About
Kony 2012 is an operation to get Joesph Kony [1], Ugandan guerrilla group leader and head of the Lord’s Resistance Army [2], arrested before the end of 2012. The operation involves the viral spread of information about Kony and his war and humanity crimes to result in enough support from the American Government for ambassadors to visit Uganda to assist the Ugandan military in the capture and arrest of Kony.
History
During the 19th century when Great Britain colonized Uganda, the north of Uganda (known as the Acholi People [3]were treated as slaves and had oppressed with the south of Uganda treated fairly and with their fertile lands receiving good agricultural development. The woes of the Ugandan people were directed at the Ugandan Government.
In 1988, an Acholi sprit-medium named Alice Auma [6] started the Holy Spirit Movement [4], a rebel group which claimed to be under the inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, that acted as a political wing for Auma to rebel against the government. Following Kony’s dropout from high school, he started his own rebel group, one of many after the wake of the Holy Spirit Movement.
A general positive reaction to the Holy Spirit Movement, eventually would see Kony preach a similar message to win support from the Acholi people even resorting to claim they were related and claiming to be religious as she was. However Auma distanced herself from Kony as she did not condone the killing of civilians or prisoners of war. Following Auma’s military defeats Kony would use the belief that he was following in Auma’s footsteps to recruit former soldiers of the Holy Spirit movement to the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Kony is currently the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, another resistance group that preaches a hybrid of Christianity and Acholi beliefs but over its 25 year existence has become increasingly off-track regarding political goals with many believing Kony continues the charade of a war against the Government to stay in power. The group is reported as attacking, killing and enslaving unarmed Acholis of its own tribe (including many women and children). It is also reported in kidnapping children, turning the females into sex slaves and the males into child soldiers and forcing them to mutilate human bodies and in some cases, murder their own parents.
Approximately 66,000 children have been abducted by Kony’s involvement with his various rebellion groups (mostly with the Lord’s Resistance Army) and he has caused over 2 million people in Uganda to move in efforts to avoid kidnapping.
Kony was indicted by the International Criminal Court for his war crimes but has avoided capture since.
Invisible Children
In the spring of 2003, three filmmakers; Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole traveled to Africa to document the genocide that was occurring in Darfur. Instead, they learned about the war against the government and the actions and effects of the rebel group.
They formed the non-profit organization Invisible Children Inc. [5] in 2004 whose main aim is to bring attention to Kony and Lord’s Resistance Army. They have additionally helped with education in Africa and the building of an alert system for resistance groups.
YouTube Video
On the 5th of March, 2012, Invisible Children Inc uploaded a 30 minute video to YouTube named Kony 2012 detailing their cause, Kony’s history, the Kony 2012 operation and how viewers could support their cause by spreading the video, information or donations. The video is directed narrated by Jason Russell and features clips of his time spent in Africa.
The video gathered over half a million views within 2 days and over 300,000 likes and 100,000 favorites.
Jason also explains a plan to target 20 culture makers (including celebrities, athletes and billionaires) who have a massive impact of today’s culture and 12 political figures that have the ability to support the plan. They intend to have them speak out against Kony and make him known to the population who are uninformed about him.
Near the ending of the video, they explain the climax of their plain named “Cover the Night” that will take place on April 20th. It will involve spreading various Kony 2012 media in major cities from sundown to sunrise of that night to help spread further awareness.
Spread
Following the release of the video came major spread for Kony 2012. Several Obama “Hope” Parody posters were made with an advertising poster for the YouTube video making it to the front page of /r/pics with over 1000 upvotes [8]and the video getting to the front page of /r/atheism also with over 1000 upvotes [9] as of the 7th of March, 2011.
LION-PARKSON SCHOLARSHIP
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