In less than 48 hours, a video detailing wartime atrocities
in Africa was viewed more than 23 million times. The purpose of “Kony 2012” a 30-minute
clip that went viral on Youtube is to pressure world leaders to arrest Joseph
Kony, war criminal and leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army.
KONY 2012 is
one of the many efforts by Invisible Children in their campaign to bring Joseph
Kony to justice. Invisible Children has been working for 9 years to end
Africa’s longest-running armed conflict. Their website claims that “KONY 2012 aims
to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his
arrest and set a precedent for international justice. In this case, notoriety
translates to public support. If people know about the crimes that Kony has
been committing for 26 years, they will unite to stop him.”
No one could have anticipated the success of KONY 2012. A poll suggested that more than half of young adult
Americans heard about Kony 2012 in
the days following the video's release.
On
April 5, 2012, Invisible Children released a follow-up video, titled Kony 2012: Part II – Beyond Famous. It addressed the criticisms that the
first film met and was both praised and criticized in its efforts.
No one could have anticipated the success of KONY 2012. A poll suggested that more than half of young adult
Americans heard about Kony 2012 in
the days following the video's release.
On
April 5, 2012, Invisible Children released a follow-up video, titled Kony 2012: Part II – Beyond Famous. It addressed the criticisms that the
first film met and was both praised and criticized in its efforts. Lomong who will run in the 5,000-meter race in London 2012, came to the United States as a war refugee after escaping war-torn Sudan. He is a Lost Boy of Sudan. A Catholic, he was abducted at age six while attending Catholic Mass and assumed dead by his family for 15 years. His legs and feet saved his life as he escaped by running for 3 days and 3 nights from captivity to Kenya.
In the article "I Came All The Way Here, So I Have to Run" Tom Farrey writes: "The U.S. government was offering visas to resettle about
3,800 of the displaced boys in 38 states. Unsure whether his parents were even
alive anymore, Lomong wrote an essay in 2001 describing his life story and
desire to come to America. The immigration gatekeepers were sold, and at age
16, he was placed on an airplane, a first for him, headed for Cairo, then
another bound for Beijing, another headed to John F. Kennedy Airport, and
finally a commuter jet set for Syracuse, N.Y. Greeting him at the gate, just
six weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were his new foster parents,
Robert and Barbara Rogers, who had learned of the resettlement program through
their Catholic church." He became a
U.S. citizen in 2007. Because of
his patriotism he was nominated to carry the flag in 2008 in Bejing.
I am so proud that a great man, a great athlete is
represented our country. To me, his
presence exemplifies what is best about our country. We offer safety and freedom, opportunity and resources. I
know this is not true for all people who enter our borders, but it is an ideal
we strive for. I look forward to hearing
more about the life of Mariel Zagunis who is carrying the flag
this year.So why should Invisible Children tell the story of a Lost Boy of Sudan? Lomong was not taken by the LRA; he did not experience the wrath of Kony. And yet the underlying causes of the conflict in Sudan and Uganda are the same—corrupt leadership, dire poverty, depletion of resources, and a lack of respect for human rights, human dignity. The affects of both conflicts are more similar than different. People are displaced, families are torn apart, young people are forced to take arms and renounce any freedom.
A popular
mantra is “Justice begins with awareness.” Invisible Children’s efforts spoke to the immediacy and
power of social media—it brings awareness. But I also believe we are wondering where awareness can take
us. Maybe it’s to bring a
tyrannical leader to justice, maybe it will be to inspire a nation. From Kony to Lomong, we have humanity
at its best and its worst. We see
what a spirit is able to inflict and endure, insist and overcome. I will look at Lopez Lomong and know
that what we put on display for all the world to see is the one who truly
triumphs.
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