My thoughts on KONY 2012
Admittedly, I bought into it instantly after watching the video. The humanitarian in me won out against the pessimist beside it. Doing a little bit more digging caused my head to asplode so here is where I stand.
- It is good that Invisible Children is spreading awareness of what Joseph Kony is doing. After all, you can’t solve what you don’t know. By spreading awareness, the information of the issue may reach the ears of someone who can do something and then garner support to get something done.
On the other hand, awareness is not the way to fix this problem. This problem requires action and aid for that action. Invisible Children is criticized for not doing enough with direct action which I think is fine as their main goal is to raise awareness and get people in the know. Direct action is still necessary to fix this though and needs to be started as soon as possible
- Agreed, the fact that Invisible Children gave 32% of their profit to direct services seems underwhelming when the rest is put into their salaries, travel expenses and more.
Again in their defense, they focus on raising awareness and they raise it by making movies that cost a lot, especially when it involves overseas travel. I’d like to see more money be put into direct action but I will be okay with seeing that something is going in at all.
- I don’t agree with killing Kony. Let me rephrase that, I’m unsure about how killing Kony will affect the situation. I am not an advocate of direct violence and killing but ask me for an alternate solution and I will not be able to answer. I’m just a high school kid who plays too many video games.
This is really the most controversial part of the whole issue. What exactly are we supposed to do? Say the spreading of awareness works, now what? Do we go in and kill him? What do we do about the children? Can we even afford to help them? It’s a giant mess that I’ll leave to people who know what to do.
Lastly, here are some links to get you started.
Invisible Children responds to criticism about “Stop Kony” campaign
I’m pretty sure I had more thoughts on this but for now that’s what I’ll leave. I’m hoping to get some discussion out of this since again, I’m only a high school kid that knows nothing. But for my tldr, here it is.
TL DR: Be careful of what you read. Look at all the facts, look at all the details, and do not blindly fall for anything. Research all sides of Invisible Children and Stop Kony 2012 before you decide, knowledge is power.
