I do NOT support ‘Kony 2012’

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On March 5 was published in web platforms the Video "Kony 2012." The video quickly went viral, as celebrities like Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Bill Gates gave him their support. Today it has over 84 million visits in YouTube (not counting visits on Vimeo and on the website of the campaign).

I do not give my support to the campaign "Kony 2012", although it gives the impression that has (or had) a good intention falls into many errors which go elucidating in this article.

I don’t want to make him famous

One goal of the campaign and the video is that Kony is made famous. In the video Jason Russell says:

“We are targeting twenty of the most divers and influential culture makers to speak out about Kony and make him famous”

I understand that the purpose of video is to make Kony be arrested. But one of the things that strike me is that the posters say ‘Kony 2012’ and not something like "wanted”. The posters seem to magnify him. Moreover, Jason Russell (creator of the campaign) wants the night of April 20 sticking posters in our cities so everyone will see Kony at the dawn. I think this is already out of all rational purposes. Besides being low ecological, it could serve to make Joseph Kony influential (giving him an influence that he hadn’t in the past).

Let me put it this way. Imagine that in 1939 had made posters of Adolf Hitler: would you have supported a campaign like this? Would you have used bracelets that said ‘Hitler 1939’?

I do not believe in the power of the troops

One goal of the campaign is that the U.S. sends more troops to Uganda to achieve that Joseph Kony be arrested. I started thinking about what would happen if made ​​war against Kony. I think many children die because he uses children as shields and as instruments of its purposes. Kony abducts children and orders them to kill. Girls are raped and he uses them as sex slaves.

I believe in the power of prayer

I think the war against Joseph Kony should not be with guns or tanks. It is a spiritual war. If he uses weapons, we have a more powerful tool: prayer. We must turn to God instead of guns. Instead of going to stick posters on April 20, I propose to make prayer chain and to do so without waiting until that date. It is much more Christian and more environmentally friendly. I'm surprised that Jason Russell has never mentioned this idea considering that he himself is an evangelical Christian, as it says in Wikipedia.

This campaign has left us a lesson: the enormous power of the internet and social networks. This also has taught us that we can use it for good or evil: it depends on us. It depends on us now.