Kony 2012
2012 was the year that Invisible Children went pro. You remember the viral campaign, right? Kony 2012?
You should, because last year the outfit raised more than $32 million and they’re not too shy about admitting there’s been a bit of a windfall.
At June 30, they had $15.5 million in cash sitting around, up from $6 million the previous year, a slightly embarrassing amount they confirmed they didn’t know what to do with.
Continue reading "They didn’t get Kony, but they did get your money…" »
When Kony 2012 was the topic of the week in March, one of The Punch Team said something cynical about the campaign at a party. Yeah, nice sentiment. Unlikely to spur an arrest in the African wilderness in the next week, though.
Silence descended across the conversation. “Oh yeah. Well… I bought the action pack.” (Jerk.)
That Puncher wasn’t alone in their cyncism. Plenty of commentators carped that the campaign to bring African warlord Joseph Kony to justice within the year wouldn’t achieve results. But if there was one thing that drew out the critics of the campaign (other than the campaign’s chief running around San Francisco naked) - it was the ginormous merchandise-a-thon that accompanied it.
Continue reading "Cynicism killed Kony. The campaign, that is" »
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oscifecemig says:
Can I just say what a relief to uncover an individual who essentially knows what theyre talking about online. You surely know the best way to bring an problem to light and make it valuable. Extra consumers must read this and recognize this side of the story. I cant believe… Read more »
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Bananabender56 says:
History would tell us that even if you removed Kony there would be another African warlord who we could chase - Africa is full of them. Mugabe managed to kill thousands and turn a once prosperous nation into a basket case - I don’t see anyone protesting about him in… Read more »
We should all be ashamed of ourselves. You may not have to like Jason Russell, and you may be sceptical about his Kony 2012 campaign. You may be concerned that the foundation misuses its finances, and Russell’s religious preferences may not be your own.
But I am deeply disturbed by the schadenfreude surrounding Russell’s nervous breakdown and the way it was reported.
Firstly, let’s make one thing clear. Russell wasn’t masturbating, and he wasn’t arrested. There was no evidence that he was intoxicated either. There has been no evidence to corroborate the claims.
Continue reading "It’s our fault that Kony guy went starkers raving mad" »
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Vincent P says:
Someone commented that he took it personally. I think that’s correct. However, I’m curious why the Invisible Children org, did not realize that some of it’s approaches would be criticized, and to allow thT to take away from it’s focus. Also, I made a mistake: I said that this article… Read more »
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Vincent P says:
I am working on a social justice issue as well, and I completely understand the emotional strain of these endeavors, and how that could lead to mental breakdowns. However, some people may have a higher threshold than some. I see no bogus premises, but isn’t the point of this article… Read more »
When Grace Arach was 12 she was kidnapped, raped, tortured, and forced to become the wife of one of Joseph Kony’s commanders. She escaped when she was 17. Since then she’s been working to help other child soldiers. Now she’s 25 and has been living in Australia for almost a year. Her family is still in Uganda.
I was in a vehicle with five others, including a Catholic priest, when we were ambushed by the Lord’s Resistance Army. They stopped the vehicle and got us out. There were five men and me. I was a little girl, 12 years old. It was 1996.
We went to a centre where the soldiers looted food and some drinks, then the priest asked the commander that was leading the group that arrested us, he asked: “What about the little girl?”. He said: “I want to take her back to her mother”.
The answer he got was: “Have you ever seen blood flowing?”, meaning if the priest insisted they would kill me.
Continue reading "At 12, I was forced to marry into Kony’s army" »
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“Have you heard about Kony?” is a question that I was astounded to have addressed to me by a 14-year-old urbanite girl in a café in New York City.
“Joseph Kony?” I asked, incredulous.
“The man who forces children to kill each other and uses girls as sex slaves,” she clarified in a remarkably matter-of-fact way. I was astounded.
I do know Kony. At least, I know of Kony. There are very few people who can truly claim to know him. Even the child soldiers who grew to men in his army, or the captive young girls who came traumatically to womanhood bearing his children have been brainwashed by the self-created mythology of the man. When I spoke to those who knew him intimately most still believed that Kony possessed magical powers.>
Continue reading "I’ve hunted Joseph Kony. Catching him won’t be easy." »
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Joan Bennett says:
And don’t forget to buy the merchandise! 30% of it might go somewhere good. The other 70% will be lost in “administration”... Read more »
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Ooh shiny says:
One thing that is bothering me - Why choose 20th April as their “Cover the Night” campaign date? Even if we assume that the organisers weren’t aware of the, ahem, older relevance of that date, there is still very recent event of Columbine massacre - 20th April 1999. You know,… Read more »
So, we all know about Kony 2012, right?
It’s rather extraordinary to think that you’re probably reading this just five days after the Invisible Children campaign exploded over the internet, and yet you’re probably already thinking “I’m so over it!” A week really is an age in internet time.
And yet, I still don’t quite know what to make of it all. On the one hand, the motives of the campaign are very simple: stop an evil bastard. And, of course, it’s hard to argue against that in any way.
Continue reading "A campaign that gives us reason to be optimistic" »
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Joan Bennett says:
Where is the money going when folks donate or buy the merchandise? How much is going into “administration”? And what is actually being done with the rest of it? Until this has been determined, only a very foolish person would part with their hard earned for this “cause”. Read more »
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RyaN says:
@Barry: And if I believe that you have one iota of personal experience in Africa in general then I will have to believe that Nigerian guy who wants to get his aunties money out. I am African born and raised, and I can tell that you haven’t a clue what… Read more »
The massive YouTube viewing of Invisible Children’s film “Kony 2012” is nothing short of phenomenal. People are engaged, outraged and quite rightly calling on the International community to do something - in this case, arrest, charge and try Kony in the Hague. People have found their voice against one of the world’s cruelest, most evil men and his regime of hate and terror.
The call for justice is both reasoned and reasonable. I go to Uganda almost every year and see firsthand the impact of Kony’s violence and terror. He should be brought to justice and it should be now.
People quite rightly are asking what Africa is doing about it. Uganda’s inaction against Kony should be seen through the lens of lack of capability not will, though the inaction of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a lack of will not capability. Kony has a following and a degree of Government protection within the DRC and the country’s civil war with estimates of some 6 million killed simply makes Kony another part of the nation’s woes. It is a tragic part of the world where human life is often cheap. However, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Continue reading "Kony 2012: Just DO something. Anything." »
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Venise Alstergren says:
Am I the only person to have picked up on the appalling paternalism and condescendingness of whitey rushing to help those “‘poor ignorant black people?” This condescension is exactly what happens when American Missionaries rush of to the remote jungles in places like Ecuador, Brasil, and Bolivia to help recently… Read more »
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Ben C says:
@ Michael and Raising Awareness To clarify, I don’t give two hoots about this campaign. I just happen to know people that do. I couldn’t be stuffed going out and sticking up a poster about some guy that I can pretty much safely say won’t be caught this year, so… Read more »
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