Kony 2012

Once again I have decided to stray from the focus of my blog to talk about something important to me in the news:  Joseph Kony.  I'm not going to bother giving a summary of him-chance are you already now who he is, and what he has done.  And I think it is great that so much attention is finally being paid to his attrocities.  But at the same time, I'm rather disappointed that people are just now finding out about him, and that suddenly everyone cares so much.  He's been around for a while-the only reason why people are noticing him now is because of some flashy video publicized by an inneffective charity.  There are so many worse things happening in Africa right now.  People forget that Joseph Kony is not the only monster in Africa.  They forget about the Darfur genocide, and I still remember telling people that hundreds of thousands of people were killed and they didn't know about it.  Nor did they care after I told them.  But suddenly, everyone cares about Kony.  So what is the difference?  Invisible Children.  This charity is drumming up all this support to try to get more money-and its working.  And I'm not saying that Invisible Children getting money is a bad thing.  But there are so many other, better, more effective charities out there.  Charity Water, for example, uses so much more of the actual money they receive for the purpose they say the money is going toward:  making clean water available.  Invisible children barely uses the money for helping stop child kidnappings-most of the money they receive goes towards salaries.  People could use their money in a better and smarter way.  And finally, you are not going to make a difference by liking a video, or making a "Kony 2012" poster.  While it is a public protest, it isn't effective.  Instead, if you want a US intervention in Uganda, lobby your congressman, attend an actual rally, and try to ACTIVELY make a change.  Saying you support the message behind Kony 2012 doesn't do jack shit-you need to facilitate a change to make a difference