Kony 2012

~ Laura

Kony2So, like 50 million other people, I watched the Kony video yesterday. My son, Jonah, won't stop talking about it. 

It is an incredibly effective use of film and social media. It has brought a lot of attention to genocide issues – topics that are usually ignored by the privileged world. 

However, there has also been a lot of criticism of the video. One obvious factual problem is that Joseph Kony has not lived in Uganda for six years or so. 

UPDATE: I liked this defense of the video and the snobbery of wonks. Boing Boing has been writing up a storm on this topic. 

Published by Laura

9 thoughts on “Kony 2012”

  1. Eldest donated to the cause, even though I made her read through several of the critiques posted of the campaign. She felt that the cause of publicizing Kony’s work was important enough for her to make that decision with her own money.
    Ironically, right now at school she’s reading Roméo Dallaire’s Ils se battent comme des soldats, ils meurent comme des enfants (They fight like soldiers, they die like children) so it’s all very much coming together.
    The video really hits home with a lot of youngsters though a colleague of mine overheard commuters asking each other if Uganda was an imaginary place. *facepalm*

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  2. There’s a Boromir meme with the text:
    ONE DOES NOT
    SIMPLY
    DESTABILIZE A UGANDAN WARLORD BY LIKING A STATUS

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  3. I’m doing chaperone duty on a school field trip. There is a middle school kid with “Kony 2012” painted on his face.

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  4. My students are putting together a packet of readings on Kony for class discussion and will be debating the issue. I’m pretty excited that they might actually read about current events. 🙂 The timing is great, and it’s a perfect opportunity for students to generalize the critical thinking skills I hope they’re learning and apply them to something exciting happening right now.

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  6. It’s been so long since you’ve been here, I doubt it. They put a bunch of schools on lockdown because of reports of a second shooter.

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