Matt Miller
Staff Writer
March 5th was just like every other Monday for many people last week. Adults went to work and children went to school. Videos were posted on Youtube, thousands of them. However, one video gained much attention from people across the globe. Despite being a phenomenon and establishing awareness for this cause, there is a controversy surrounding both the director and the pledge organization.
The video was titled Kony 2012. The thirty minute documentary tells the tale of Joseph Kony, the leader of a guerrilla army known as the Lord’s Resistance Army. He is considered to be a notorious war criminal involved with the abduction of children and forcing them into his army. He is extremely infamous in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.
This short film was directed by Jason Russell, the founder of the non-profit organization Invisible Children. The video promotes a campaign with one goal in mind; to arrest Kony and put an end to his atrocities. Their goal is to make Kony famous or rather open people’s eyes to the horrors he is brewing in Central Africa.
The video has garnered approximately eighty million views and is still growing. The video’s popularity is largely due to the word of mouth. Many people believe this video to be very significant and open many people aware to this campaign.
“This is a good thing because prior to the release of the video barely anyone knew about Kony or the LRA” said sophomore Karun Kannan. “This awareness results in people around the world starting to become more aware of what’s happening in the world, which is important.”
Despite gaining much popularity in the walls of Westford Academy, there are many students who have not seen the whole documentary. Some have sat through only a few minutes of the documentary.
” I had watched approximately two minutes of the video,” said senior Charit Tippaready. “I still have not managed to finish the other twenty-seven minutes.”
Some students had not seen the video or let alone heard of it.
“I had not even heard of the video until now,” said senior Vivek Gaddam.
A few days after the film gained prominence, some began to question the film’s validity. When it was screened in the country of Uganda, people reacted with negatively. They claim that Kony and his soldiers disappeared from Uganda almost six years ago. Most of them have fled to neighboring countries. Some claim that this documentary presented irresponsible information creating almost a false impression of the current situation in Uganda.
“This paints a picture of Uganda six or seven years ago, that is totally not how it is today” says Ugandan journalist Rosebell Kagumire. “It gives an impression that Africans are totally helpless and depend on American help.”
Director Jason Russell has been in some hot water recently. On March 15th, he was arrested by the San Diego police department. According to sources, Russell stripped out of his clothing, ran into traffic, made sexual gestures and possibly vandalized cars. Medical experts gave an official diagnosis for his behavior, stating that it was a “brief reactive pyschosis” brought on by exaustion, dehydration and stress. This behavior may be attributed to the feedback of his film.
Many have questioned the motives of the Invisible Children organization. If you look at their annual reports, a majority of the money they receive is spent on movie making, travel, and sustaining the organization. In fact less then 30% of the donated money goes to Ugnada and the surrounding regions to build schools and establish early warning systems.
“All in all, Invisble Children is not the best non-profit organization out there but it is the one that set this world on fire with it’s 30 minute video and for that they should be credited” said Kannan. “No matter personal opinions, this video did change the world for the better.”
