Right. I’m no activist. And I usually make a point of refraining from commenting on things that are hot in the media – not really my style. I don’t need a soap box to say how I feel about things, and social-media-frenzy is exactly the kind of soap box that I try to avoid. Like the plague.
But I’ve been drawn out of my usual silence by all the BS circulating around Facebook and the like. Namely, about Kony 2012.
So I was sent the video by an old mate – I haven’t spoken to her face-to-face in a good while, so for her to post something directly on my wall with a personal message (which included my name, adding precious seconds to her chain-posting session no doubt – I appreciated the effort), I was intrigued enough to watch the thing.
Half an hour later, I re-posted with the comment: “I guess Facebook is actually good for something. powerful stuff - the utility of fame.” An hour later, I realised that the thing had gone truly viral. Now when I re-posted, I knew full well that I wasn’t immediately going to do any more research on the matter and that it was very unlikely that I was going to donate or buy a kit. So I re-posted thinking that perhaps someone else might be moved to. I was shocked to find that I knew nothing of this full-blown crazy, and I was engaged by the concept of pimping out the concept of fame for something more than fuelling the messed up concepts of celebrity and idolising people for having shiny teeth and getting paid too much. Aside from feeling sad about the fact that life seems to work at making some people’s lives so epically difficult, I kind of drew a line under it.
Then. Everyone pulled out their ‘I’m a social expert / activist / my opinion has the same weight as GOD’ hats. And to those people, I just want to say that you may want to calm the fuck down. Everyone who is upset about the fact that it’s a white man heading the campaign – calm down. You’re not allowed to be that upset if you knew about Kony at the height of his regime some 20 odd years ago, and still did nothing. And if you didn’t know about the LRA until this campaign – calm down. You obviously weren’t looking to find out about it in your spare time. And all those saying that it’s all a political conspiracy – you guessed it, calm down. Appreciate the fact that the IC project is raising awareness – which was exactly the aim. Yes it was a video with good production and neat editing – would it be more real and gritty if he held the camera with his feet?
All you clowns hating, pipe down. We’re all talking about it now. Perhaps it will lead to some good, whether through IC or through all the other groups that have been working for the improvement of life in Uganda, and which have now also been brought to light. All the better.
And kindly stop telling me to think, please. I am, otherwise I’d be a lemon.
