I Am Afraid of Kony 2012

Kony 2012 scares me.

Not because the violence being spoken of is so brutal, or because it makes clear to us how broken the human race really is. Sadly, I've been aware of these things for a long time; part of me has become desenstized.

Kony 2012 scares me because until the plight of the child soldier was plastered haphazardly all over the social networking sites that our eyes stumble across every single day, we didn't bat an eyelid towards it.

Until the hands of a rich, white American named Jason Russell clicked the "upload video" option on YouTube, until he enabled us to click the "reblog", "retweet" and "share" options on our favourite social networking sites, we refused to step outside of our comfort zones.

We're still in our comfort zones. We still want to spend $30 in return for an "action pack" full of items we can hold in our hands, posters, stickers, bracelets... what would Africa do if we started demanding material items in return for clean water?

We want an excitingly named event, "cover the night", to make us feel empowered and like we can do something to change the world.

Did you know that 80% of the world has 20% of the world's wealth while 20% holds 80%? I am a final year student, thousands of pounds in debt, yet I am one of the richest people in this world. And I don't think putting up a bunch of posters to make a wanted criminal famous in a country in which he does not reside is going to make much of a difference.

Raising awareness is important, but if people never cared in the first place, how long will it be until this all fizzles out? How many well made YouTube videos is Jason Russell going to upload to make sure it doesn't?

Even if they do capture Kony, North Africa has been in debt for years. The political and economic situation there is so broken that this would be a victory for no other than a bunch of rich Americans. It will take more than money and the capturing of Kony to save the people of Uganda, it will take justice within their political system and neither Jason Russell or the American government can create that.

If you want to help Uganda, support charities that will send money and aid to the people there, charities that we don't have to question the authenticity of. And start questioning and researching, stop falling for a well made film that reduces you to nothing more than emotion, because your tears won't save the people of North Africa.