Joseph Kony’s name and the Invisible Children video has gained over 38 million views in the past three days through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, and is now getting picked up by mainstream news sources. What’s all the hype?
Joseph Kony is the International Criminal Court’s top war criminal to capture. A non-profit organization named Invisible Children started a movement to get the public in the know and gain support in the fight against Kony.
So what makes this guy so bad? Kony is a rebel leader in sub-Saharan Africa who has been kidnapping children for twenty years. He turns each of the girls he captures into sex slaves and the boys into child soldiers. He has enslaved over 35,000 children by overtaking boarding schools, slashing villages, burning refugee camps. He is without a doubt a terror to be stopped.
Documentarian Jason Russel has gained massive support through his emotionally charged aesthetically interesting video that is proclaiming that if they can gain the attention of the public, a domino effect will occur to capture Kony. The Ugandan military needs to find him but first, they need the technology and training to track him through the jungles. One hundred American advisors were sent in the fall of 2011 to assist the Ugandan army with this. Those advisors (note: they are not combat soldiers) will return home if the government does not feel the American people have this issue on their radar screen.
This is without a doubt a beautiful campaign to stop a monster right? There is no question that Kony is a man that should be stopped. However, doing some research about the Invisible Children foundation should be done before donating time and money. Speculation has risen of the Kony 2012 Campaign being a scam and that the profits are not going directly to help the children of Uganda. While many news outlets are speculating this cause might not be legitimate others, such as The Huffington Post, promotes donation to Invisible Children. Many celebrities such as Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaji have also joined the fight and are spreading the word. See the Kony 2012 Video below and decide for yourself whether or not to get involved.
