Advertisement
The School Newspaper of Franklin High School

Pantherbook

Advertisement
The School Newspaper of Franklin High School

Pantherbook

The School Newspaper of Franklin High School

Pantherbook

#KONY2012

With elections coming up in November of this year, a new candidate is taking the internet by storm in a viral out roar. The question everyone is beginning to be barraged by is who is Joseph Kony?

Joseph Kony, 50, is the Ugandan guerilla group leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), who is responsible of the abduction of over 30,000 Ugandan children and displacement of over 2 million people since 1986. Kony has literally put the infant back in infantry by forcing children onto the battlefield and fight for the resistance. The LRA is known for their extremist acts against the Ugandan civilians, including murder, mutilations, rape, and in some accounts even cannibalism.

Kony was indicted for his war crimes by the International Crime Court in The Netherlands (2005), but has since evaded capture by authorities. For over 20 years this militant group has cause great distress and agony for the Ugandan people but this issue been swept under the rug by the media, until now.

On Monday, a video published by the Invisible Children’s Inc. went viral over many major social networking sites including Twitter, Youtube and Facebook in, “aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.” The 30 minute long video already has a view count of over 60 million and has been a worldwide trending topic the entire week.

With notorious celebrities and worldwide news stations endorsing the campaign, the world population is becoming fully aware of the atrocities Kony and the LRA have committed.

Worldwide protesting’s of Kony’s actions are already in the works and on April 20th Massachusetts residents can gather in Boston in hopes of spreading awareness.

The genocide of the Ugandan people needs to end. With the use of marketing on major social networking sites, awareness of the Ugandan situation is popularizing and Kony’s reign of fire is burning out. If you are touched in any by this story and want to find out how you can help you can visit http://www.kony2012.com/.

Together we can stop this brutal warlord and bring peace to the Ugandan people.