KONY 2012: Hate It or Love it?

So Jason Russell wants to expose (Joseph) Kony and the Lord's resistance Army for what it really is. There's no problem with that. Citizens in North America deserve to know what's going on in Africa. I would like to be informed of children being forced to become soldiers. I do care that young girls are being forced in prostitution.

I could have read an article about this or heard it on the radio. Facebook told me instead. Facebook invited me to KONY 2012; the same Facebook that wants me to play Bejeweled online and poke Andrew back. The invite just told me to support KONY. Another invite told me to spread the word about how bad Kony is. So I'm thinking, who's Kony and how can he be both bad and good? Ugh, so Facebook made me work and Google this KONY phenomenon. Alright, so he's a bad guy doing bad things.

I think it was a good idea to make a video. However, videos make money. According to YouTube, over 78 million people are more informed about KONY, but Russell and his company, Invisible Children, also just got paid millions of dollars. So that money will go to help the children in Africa, right? But yet Russell has already been shamed of only giving about 30% of the money raised directly to Africa.

Back to awareness. Who is profiting? Sure, we're completely exposing KONY. Only time will tell what that will do. Russell will get a little time in the spotlight too. Celebrities are retweeting and mentioning his cause. With that kind of recognition and getting donations and only giving about 30% percent to Africa, no wonder that video looks so good.

I'm not sure what to think of this yet. I'm all for knowing about what's going on in the rest of the world, but to who's gain? We're gaining more knowledge so that's good, but I wonder if this is all going to be worth it. is Kony actually going to be arrested and tried? It'd be nice if this many followers would guarantee a trial, but it'd be a huge piss off to display this guy's name everywhere while he remains untouched. There must be many facts out there for people to attack Russell.

Maybe the human race is at its peak of cynicism. Maybe we can't take anything for granted anymore. I guess that's a good thing or I'd be out of a future job.