Outlook for KONY 2012 draws mixed opinions

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On March 5, a video hit the web that, to this day, has more than 87 million views on YouTube.com. This video, simply titled Kony 2012, has sparked a nationwide response. The 30-minute video was released by Invisible Children, Inc. to shed light on indicted war criminal and International Criminal Court fugitive Joseph Kony. The goal is to make the movement globally known so that Kony will be found and arrested by December 2012.

The film itself is narrated by Jason Russell, director and founder of Invisible Children. He describes Kony’s rebel army, called the Lord’s Resistance Army. Kony and the LRA are known for terrorizing villages in Uganda and other nearby countries. One of their tactics is to force their way into a family’s home, force the children to kill their parents and the boys are forced to become child soldiers while the girls are forced to become sex slaves. Outstanding response to the “Stop Kony” movement prompted President Obama to authorize the release of 100 U.S. troops to Uganda to assist in the search for Kony.

One way for the audience to take action is by participating in “Cover the Night” on April 20, 2012. Over the course of the night, all major cities in the nation will be covered with posters and stickers of Kony’s face. The object is to get people to recognize Kony’s face.

Jim Moore, a politics and government professor at Pacific University, stated that he doesn’t believe the event on April 20 will significantly change U.S. policy. “The Kony 2012 video has become a media phenomenon, but it has raised as many issues about the competence and motivations of the filmmakers as it has about Kony’s LRA in central Africa. This makes it less likely that it will have a policy impact,” he said.

He has brought Kony 2012 up in his classes numerous times. “I have sent several articles on the issue to the class and they are reading the daily New York Times, in which there has been a lot of coverage, as well as several opinion pieces about the Kony video.”

It’s not only the politics professors on Pacific University’s campus that are interested in this movement. Alex Nanneman, a junior at Pacific studying abroad in Australia for the spring semester, said the video has made an impression on the Australian students at her university: “There were a couple groups started on Facebook for awareness, but I didn’t see any calls for action. For the most part, there was a lot of talk about how horrible it is and somewhat of a culture of resentment sprang up with the Australians in regards to Kony.” Nanneman was in Australian long before the video was released and felt a bit detached from the issue.

“When stories like these get leaked, people form a lot of opinions about it, but unless you’ve had first hand experience with it or spent serious time researching it, you don’t have a lot of educated input to give and I think that holds true for people from all countries except those directly involved.”

A plethora of opinions have been voiced regarding the “Stop Kony” movement. Whether the Kony 2012 video or Invisible Children will make a difference in enlightening the world about Kony’s crimes, one thing is for certain: this man and the LRA must be stopped. If you’d like to learn more about Invisible Children and the “Stop Kony” movement, you can visit Kony2012.com.

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