Recently, a video was released revisiting the topic of Joseph Kony and his army, the Lords Resistence Army (LRA). Kony and the LRA have been at work for the past 25 years engaging in a rebellion against the government of Uganda, in the process, committing a ghastly amount of human rights violations, including, but not limited to:  barging into villages, killing the adults, raping the females – adult or child, and abducting the boys. The kidnapped boys, rumored to be ages 12-18,  are then forced to carry guns and fight for the cause of the LRA.
The bottom line is that Kony must be stopped. In 2006, a man named Jason Russell and two other filmmakers, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole, created a documentary entitled Invisible Children about the LRA and Joseph Kony. This film is discussed in our Global Perspectives course for 11th graders at SPFHS.
In the past nine years, Russel has gone back to Africa and brought speakers to the United States to share their stories. They helped drum up interest toward the Invisible Children project, which has now culminated to the Kony 2012 movement.
The Kony 2012 movement is crucial to stopping the spread of the LRA and the injustice they bring to the world. It has been reported (according to the video above) that the LRA has mostly left Africa and moved to other parts of the world. They have the potential to become the most powerful rebellious army. Kony 2012’s goal is to make Joseph Kony famous.
They don’t mean ‘famous’ like Britney Spears; they mean famous like Hitler. The only difference is that Kony is still alive and able to be caught and arrested before much more damage is done to the human race. Kony is currently #1 on the Specially Designated Global Terrorists list. With the help of people worldwide, we can stop Joseph Kony in his tracks.
The problem with trying to stop Kony is that no one knows who he is or the full extent of what he has done.
The first step to stopping Kony is by spreading the word. Share the video on Facebook, tweet about it, tell your friends and family.
Get Kony Famous.