#KONY2012
A couple of hours ago, my Facebook newsfeed started showing a lot of my friends sharing this video on their wall.
My first thought was "Oh, another viral video on Facebook". And then i noticed it's about 30 minutes long so i assume it has to be a short documentary. True enough, the whole KONY 2012 video is a documentary condemning the acts of Joseph Kony using Uganda children as his soldiers. And of course such video will normally have appeal to "spread the word" or "donate" to help fund this cause. After watching this entire video, of course I had to share this on my own Facebook wall to continue the virality. I mean instead of some brain dead jokes and memes from 9gag, it's not everyday you get to circulate something educational with such a great cause.
And then comes drama. I forgot there are always people out there who tend to question everything or are a little skeptical about stuffs like these. Not too long after I posted my video, a friend of mine wrote this on his Facebook status.
I was of course annoyed with my friend's comment because the whole purpose of the video was to raise awareness. At the same time, I do understand the point being made because it is true that stuffs like these come and go and eventually people may forget about it. But my thought was, why condemn those who decide to stand up for a cause. Be it temporarily or permanently, why judge? And then another friend started posting links to different articles about people being deceived by supporting Invisible Children. As a result, right now there's a whole debate going on about who's right and who's wrong, who should be doing what, why do they even wanna do this, etc.
I've always believed that we, humans are very complicated people. And i think it's from this complexity nature that we end up living in quite a messed up world. Why can't we just stick with what's right and what's wrong instead of questioning what is right and what is wrong all the time? I'm not saying we shouldn't be questioning at all. If you don't know something, ask. But when you start questioning to stir up a debate just to "test" the other person's intellectual then I think there's a problem. Be it from a religion, politics or social point of view. What i saw from the video were footages of helpless kids in Uganda who could potentially be killed by a man called Joseph Kony for no reason. I don't have the power to go into the forests of Uganda to stop this man. But governments do. And governments will only take action if people keep talking about it or if people care. And in this generation, we all live and breathe on the Internet / social media network. And that is why you end up sharing the video. Sure, we all will continue our lives within the next 5 minutes after you click "share" but at least we manage to use the Internet to do something...right.
So while some of my friends are still debating away on other's Facebook statuses with this whole KONY 2012 thing for the past hour, #KONY2012, #STOPKONY are already on the trending topic of the twitterverse and hundreds of videos have been circulated around the world.
Who is making a difference here?
My first thought was "Oh, another viral video on Facebook". And then i noticed it's about 30 minutes long so i assume it has to be a short documentary. True enough, the whole KONY 2012 video is a documentary condemning the acts of Joseph Kony using Uganda children as his soldiers. And of course such video will normally have appeal to "spread the word" or "donate" to help fund this cause. After watching this entire video, of course I had to share this on my own Facebook wall to continue the virality. I mean instead of some brain dead jokes and memes from 9gag, it's not everyday you get to circulate something educational with such a great cause.
And then comes drama. I forgot there are always people out there who tend to question everything or are a little skeptical about stuffs like these. Not too long after I posted my video, a friend of mine wrote this on his Facebook status.
"Honestly guys? You watch a YouTube video about this Kony guy and suddenly everyone's p in arms about child soldiers? Don't get me wrong, what he's doing is disgusting, but this sort of shizz has been going on for decades, and no one has ever done anything bout it. Like Occupy before it, this is just another cause celeb, people will protest but nothing will get done."
I was of course annoyed with my friend's comment because the whole purpose of the video was to raise awareness. At the same time, I do understand the point being made because it is true that stuffs like these come and go and eventually people may forget about it. But my thought was, why condemn those who decide to stand up for a cause. Be it temporarily or permanently, why judge? And then another friend started posting links to different articles about people being deceived by supporting Invisible Children. As a result, right now there's a whole debate going on about who's right and who's wrong, who should be doing what, why do they even wanna do this, etc.
I've always believed that we, humans are very complicated people. And i think it's from this complexity nature that we end up living in quite a messed up world. Why can't we just stick with what's right and what's wrong instead of questioning what is right and what is wrong all the time? I'm not saying we shouldn't be questioning at all. If you don't know something, ask. But when you start questioning to stir up a debate just to "test" the other person's intellectual then I think there's a problem. Be it from a religion, politics or social point of view. What i saw from the video were footages of helpless kids in Uganda who could potentially be killed by a man called Joseph Kony for no reason. I don't have the power to go into the forests of Uganda to stop this man. But governments do. And governments will only take action if people keep talking about it or if people care. And in this generation, we all live and breathe on the Internet / social media network. And that is why you end up sharing the video. Sure, we all will continue our lives within the next 5 minutes after you click "share" but at least we manage to use the Internet to do something...right.
So while some of my friends are still debating away on other's Facebook statuses with this whole KONY 2012 thing for the past hour, #KONY2012, #STOPKONY are already on the trending topic of the twitterverse and hundreds of videos have been circulated around the world.
Who is making a difference here?
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