Interesting few days in the world of social media. Just a couple of days ago non-profit organization, Invisible Children, posted the following video on YouTube and it took off like wildfire.
When I first saw the video through a Twitter post on Tuesday evening, it only had a few hundred thousand views, by Wednesday morning the video had been viewed over 4 000 000 times, and when I last checked, it had over 36 000 000 views world wide.
Myself included, people who viewed the video were quick to jump on the bandwagon to promote the cause of Invisible Children. The organization's goal is to raise awareness of the crisis in Central Africa where Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) are terrorizing villages, abducting children, and murdering anyone who resists. How could you not support an organization that is trying to bring justice to such horrible criminals?
But only hours after the video was released, critics of the non-profit organization began to step up and speak out against supporting the group. People are questioning Invisible Children's financial records, and the tactics that they have chosen to put a stop to Kony and his followers. No article that I have read to this point has suggested that the Invisible Children organization does not have good intentions, however, they do raise some interesting questions.
What no one can deny is the power of social media and how it is being displayed with this video. With access to platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, young people on our planet have a louder voice than ever before. 48 hours ago my students had no idea who Joseph Kony was, and many of them had no idea where Uganda is either, now he is a household name and kids want to make a change. This could be a major shift in the way the world holds it's citizens accountable, and Kony may only be the beginning.
Of course, only time will tell if this will stick. In today's fast moving world, where the latest and greatest reign then quickly fade, will the people of the world have a long enough attention span to effect a real change in Africa? Personally, I hope they do. I think this could be a real change for the human race. We are no longer just citizens of a city or a country, but we are now global citizens and it's time that we start acting like it.
To my students... what will you do about these terrible crimes against humanity? Anything?... Nothing? What can we do as a school to make a difference? Should we act on this initiative? Read the articles linked below, become informed, then comment.
To learn more about KONY 2012, check out some of the following links:
- KONY 2012 Invisible Children Web Site
- CBC's George Stroumboulopoulos' Blog on KONY 2012
- KONY 2012 Movement's Response to Critics
- Visible Children - KONY 2012, Viewed Critically by Grant Oyston
- Let's Talk About KONY by Daniel Solomon, Georgetown student and National Director of STAND
- The Problem With Invisible Children's "Kony 2012" by Michael Deibert, author of Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair
- Kony 2012 and the politics of sending a brutal villain viral by Nicky Woolf, reporter for the Guardian
Here is a link to Invisible Children's response to the criticism that it has received over the past 48 hours:
ReplyDeletehttp://s3.amazonaws.com/www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html
I think that as a school we should donate money to the program so that they get extra help and then we should put posters up so that other people know about it and they can help too
DeleteWhat kind of fundraiser would be appropriate for this?
DeleteI think that either as a class or as the entire school we should help to raise awareness either by writing to our mayor, members of parliament or Stephen Harper. we could also fund raise because it is a good cause.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. Here's Harper's info: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/contact.asp
DeleteI think that we could raise money by advertising in our community and other near cities and town. we can donate money at churches and at our schools
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of donating to churches or other charities that you may feel more comfortable donating to, if you are not comfortable with the Invisible Children charity. I guarantee that there are other charities working in Central Africa that will provide assistance to Kony's victims.
Deleteraising money is good for this cause so they can save the army of kids
ReplyDeleteNot just to save those kids, but to support them in their rehabilitation after their rescue. These kids have seen and done unspeakable things, they will need a lot of support.
DeleteI believe that us as a community in our school should raise awareness to everybody by showing them that they need to help make a difference and to not let peoplen that are just like us get tortured. I know that they would not want to be treated as they are in Africa.
ReplyDeleteThey are just like us. We don't choose where we are born, is it fair that they are subjected to his just becasue they were born in Uganda, or the Congo, etc...?
DeleteWe should do all we can to help the fight against kony by either donating money or just sending help over there
ReplyDeleteHelp is just just as important as money. Maybe we could create care packages for the schools in Communities that were affected by Kony's LRA.
DeleteAs a school and a communtity we can contribute to this fight against Kony by making more awareness to the subject. One of the slogans is to "make him famous" so we should do what we can to make him known to as many people as we can. We can make sure we reach out to anyone who is unaware to the suject and inform them of everything that is going on so that in turn they will pass it on to someone else.
ReplyDeleteMake people aware, but also ensure that they do not forget.
DeleteMake it more popular so that people who have the power to stop him do it and don't stop until they do.
ReplyDeleteHere is the contact information for John Baird, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs:
Deletehttp://www.johnbaird.com/about_john.asp
As a school I think we should let students know and encourage them to participate in the "cover the night" on April 20th.This would greatly increase the familiarity of Mr kony and his actions and help put a stop to it!
ReplyDeletePersonally, i don't know how I feel about postering the neighbourhood, seems like a lot of waste. I'm curious if a campaign like this is even relevant with the popularity of the Kony 2012 YouTube video?
DeleteMaking Kony "famous" is our main goal , so to do that everyone should just tell as many people as they can ,even though there's a high amount of people who already know about this, there's always a chance that some people don't . Also Doing what they said in the video , advertising, can also help big time, because even if you live in a small town like Red Deer and the population isn't that big , it can make a huge difference. Also donating to the people in Uganda to help rebuild what has been destroyed wouldn't hurt anybody, it will show that we do care.
ReplyDeleteThe campaign by Invisible Children to make Joseph Kony famous for his war crimes is an ingenious and powerful idea that, if it takes hold, I believe will cause a huge shift in how our policy makers are held responisible for their actions and inactions. Should Kony be apprehended and charged, an international precedent will be set for the quality of life and demand for equality of citizens across the globe. After becoming aware of this tragedy, I believe it is in our school's best interest, and obligation, to participate in "Cover the Night" on April 20th, as well as possibly putting on a schoolwide fundraiser to collect money for the wellfare of at-risk children in Africa.
ReplyDeleteas a community and class, we should raise awarness by trying to make him famous, by putting up posters around our school and community. i think invisible children are a little bit unclear on exactly what they are doing with the money raised. what are they doing with all of it? what are they doing with money raised from ads? is the creator of the video getting any profits? these are some things we need to fing out before jumping into this idea. as a global community, i think we are entitled to know these awnsers, and we should beware about how much we dontate, and try to ask where it is ALL going, not just a portion of it
ReplyDeleteI feel that if we all take a part in this organization then we could achieve alot. We all need to do the steps suggested in the video and get the package suggested. We can then rebuild the society in africa, this also can go towards other places like haiti. Me myself I will be participating in this event and try to make a difference in the world.In our school we could make a huge improvement with crime in the world by sending an email or paper to all the student to help solve this horiffic crime that Koney makes.
ReplyDeleteAs a student or even as the whole school I think that we should raise awarness for this. I also think that we should only go as far as the internet to get it out there. I have very little trust in the charity because of its financial bacground. Also trying to "cover the city" in stikers will bnot do anything, all this will achive is for the city to have to clean and scrap it all off, it is littering.
ReplyDeleteI think we should use our publicity power to inform everyone about what was happening because 99% of the population didnt know that these innocent kids were being kidnapped and being mistreated. Making everyone informed may not make a difference but imagine for someone who didnt know and decided to take action after being notified, that made a difference. As people that know about Kony we need to take action and support the invisible children group. The LRA needs to be stopped and it is up to us and everyone who knows of them to stop them.
ReplyDeleteAs a school I think we should participate in cover the night, and we should do the best we can to make sure this topic doesn't fade away from society. Kony is someone who should defiently be stopped and put to justice.
ReplyDeleteI think as a school we should really do our best to raise awareness on this topic, it needs to be solved. Kids are being tortured and worse, we need to stop it, and make Kony famous. This has gotten so out of hand and its sad how lots of people don't even know about it, he's like the number one criminal in the world! They don't know what he's doing, kidnapping, using people in completely wrong ways. We need to warn our society about it, and tell everyone we can. The more people that know of it the better. Support invisible children and do the best we can to get it out across the world. Together we should be able to stop him!
ReplyDeleteI think that our school should do the poster thingy and put hings into action to make a difference before this all just blows over.
ReplyDeletegood comment... :3
DeleteWell, in researching this and looking at other web sites, I am frankly confused as to whether or not the Kony 2012 video is real or fake. It appears that this video was created in 2008 and that G. Bush sent troops into Uganda at that time, causing Kony to flee. Reports state that he hasn't been heard from since and that people do not know whether he is alive or dead. I've read that the organization, Invisible Children put out this video in 2008 and that only 30% of the donated money has even made it to Uganda. As well, it seems that they are not willing to tell anyone how any of this money is actually being used to help the situation in Uganda. It seems suspicious that they won't give more information, and makes me wonder how true any of this is. Of course there are problems in many countries, and they could all use our help, the Congo is in a terrible state right now, as is Bosnia and other countries. Maybe we should help by taking care of the people in our own community who we know to be suffering from mental illness, cold, or needing to receive food from the Food Bank. These people need our help, and they are right here is Red Deer, our community, people we absolutely know to be suffering. First let's find out where Kony is, and then, if any of the donated money is even being used to help the people in Uganda. I want evidence, not a video from 2008.
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DeleteI think that while the organization may not be the best, the cause is. it is obvious that Kony is a bad person, and while us in canada have people with mental illness, they have people being kidnapped and sent to kill their own families. right now canada is not a priority
DeleteThe attention that this video has received is incredible. It has raised in views at an outstanding rate and it is a great cause. The acts that Kony has committed are horrible and they need to be stopped. What i think our school can do is raise awareness to all of our students. A fundraiser could also be setup to help donate to the cause. THe issue involving Joseph Kony needs to be resolved before the public loses interest.
ReplyDeleteIM glad that this video got huge attention!! IF it did not many people could go threw life never knowing who Kony is. At our school we can help and make people aware of who kony is and what he has done, also we can help the cause by giving money to support it. we should be smart as to were we put our money because some people are out there just to make money.One of the problems that could happen is that now peole know they might loss intrest and not want to take action at all. There are many things going around about kony and we should try to get the facts straight before taking huge steps in trying to fix this problem. All in all i think we should take action and not just wait for somthing to happen beacuse it may never stop.
ReplyDeleteI think that our school should participate in cover the night to make sure everyone knows what this is all about .
ReplyDeletei think that as a school we should put up posters around the community so that others will become aware of what is happening and will hopefully help try and stop it.
ReplyDeleteI think people should have took awareness to this years ago. The fact that it was ignored makes me mad but i do understand why the government has refussed to help. Know that people are noticeing i do hope the government will do all they can to stop Kony.
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ReplyDeletei think on april 20th the invisible children (us) should make it known to the whole community. more awareness should be created because of the fact that people arew being destroyed by this man. POTI!
ReplyDeleteI think that we could raise more awarness around the world, the video has alredy done a great job, but if we spread the word then more people will try to get ivolved, which in the long run could result in kony's army of children being let go free. We could raise poster's in the school making them want to make a donation to save the poor children and everyone else involved in this terrible crime of nature.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, kony has been around for years doing what he has, and I believe that it is horrible for us not see what is happeneing until now. It's almost like we have been dismissed of it like it wasn't important, that does bring me to feel disappointed and slightly enraged to see such things not being displayed to the public, if something like this hasn't beeen known to the public for years now leads me to question what else is happening to humanity around the world without our knowing. However by now, to raise "awareness" was one this that the social media has managed to do already. Seeing at this point, I find that raising awareness should not be our main focus seeing as people already have some idea of who Kony is, however this "awareness" only reaches so far because aside from the few words of "Kony is a bad man who is murderer, kidnapping, and harasser" people don't really know or understand what's going on. So rather than posters around the school to spread "awareness" we should more so give out pamphlets that hold information about Kony's recent activities, what he has done, why he is doing it and other information upon the matter.
ReplyDeleteI think we should raise money for it by selling stuff like the posters. Then post a video about our school supporting it. Also make sure we are there april 20th. (:
ReplyDeleteI feel that it's wierd that we haven't known about it until now and he's been around for a long time. You would think that by now it would have been known about, i find it suspicous that it hasn't. I think we should educate ourselves more about it before we donate our money and our attention to something so important.
ReplyDeletei think that we should spread awareness. make sure that we put a stop to it and make him famous. get people to know his name. so he can not do this to anymore people. we know that if it was happining in anyother part of the world, that this would have stopped long ago... nobody would get away with it. the video has done a great job of getting people to know what is going around the world. alot of people knows about this problem but never stop spreading the word about kony.
ReplyDelete