I think some people aren't really getting what it is all about (in my opinion, anyway).
So, a day or two ago, an organisation called The Invisible Children released a video detailing their mission to make an African rebel leader named Joseph Kony more well known, and described plans to use social networking to make the subject a matter of public interest, forcing governments and other people in high places to make meaningful actions against him.
This video has become instantly popular and its viewing figures on youtube are already at 4.5 million and raising fast, after two days: that's Justin Bieber/Rebecca Black territory. Obviously the popularity has caused the internet to go crazy, I give it one or two days before the news picks it up.
As there are many, and they make for a much more interesting debate, I shall start with the negatives of the Invisible Children/Kony 2012 campaign:
The Accounts of the organisation look like a scaled down corrupt oil company. The main complaints are that only 30% of the money raised is going directly to Africa and the groups leader is taking home an $89,000 salary, the majority of money going towards publicity. If the charity's aim was to directly help Africa, then this would of course be absurd, but actually it isn't, the whole aim of the charity is to raise awareness and get the government to intervene, the money is justified. And as for the $89,000, I wonder how much the head of Oxfam earns? Oh wait, its £75,00, which is about $120,000 dollars, who looks corrupt now?
People are just 'jumping on the band wagon' to be popular, because everyone is doing it, and these people are ill-informed, attention seeking hipsters. Again, the anti-kony (well the anti-anti-kony crew, the kony crew is the anti-kony crew) crew have missed the point. Even if the pretentious hipsters are jumping on board the point is to make it a discussion point and make Joseph Kony a well known name. Of course the youth of today were not aware of a corrupt Ugandan rebel leader until they saw a video of him on youtube, thats how things work these days.
Invisible Children is aware that young people are not often able to give any large monetary or time contributions, so they have made it easy to be involved and have exploited the internet in the best was possible, this is why the Kony 2012 initiative is already so popular and will surely grow until the people in power notice. So who cares if the pretentious hipsters want to put pictures of kony on their facebook pages, as long as people are seeing his face and it continues to be a talking point, sparking debate and conversation, then Kony 2012 is working.
If you're not in agreement yet, think about what this has started. When a person is on the run from the police or escapes from prison, his face is normally on tv for a day or two until he is found or until he disappears and then news stops. Imagine if when a person is wanted by police, his face instantly appears on every social network and people everywhere are sparked into looking for him, people are going to be found faster and more efficiently than ever before because of huge sweeping campaigns which appear, do a job then leave.
The Kony 2012 movement has huge repercussions as to the way world events are handled in the future, forcing the government to make changes caused by direct public demand, rather than the choices of one or two politicians People are being heard and words of good are being spread, even if you don't like the person who is spreading the word, stop trying to deny them their right to campaign against evil, even it is in the smallest way.
Kony 2012 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc
watch it, read as much about it as you like and form your own opinions.
