The Timing of Criticism

Every one has seen the name "Kony" everywhere lately. It's on our Facebook walls, it's on our TVs, it's on our favorite celebrities twitter. The growth of the 30 minute video, created by the charity Invisible Children has been incredible. A cause so many people were so unaware of, and frankly uninterested in, has now gotten the attention of the regular YouTube watcher.

"For comparison, the video of Susan Boyle singing “I Dreamed a Dream” for the show “Britain’s Got Talent” ranks among the most-watched viral campaign of all time, with 480 million views. It took that video six days to reach 70 million views, compared to the Kony video’s five, according to Visible Measures."

Suddenly, an entire population of people who had never heard of Kony, cared about Invisible Children's cause, or made an attempt at helping the people of Uganda on their own. The purpose of the Stop Kony video is to make Joseph Kony, a fugitive rebel leader from Uganda, infamous in order to pressure the government to act against his army. However, since the video came out, there has been just as much criticism as there has been praise.

Of course the criticism would start now. Anything as popular and well viewed as this is, is bound to generate a negative response. However, it seems to me that if people are so impassioned about the "Stop Kony" cause, they would have been looking in to it before hand, presenting options other than the tactic presented by Invisible Children. At least the Invisible Children are doing something. Many people, who as of a week ago did not know who Joseph Kony was, know are speaking out against a campaign aimed to do good.

The timing seems off.

I will be honest, I am not sure if the Invisible Children video is the best apporach to the issue. Yes, the video is lacking in facts, and seems outdated. But they are working to fight an important issue that I was not doing anything about.

And many of those who are familar with the issue are in support of the campaign. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, where Kony is wanted for war crimes, told The Associated Press this week he thinks the attention Invisible Children has raised is "incredible, exactly what we need."