, emotional and physical shock his body has gone through in these last two weeks.
"Even for us, it's hard to understand the sudden transition from relative anonymity to worldwide attention - both raves and ridicules - in a matter of days," said Mr Russell's wife Danica.
"He has a long way to go, but we are confident that he will make a full recovery," she added.
Invisible Children has the backing of countless celebrities and the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, but both the group and the video have also come under heavy criticism.

Activists say the campaign simplifies a complex issue, and questions have been raised about Invisible Children's financing.

Kony has simply put a curse of madness on him. You just don't mess with the Africans, they know voo-doo.