Kony and the other worldwide atrocities...

Yes this is blogpost about Kony. But it's also a blogpost about listening to both sides of the argument, and about not forgetting about all the other atrocities which are happening in the world at the moment.


So for the past couple of days Twitter has been awash with the hashtag #Kony2012. And I was confused. Until about an hour ago when I finally watched the video made by the Invisible Children company.

It's quite long for a YouTube video but it is worth a watch.

I was shocked by what I saw. I already knew about the situation in Uganda but the video really does start tugging at your heart strings. And I may have cried a little. But most of all it made me want to spread the message, so I did via Twitter and Facebook.

And then I started seeing links to objections to the Kony 2012 campaign. Now I should stress here that all the objections were to the campaign and the company behind it, not to the idea of raising awareness. Here are the links:

http://t.co/VH1kYy6R

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vice.com%2Fen_uk%2Fread%2Fshould-i-donate-money-to-kony-2012-or-not%3Futm_source%3Dfacebookpage&h=PAQGRsTftAQF8_dufJLyw8ZwyZeDkO5MP09J6hvojqsJ_CA

Now I don't know enough about the company to pass judgement, and I'm always wary about the evidence you find on the internet. The picture of the founders with the guns could have been taken completely out of context. I don't know. But what I do think is important is that everybody has access to all the information about a situation/campaign so they can come to their own decision. And that is what this is.

Personally I'm not going to donate any money, mainly because I haven't got anything at all to donate. But I do think it's important that we raise awareness of the situation with Kony in the hope that the governments of the world start paying attention to what the people want.

But we can't forget about the other atrocities that are happening all over the world at the moment which could benefit from our voices to raise awareness. Let's not let one very well planned campaign make us forget about the situation in Syria and the destruction of the NHS.

We are living in a world which is constantly moving and changing, and the internet has given us a platform where we can make our voices - the voices of the ordinary people - heard. And we shouldn't abuse that. So yes, let's raise awareness about Kony, let's keep raising money for the drought in the Horn of Africa, let's let David Cameron know exactly what we think about the Healthcare Bill, let's keep recyling to stop global warming. And let's keep those objectives at the forefront of our arguements. It isn't about the companies or the campaigns or the compromising photos. It's about raising awareness and trying to make a difference to the world, for us and for future generations.