Kony 2012 has just about become the biggest international buzz of the week.
Google the word “Kony” and you get 7.5 million results in a matter of
seconds. Which just goes to show the power of social networks to create
awareness. I first heard of Kony 2012 last week from my 15-year-old
daughter whose life revolves around UberTwitter, Facebook, Instagram,
WhatsApp and Line. (She just recently gave up using the BB).
And suddenly, it was everywhere. The creator of this Kony 2012
campaign, Jason Russell, says in his half-hour video that he is trying
to make Joseph Kony, warlord and leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army
(LRA) in Uganda, famous, so people will realise why he is at the top of
the International Criminal Court’s most-wanted list, and why people
should back a campaign to arrest him
.
According to the video, narrated by Russell, Kony has been committing
crimes against humanity simply because “99% of the planet doesn’t know
who he is.
“For 26 years Kony has been kidnapping children into his rebel group,
the LRA, turning the girls into sex slaves, and the boys into child
soldiers…”
The US didn’t feel compelled to get involved because it had nothing to do with US foreign policy or economy.
But through his NGO, Invisible Children, he apparently forced the US
government to take up the mission, and send in troops in an advisory
capacity to help flush out Kony so regional troops could arrest him.
