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KONY12 - Your thoughts?

I would be interested to hear from Emergen members about their thoughts about the KONY 2012 Campaign: -

- Will it make a difference to the Ugandan people?

- Do you agree with the approach?

- Was it successful?

What's your thoughts and questions?

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Permalink Reply by Yee Pei Wong on March 11, 2012 at 8:53pm

Regarding the KONY2012 campaign, I'm a little skeptical. I do think that the video was made with good intentions - raising funds to help the Ugandan people, to stop Kony. I also read/watched some comments people made online to see what people think about it. I do think that the campaign was very successful, as it went viral over Facebook and many other social networking sites. But I'm not entirely sure whether it was helpful because many people said that this video would have been great 6 years ago, but not so much now because is Kony still in Uganda at the moment? And does the money really go to the effort of helping to stop Kony? And do Ugandan people at the moment really need to take the funding now to stop Kony, or use it in other aspects of their lives? The video really left a deep impression about the horrible things Kony did and why is it so important to stop Kony. But should stopping Kony be the first priority when people have been saying Kony isn't much of a threat anymore? :) That's just my little thought! It's very much based on opinions that I've been reading all over. :)

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Permalink Reply by Aziza Davids on March 11, 2012 at 9:33pm

I dont know if this will make a difference in Uganda or not. But what the video has done for sure is educate a lot of people who live in their own bubbles about the trouble that other parts of the world go through every day. Kony may not be in Uganda anymore but if he did it six years ago there he is most probably doing it somewhere else now. As is many other people like him in different parts of the world. And all of us living in west at times forget that we are so fortunate. So if KONY2012 does nothing but remind us and educate us then I think it is a success.

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Permalink Reply by Derk Zomer on March 12, 2012 at 11:11am

I personally believe that this campaign is quite disturbing because of the following reasons:

It is an ingenuine campaign. Fuelled by a hype people that have otherwise no interest in social issues act as if they have the interests of the world at heart. Would the average soul be told about Kony a week before this video launched he or she would not take up action. I am also very skeptical that many of these supporters would be able to locate Uganda on a map when asked.
The campaign does not educate. The video is an emotional rollercoaster with a Hollywood-like cinematic quality to it that leaves the viewer emotionally assaulted. When listening to the video very little information is given behind the reasons the LRA actually exists and its connection to a "democratically elected" president who has been in power for 26 years.
Joseph Kony has not been active in Northern Uganda for at least the last 5 years. The misinformation given in the video is staggering and portrays Uganda as a war-torn country while it has seen relative peace for the last 25 years and has enjoyed economic growth of around 7% for the last 10 years.
Invisible Children has a close relationship with the Ugandan government and suspiciously hides the disturbing truth that the people of Northern Uganda have as much been prosecuted by the Ugandan government as by Joseph Kony.
The video dramatically tries to convince the viewer that the only possible way to end this conflict is through US military intervention. I will not go into speculative rhetoric around the fact that the already assigned military help to Uganda comes with the coincidental availability of oil in the region Joseph Kony has been active. It is however very reminiscent of another US military intervention which started, under false pretences, about a decade ago.

I'm not trying to defend the atrocities of Joseph Kony and deeply believe that he has to pay for the crimes committed by him and his Lords Resistance Army, but these 5 points alone should make any person very wary around a multimillion dollar campaign started to get rid of an African warlord who has not been active for at least 5 years while just a little North countless innocent lives are being lost to an oppressive regime at this very moment.