Joseph Kony’s story of inhumane activities in his home of Uganda (RT News, 2012) were the rage a few weeks ago with a campaign that quickly spread, thanks to a viral video that was even touted by celebrities. Big names such as Justin Bieber, Diddy and Emma Stone sent out tweets (Oldenburg, 2012) encouraging their Twitter followers to spread the word. Video can be found here. (Kony 2012, 2012) Later, everyone who jumped on that bandwagon quickly moon-walked away from it when it was revealed that Kony’s activities were years old. Now somewhere in California, USA, someone feels the need to uphold this KONY 2012 nonsense with a ‘Cover The Night’ campaign that is flopping fast.
Cover The Night Campaign Poster (Harris, 2012)
The Kony 2012 Cover the Night campaign woke up to awkward questions on Saturday after activists failed to blanket cities with posters of the wanted Ugandan warlord, Joseph Kony.
The movement’s phenomenal success in mobilising young people online, following last month’s launch of a 29-minute documentary which went viral, flopped in trying to turn that into real world actions.
The campaign aimed to plaster “every city, on every block” around the world with posters, stickers and murals of Kony to pressure governments into hunting down the guerrilla leader, who has waged a brutal, decades-long insurgency in central Africa.
But paltry turnouts on Friday at locations across north America, Europe and Australia left cities largely unplastered and the movement’s credibility damaged. “What happened to all the fuss about Kony?” said one typical tweet. “Kony is so last month,” said another.
Elissa O’Dell, 24, an activist in Los Angeles, put a brave face on the fact just her and two other volunteers attended the painting of a mural on an auto dealership off Santa Monica Boulevard.
“It’s just been us the entire day,” she said on Friday. Another campaigner took photographs while an artist painted the mural, which said “Our liberty is bound together”.
“The point of Cover the Night is for our community of supporters to give something back, pick up trash, paint schools, some direct, local action,” said O’Dell. So, where was everybody? “We didn’t expect people here,” said O’Dell. Supporters were to place posters in coffeeshops, fire and police stations and other locations. “The response has been terrific. Tomorrow people will wake up and see our posters everywhere.”
But on Saturday the boulevard, and according to reports the rest of LA and other cities, were largely free of Kony.
The campaign also tanked on twitter. “Find the silence around #Kony’12 interesting. It’s muted embarrassment from prior supporters, mixed with quiet smugness from detractors,” said one tweet. (Carroll, 2012)
Joseph Kony (History Guy, 2012)
I feel I am in a position where I can safely say, a lot of celebrities and their fans at large, need to educate themselves on any causes they need to attach their name to before spreading information. It will save them a lot of embarrassment. The president of Uganda himself issued a statement (Love, 2012) to deter the world from the Kony Campaign as the warlord is supposedly not in Uganda anymore.
Celebrities are just like us and sometimes they might not always be aware of accurate information so it is also our responsibility to make sure we are touting correct information before we drink the Kool-Aid. As far as this Kony campaign is concerned, I feel Ugandans are fully aware of what is going on and when and if Joseph Kony is causing them trouble, they will seek the help required, in the meantime, the first world should not intervene.
Carroll, R., 2012. World News. [Online]
Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/21/kony-2012-campaign-uganda-warlord
[Accessed 20 June 2012].
Harris, M., 2012. Story Archive. [Online]
Available at: http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=9047
[Accessed 20 June 2012].
History Guy, 2012. The Facts on Joseph Kony and the LRA. [Online]
Available at: http://commentary.historyguy.com/2012/03/the-facts-on-joseph-kony-and-the-lra/278
[Accessed 20 June 2012].
Kony 2012. 2012. [Film] Directed by Jason Russell. USA: Invisible Children Inc.
Love, B., 2012. Home. [Online]
Available at: http://greenglobaltravel.com/2012/03/12/uganda-president-issues-statement-on-stop-kony-campaign/
[Accessed 20 June 2012].
Oldenburg, A., 2012. Entertainment. [Online]
Available at: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2012/03/bieber-diddy-seacrest-join-joseph-kony-2012-campaign/1#.T-FiodkkODl
[Accessed 20 June 2012].
RT News, 2012. News. [Online]
Available at: http://www.rt.com/news/kony-children-sex-slavery-396/
[Accessed 20 June 2012]
Word On The Screen 