Invisible Children - Kony 2012 Campaign

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

This is one of the amazing pros of social media today - one charity comes up with one video and a plan and it goes viral within seconds. The plan is to make Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Central Africa, famous. Famous so that his despicable actions that have gone unnoticed for so long (murder, pillage, kidnapping of children to turn them into sex slaves and child soldiers), become a main media talking point. Public awareness = political aid = capture of Kony; or an equation along those lines.

I watched the video, and it's a little too smug at times for my liking, but to be honest, if it's going to start making people aware of what has been going on in Uganda for years I can bypass the smugness of it all. I don't agree that military intervention from the US is the only way to capture Kony, but in the end if there is going to be military intervention somewhere in the world I would rather that it be for a cause that makes sense (i.e. saving children), rather than oil. Watch the video, help the campaign by taking part in it (even by just sharing the video).

As with all charities that accept donations, if you want to give Invisible Children money, do your research beforehand to make sure you know who you are dealing with. I already donate to PlanUSA, UNHCR and Women For Women International, all charities that help children and women, so I think I will do my bit here by just reposting the video, and obviously posting it on my blog. Awareness is the most important part of this campaign, as more people talk, more people will listen.

Just so you all know though... Not all charities have enough money to put such a slick campaign together. In the DRC millions of people have been the victims of rape and murder, even today when the war is supposed to be over. In Sudan people are still being murdered for not having the right ethnicity. There is still a war going on in Somalia and a terrible famine. In the Middle East, countries are blowing up from the inside (see Yemen and Syria for example). Hopefully this Kony 2012 campaign will open people's eyes to other terrible actions that are happening in this world. I'm still an idealist.