Friday 9 March 2012

KONY 2012

The recent upsurge in postings about Joseph Kony and the Invisible Children has received worldwide attention. While there are also criticisms on the video that was released earlier in the week, it has already received 57 million views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc&noredirect=1


The abduction of children and the use of childsoldiers has been a longstanding issue. Therefore I think the success of the video has been to raise awareness on these issues and to get young people thinking and caring about things other than themselves. There may be complications on facts used, myths or the donation aspects of the not-for-profit organization, and for more information on the criticisms read article: http://jezebel.com/5891269/think-twice-before-donating-to-kony-2012-the-meme-du-jour also Invisible Children has responded to these criticisms here: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html


However I think that the most important aspects of this whole campaign are:
1) Raising awareness of the use of child soldiers
2) Making audience members want to get involved and do something


Doing something can involve simply re-posting the video, tweeting/blogging about it, donating, putting up flyers, and talking about it. Whether or not these doings can have an impact or what the extent of the impact will be, simply getting young people talking about atrocities going on in the world today is great and the quick rise and leaps in the amount of viewers is impressive.


From here, people can be drawn in to read about the details of the LRA, the US deployment of the 100 advisors, the workings of a charitable not-for-profit, etc. Either of these ways...it's a start to something.


*more opinions on this campaign:
http://justiceinconflict.org/2012/03/07/taking-kony-2012-down-a-notch/
http://innermostponderings.blogspot.com/#!/2012/03/thoughts-on-kony-2012-critical-optimism.html

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