I first heard about the KONY 2012 campaign on Facebook when I logged into my Facebook page one day and all i saw was red. Large KONY 2012 posters plastered all over my wall. I didn't understand what was going on so i decided to do what 99% of our generation does with any issue they can not decipher. I decided to GOOGLE it. When i googled this trending topic, i came across a large amount of blog posts, YouTube videos and articles. I am more of a visual person so i turned to YouTube and typed in KONY 2012. I came across a large number of user posted responses. But responses to what? A-HA! The culprit. A 29-minute documentary created by "The Invisible Children Inc." An organization that claims to have been working on a ten year-old mission to rid Uganda of the LRA, a rebel group led by Joseph Kony. The LRA is rumored to abduct children from their homes in the middle of the night and force these children to become child soldiers. Often completing a series of demoralizing tasks such as killing their parents and raping young girls. If you are asking yourself who in the world Joseph Kony is...you are not alone.To be honest, i didn't even know who Joseph Kony was until i saw the documentary. And quite frankly, as an African, i am ashamed. I feel like I should know more about my continent and what goes on on it. But in all honestly almost 80% of all Africans are in one way or another clueless to what is going on in the world around us. Even being a Ghanaian born that is raised in the United States, i feel as though i should still know what is going on back home because in all honestly that statement "It is not my home" or "I am not from there" just wont suffice anymore. Like an rotten orange placed amongst ripe oranges, they all soon begin to rot and that is the thing that we really have to realize as individuals.
But anyway back to Kony 2012 and my opinions on it. To sum it up in one word, it was bittersweet for me. When i first saw the video i felt so sad. How could another human do this to his own people. That was all i could think about. I wanted to join in the effort and help out with the campaign. Then i watched the video again and something just didn't seem right. These people were talking about buying bracelets and arm bands and how we needed to raise money so that the U.S. could gain the technology to find Kony in the forests of Uganda and i thought urrrrgghhhhhh!!!!! PAUSE! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT THE U.S. WHO HAS ONE OF THE BEST CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES IN THE WORLD, the same country that was able to capture Osama Bin Laden in a cave didn't have the resources to find one man in a jungle?!?!?! THAT IS THE BIGGEST BUNCH OF BULLCRAP I HAvE EVER HEARD. How are people going to fight a war on evil with money. I did my research and yes Joseph Kony is a bad person who did many horrible things...but using bracelets to raise money to find him is total BS. The U.S. clearly stated in the video that they would not participate in any missions that did not threaten the security or financial well-being of their country.
The fact that the "Invisible Children Inc." corporation is trying to rid the world of evil is commendable but to use money to do it is absolute nonsense. I would really love for Joseph Kony to be found and persecuted but to me it seems like in reality there is actually more to this story that what we are hearing. Makes me wonder....have the U.S. found some oil somewhere in UGANDA???
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