Ok I watched the 30min video, and learned about the LRA and Kony and it was very moving. I almost felt like reaching into my back pocket and buying a bracelet or whatever, but thought I would wait a bit to learn more about it.

Facebook exploded with people sharing the video and making comments. NO DOUBT that Kony is an evil, evil person that should be caught and punished. But it seems as though there is alot of other information that perhaps the Kony2012 campaign either doesn't know about or is hiding for their cause.

some things to read:

Invisible Children's Kony campaign goes viral just as Lord's Resistance Army is dying - The Globe and Mail (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/invisible-childrens-kony-campaign-goes-viral-just-as-lords-resistance-army-is-dying/article2363751/)

the visible problem with invisible children « i’m a fan of postcards (http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/the-visible-problem-with-invisible-children/)

Joseph Kony 2012: growing outrage in Uganda over film - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/uganda/9131469/Joseph-Kony-2012-growing-outrage-in-Uganda-over-film.html)

What shocks me is how personally people are taking this. I posted similar links on FB and Twitter and people jumped down my throat. Apparently critical thinking and source investigation and healthy skepticism are no longer welcome.

Thanks for posting these dstanic. The whole Kony bandwagon just exploded out of nowhere on my son's Facebook page last week and its nice to get the facts. I watched the video too and much of it was very moving but I kinda got a "yeah look at me vibe" from its author. What was with him sitting his 3 year old down showing him pictures of the guy and telling him he steals and kills children? That was just totally inappropriate and unnecessary.
I kinda got the feeling the guy was as interested in glorifying himself as he was about helping the children. Maybe my reading was off on him but making it about his kid and much about his efforts makes me wonder. I have friends that are missionaries in Africa and Kony isn't the only monster about nor is Uganda the only country with this kind of barbaric activity.
Sadly we live in a world full of Kony types and injustices, right in our own backyards. Its nice to see people shaken from their entertainment fixation to get a glimpse of what is going on around them in the real world. Though sadly, as your articles attest, they may be responding to a crisis that has come and gone in Uganda. My hope with the video is that maybe people start to become engaged in the real world, outside of what is spoon fed to them on their Facebook wall.

Kony 2012 is a half-hour infomercial, no different in purpose than the ones with the starving children or the abused pets with Sara MacLaughlin singing in the background. It is designed to appeal to your emotions, and it had a little of the Michael Moore inject-yourself-into-the-story-as-narrator thrown in. It is a slick production and certainly does what it intends to do—arouse the youth of the world to react. However, the foundation behind the efforts may also have questionable finances and the fact that people are being manipulated to feel a certain way in a pseudo-documentary fashion raises red flags for me. It may very well be an honourable thing, but I need to know more.

I think the whole concept will also be largely forgotten in short order, like many viral videos, much like Rebecca Black or the earthquake in Japan less than a year ago.

I think the most telling thing is that Ugandans themselves see this video as a bad thing:

...“What that video says is totally wrong, and it can cause us more problems than help us,” said Dr Beatrice Mpora, director of Kairos, a community health organisation in Gulu, a town that was once the centre of the rebels’ activities.

“There has not been a single soul from the LRA here since 2006. Now we have peace, people are back in their homes, they are planting their fields, they are starting their businesses. That is what people should help us with.”...

...“Suggesting that the answer is more military action is just wrong,” said Javie Ssozi, an influential Ugandan blogger.

“Have they thought of the consequences? Making Kony ‘famous’ could make him stronger. Arguing for more US troops could make him scared, and make him abduct more children, or go on the offensive.”

Rosebell Kagumire, a Ugandan journalist specializing in peace and conflict reporting, said: “This paints a picture of Uganda six or seven years ago, that is totally not how it is today. It’s highly irresponsible”.

There were criticisms that the film quoted only three Ugandans, two of them politicians, and that it spent more time showing the filmmaker's five-year-old son being told about Joseph Kony than explaining the root causes of the conflict...

My teenage grandkids have been quite vocal among their peers about the falsehoods imbedded in the hype. So I sat them down at the mall yesterday and asked them to put their money where their mouth is. They go to different schools. One school has a culture of fundraising (they adopted 300 families at Christmas. 300!) and have another $12K to donate to charity. Public school, middle class students.

My granddaughter on the other hand attends a Catholic school where fund raising is not a priority but they have adopted 5 Haiti children.

I was pretty chocked up as I listened to them brainstorm ideas for a raffle to raise money for the Haiti children.

I hope I'm not alone in realizing that kids DO have a social conscience and want to help. The invisible children group knows how to get their attention. Too bad it's not the best group for the job. I can hardly wait to see the results of my granddaughter's fundraising.

World News: Kony 2012: Man behind Stop Kony movement suffers from psychosis, wife says - thestar.com (http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1149699--kony-2012-man-behind-stop-kony-movement-suffers-from-psychosis-wife-says?bn=1)