At this point, I'm guessing most people reading this, have at least heard of the Kony 2012 campaign. For those unfamiliar, Kony 2012 is a YouTube viral video crusade run by a child activist group called "Invisible Children". The documentary appears to be taken aimed at making Ugandan war criminal & LRA (The Lord's Resistance Army) leader, Joseph Kony, "famous", so that the world governments can put pressure on local authorities to bring him to justice for crimes against humanity. The internet video become incredibly viral, spreading all over Facebook, Twitter, and others social media sites, within weeks after it came out. A lot of people, indeed saw it, but the reasons of the film being made, had little impact on the issues, besides making the viewers, feel satisfied that they have contributed by watching it. One of the bigger problems of the film is how the movie asked viewers to send money to the filmmakers rather than the local African law enforcement. Four months after the movie was released, Invisible Children, the charity who created the film, reported $31.9 million of gross receipts, but in the end, little of that money was donated, to the cause. Instead, it was later use to fund yet, another movie, 'Kony 2012: Part II – Beyond Famous' & staff salaries. It doesn't help that some of the money, was used to free, director Jason Russell from jail, for public indecency in San Diego. In the end, nearly nothing was done to stop Joseph Kony by the Invisible Children campaign. Another focus for criticism of the organization has been a photograph of the three founders holding weapons and posing with armed members of the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army). While, they might now, denied their support for the SPLA, in truth, Invisible Children has been helping armed the terrorist group for years in its fight against the LRA, despite the fact, that the group is known to commit similar atrocities, to those blamed on the LRA. After all, at one time, the SPLA had between 2,500 and 5,000 child soldiers serving under its flag. Not only, do they supported the SPLA, but also the NRA (National Resistance Army) whom is also known to frequently use child soldiers to kill people. They even mention them in the film. Yes, the NRA subsequently earned a reputation for respecting the rights of civilians, but they also been known to forcibly cleared approximately 100,000 people from their homes. Soldiers committed hundreds of extrajudicial executions as they forcibly moved people, burning down homes and granaries. Yes, these are supposedly, the 'Good Guys' in the video. Another group that Invisible Children, supported was the Uganda Government whom been known to exploitation their neighbor, Congo by going with war with them in 1998, for lucrative resources. The government of Uganda were able to do this with the help of 25 loosely organized militia group like the LRA, whom untrained and undisciplined forces have greatly contributed to the violence of the conflict by frequent looting, rape, ethic cleaning, and yes even cannibalism to keep the Congo region, under President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni's control. While, yes, Museveni has brought relative stability and economic growth to a country that has endured decades of rebel activity and civil war, but the idea that this film would make him, a hero is ludicrous. After all, this was a guy who was willing to work with the enemy to plunder another country's resources, and did nothing about the crimes, he was doing under the government nose. It wasn't until, the United States responded to the war by suspending all military aid to Uganda that Yoweri Kaguta Museveni cut ties with Joseph Kony's LRA in 2003. By the year 2006, with the war ended, three years earlier, and nowhere left to loot, the LRA was driven off, from Uganda for good by the Uganda Government. It's odd, how the film largely ignored that big fact. Invisible Children really do manipulating the facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders, while white-washing the atrocities of the groups. It's even more, surprising that the documentary didn't do their research, as they thought that was Joseph Kony was still in that country. Another thing, the film fails to mention, is Joseph Kony's extreme Christian beliefs. I guess by not putting this information in the video, they didn't want to hurt Christians supported or offensive any Christian fanatics here in the US. However, it should had been bought up, since it's one of the reasons, why Kony still has followers. Overall: This campaign is completely emotional, with little actual facts to back the message on how to realistically stop him what so ever. In my view, the only feasible and proper way to stop Kony and protect the civilians, he targets, is to coordinate efforts with regional governments to rebuild the economy, not sending US troops like this film makes it out to be. It's only then, that the endless violence might stop. The way, it's been going, even if he get kill or dies, the most likely thing to happen, is that a new warlord will emerge shortly and replace him, likewise. So in the end, the conflict is more complex, than this movie is making it, out to be. While, Kony 2012 is a popular viral video, well shot & edited. It's not the best. Its feels too much like propaganda with its message. If you want a better documentary, go see 2006's 'Invisible Children: The Rough Cut'. It's far better than this money-hungry film. So go see that movie, instead. It's more informative.

This movie is excellent because it makes many people move beyond their screen. Yes it's propaganda, but I don't remember any movie that hit so much success so fast as this one. Inverting the Triangle of Power in our society added a bad guy, a good guy, a children and giving people something to do produced a big Storm but the IC story is very far from ending. Quarrels about how bad the Invisible Children are led the director of the movie to a breakdown, he didn't know how to stay away from the mess and because he is just a human being he collapsed. It also shows how people are quick to find a target to dump their trash. Can you still review your opinions or keep them to yourselves and try to make a better world instead of publishing hate messages?

Having heard about this 30-minute feature going viral across Youtube and various social networking sites, I determined to watch this film championed by mysterious US charity Invisible Children for myself. I found it a very slick and manipulative piece of propaganda aimed at young people and families with children. The film starts with director Jason Russell and his family, and zooms in on his young son from birth on to his preschool years before branching out to the lost children of Uganda, children like Jacob who have lost their families and have been forced to join the Lord's Resistance Army as soldiers (if they're boys) or sex slaves (if they're girls) under the sinister charismatic leadership of one Joseph Kony. Russell dwells for a little time on Jacob and his experiences before delving into a drive for support and donations to help other young people like Jacob, and suggesting ways in which people can bring the issue of child soldiers and finding Kony to be brought to justice to the attention of others.Russell adopts a deliberate personal style to make very subjective appeals to people's emotions. His use of his son as willing collaborator is creepy as well as exploitative, to say the least. The filming methods used are so slick as to raise my hackles: the editing and the images, even the sloganeering and strategies suggested to raise other people's awareness, all look as if they'd been cooked up in an advertising agency that's done work for past TV current affairs programs. The themes pushed by "Kony 2012″ are so familiar as to be banal and devoid of genuine feeling: let's change the world for the better, let's be pro-active, let's protect innocent and vulnerable children from exploitation (speak for yourselves!), let's bond in solidarity with other aware young people and fight this monster Joseph Kony and triumph where older people can't or won't.No historical context is given, which is extremely suspicious: the film never explains who Joseph Kony is, why he is such a bogeyman and who his Lord's Resistance Army is fighting against. What is his background, how and why is he a rebel, what political / social / economic conditions existed in Uganda in the 1990s that enabled him to rise to his current position as Uganda's Public Enemy No 1, and why should we get rid of him now when we could have got rid of him ages ago? Is the Ugandan government under President Yoweri Museveni so helpless that it must appeal to the outside world? Is Kony fighting the Ugandan government? Given that Museveni has just been "elected" to a 4th term and has been in power for 25 years with a blemished record in violating human rights, invading parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo and holding elections that yield suspect results that support his continued rule, perhaps Kony is doing the right thing in resisting the Ugandan government! The film's suggested solutions are pathetic and laughable: let's make Kony famous by plastering posters of him across cities around the world on 20 April 2012! Support celebrities like Angelina Jolie, George Clooney and Bono against Kony! Buy the Action Kit package! Wear the "Kony 2012″ bracelets! Donate money to the cause! The Kony 2012 awareness campaign looks too much like an election campaign to ring true. And why should the public be asked to cough up money when famous Hollywood celebrities and other stars in politics and the commercial music industry have more than enough money among themselves to capture and bring Kony to justice and rehabilitate the child soldiers and sex slaves he has abused? And now that all is said and done, one suspicion remains: the recent announcement of the discovery of at least 2.5 billion and maybe as many as 6 billion barrels of oil in Uganda couldn't have anything to do with the release of the "Kony 2012″ film? How cynical of me to think that a future invasion of Uganda by AFRICOM might need support from young people in the form of a "humanitarian" campaign! In the meantime, hundreds of children in northern Uganda have fallen victim to a mysterious and fatal neurological disease known as Nodding disease spreading across the border from the newly independent Southern Sudan. It is arguable that this problem deserves more immediate attention and help than pursuing a shadowy warlord who may not even be in Uganda now or be alive still.

The first part of the video isn't bad. Despite being clearly manipulative, it draws the viewer in, providing some context with the narrator's family and a young African. Then it hits the viewer with the evil Joseph Kony (which ought to be pronounced like Koñ, but is Americanized in the video) -- kidnapper of a child soldier army, and sexual enslaver of children.So far, the video works.Where it goes off the rails is by first admitting that Kony is no longer in Uganda, and then suggesting we help fight Kony -- by supporting the army in Uganda. What? This disconnect is never explained. It's unlikely the Ugandan army will be welcome in foreign countries who have their own military. A last comment about the video is that the language used suggests a world-wide movement, but in fact it's almost entirely focused on the US, with slight mention of Canada. The website also lists Bono and Ban Ki-Moon as the only non-North-American names of note.Now is the part where I ramble about the subject.Have a closer look at the Ugandan army. It too has been reported to use hundreds of child soldiers, despite Uganda being a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which bans this practice. They might not be as hard-core about it as the LRA, but they are not the good guys here. They are the lesser evil. Probably.The Ugandan government is also rotten. For example, they've been trying to pass a bill that would make it a capital offence not to report your own gay brother and his boyfriend to the police (read the bill, if you don't believe me -- it's not just gay people who will die). If passed, this bill could do as much damage to Ugandan teens and young adults and their families as Kony did to younger children and their families, and it will have the power of government behind it.The video repeatedly refers to the LRA, without focusing on the root cause. The LRA is the Lord's Resistance Army, a Christian cult. It was even praised by Rush Limbaugh for this reason. Kony claims to be able to channel the Holy Spirit, and that the Army's purpose is to promote the Ten Commandments. (As with many Christians, they don't believe killing the guilty, nor killing in warfare, are prohibited by the Commandments). This group could not exist without societal support for the idea of Christianity specifically, and other religious nonsense (e.g. channelling) generally. People fear this man not just because he's a murdering fiend, but because he's "magic". He shouldn't have that power. If we treat the symptom but not the illness, it will come back with a new name. Uganda is a place where to this very day, witch-doctors tell adults to mutilate and kill children (their own, or others) to sacrifice their remains to the spirits. And they do it.Yes, stop Kony. Where he actually is. According to the video, that's somewhere in the Central African Republic, South Sudan, or the Democratic Republic of Congo.But this needs to be followed up by a serious education campaign. Uganda is a land of lies and nonsense. A free or nearly-free education in science, logic, and critical thinking is needed to save that country from itself. Something like One Laptop Per Child (not mentioned in the video, and who might not align themselves with my comment) is a good start, but it's going to take a lot more than that.I will point out that the Commonwealth of Nations did not stop Kony in its member state Uganda. What good is it?Utlimately, I give the video a 7 for drawing attention to one serious problem, even if their solution is wrong. It does have people talking.