"Wait.. so who is that Kony guy? Is he...ummm....likeeeee... running for president?"
No. Joseph Kony isn't a candidate for the 2012 election. Kony 2012 is a campaign calling for his arrest, however. The goal of the project is to make Kony famous, because he is currently unknown.
This is the video that has been becoming immensely popular in the past week. It currently has over 32 million views, when I first watched it on Sunday it only had about 100,000.
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The campaign is organized by Invisible Children inc, which began working in Uganda to help children effected by the war there. "Invisible Children" are the victims of the war and the LRA, a violent rebel group in Central Africa (led by Joseph Kony). Children are taken from their homes, given guns and forced to kill their parents by the troops to sever their ties to home and make them into hardened soldiers. Currently, the LRA has abducted 30,000 children from Uganda. Children that escape live in constant fear that they will be killed if they encounter the LRA again. The film is the starting point to the campaign, which has been spread like wildfire and brought unbelievable attention to it. This is really a great example of the kind of power social media sites like twitter and facebook have over the world. A project like this could never be as successful without help from the internet.
Invisible Children, inc has gotten some scrutiny, though. Its hard to argue against an organization trying to stop child suffering in a third world country. I don't really understand why someone would try to keep people from supporting something like this, other than a need to be on the other side of the issue. I saw a youtube comment when I first watched the Kony 2012 video:
"Kony 2012 is run by Invisible Children, an organization that pockets 75% of its donations. Think this money is going to stop Kony?? You're WRONG. Let's just hope that instead of donating to Invisible Children, people raise awareness on their own." -BIGBenY
Invisible Children, inc, responded to these criticisms (I've seen many elsewhere questioning how much of their profits go to the actual cause) on their tumblr. They published a detailed account of their spending report and outlined exactly how their money is going to each individual cause.
I respect the organization because of their honesty and immediate response to anyone who questions them. They want to maintain their reputation because they believe in the cause so strongly. I chose to support the cause by purchasing a bracelet from their website.
Kennedy is having a night where KONY 2012 posters will be posted all over Cedar Rapids. On Friday, April 20th, we will cover the entire town with posters promoting the campaign.
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