Kony 2012 Stop At Nothing
Celebrities like Justin Bieber, Emma Stone, Lady Gaga and Diddy have joined the viral campaign group “Invisible Children” to publicize Joseph Kony, a wanted war criminal.
If the name of Joseph Kony tells you nothing, you say that this is a matter of time, since several events are set in motion to put the spotlight this war criminal, but especially for him to finally grapple above.
In summary, Joseph Kony, the rebel leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) which is active between Uganda and Sudan, is being sought around the world. An arrest warrant against him raged since 2005, but one that gathers crimes against humanity (rape, abduction of children as soldiers, looting, sexual slavery, murder, etc..) Is still at large. This story is true; unfortunately it’s not a movie script.
It’s true that the campaign has begun in 2005, but the true beginning and pre-publicized phase has begun in 2003 in Uganda. The man who started all of this is called Jason Russell who travelled to Uganda in 2003 to make a documentary about the suffering happening there. People were suffering from hunger and danger all together. They can’t sleep at night because of the fear of getting abducted and are on a constant run. Who are they running from? And who wants to abduct them and why? It’s Joseph Kony. As I mentioned earlier, he is a rebel leader who kidnaps children; he gives the boys guns, makes them join his children army, makes them kill THEIR OWN parents and torture other people. As of the girls, they get raped and engaged into prostitution and sex slavery. As of now, 30.000 child have been abducted.
What made Jason take action is his meeting with a Ugandan boy called Jacob. They met him when he was running away from Kony’s army which he was forced to join. They took him with them and asked him to tell them his story. He said that he was abducted by the rebels along with his brother. His brother tried to escape but he was killed in his attempt in front of Jacob eyes, his neck was chopped. Jacob was so desperate that he told them that he wishes to be rather dead than live in this world and that he wants to meet his brother in heaven, he then started crying. The expedition crew were so touched and moved by Jacob’s story and it was then when Jason made the promise: “we are going to do all that we can to stop them”.
Jason fought for over 9 years to raise awareness among people about the events going on in Uganda. The idea he tries to deliver is that this is not Jacobs or any Ugandan’s citizen problem only, this concerns our entire humanity, just imagine that your own children were abducted and forced into slavery. How would you feel?
Many people have joined the cause over the past years and have helped with their time, efforts and money. The money was used to build schools and open jobs for thousands of people in Uganda and give them a new hope in life. The efforts grew more serious and reached the white house. They have talked with senators, governors and everyone they could reach within the US government. The campaign supporters have constantly phoned and sent letters to their states representative requesting the arrest of Kony. After thousands and thousands of letters and phone calls, Barack Obama responded. He agreed to send 100 US troopers to help train and support the Ugandan army to prepare them to capture and face Kony. This was a huge leap since the initial response of the White House when they were first contacted was that the American government won’t get involved in a matter that doesn’t concern its direct security or welfare.
But as we all know, people tend to forget, and that’s why you need to remind ad urge them to action constantly.
And forgetting in this case means that those troopers are going to be sent home and the case abandoned. We can’t afford that, not after all what we’ve done! So a campaign group “Invisible Children” was launched. A video explaining the horrible situation has been online since the 5th of March and has been consulted more than 40 million times on Youtube alone (as of now).
To help publicize Joseph Kony, many celebrities are taking advantage of the accessibility of social media tools to make Joseph Kony, a viral phenomenon.
Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Emma Stone, Lauren Conrad, Ashley Tisdale, Chloe Moretz Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Angelina Jolie, Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Jay-Z, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Ryan Seacrest, Ellen DeGeneres and several other celebrities, from different backgrounds, have followed suit in recent hours.
For example, Diddy wrote on Twitter: “Dear Joseph Kony, I will help make you famous. We will stop YOU #StopKONY. All my six million subscribers “re-tweet” this message please. ”
Results appeared quickly and efficiently, because the name of Joseph Kony, identified as #STOPKONY #KONY2012 is now among the top of (“hashtags”) hot topics around the world.
Here is the controversial “KONY 2012” video, please watch it, it is worth every second.
Watch this video on YouTube.
Want to take action? Visit the official website of “Invisible Children” or their Facebook page or Twitter.
