A former U.S. Marine with extensive ties in Uganda says he made contact with brutal African warlord and international fugitive Joseph Kony this month, but was ignored by the U.S. State Department when he forwarded a letter Kony wrote expressing interest in a “peace process” with the U.S.
A little behind schedule, but it seems all those Facebook likes have finally convinced notorious African warlord Joseph Kony to lay down his arms and surrender.
And we're back with the second installment in the Kony campaign saga, Kony 2012: Beyond Famous. This time the video focuses on Invisible Children CEO Ben Keesey, rather than fallen angel of masturbation Jason Russell. In fact, other than a few grainy images and a handful of brief mentions, Russell is missing from the video completely.
As Bill Maher put it on tonight's Real Time, making Kony famous without bringing him to justice isn't enough. By just making him famous, we put him on the regular celebrity track in this country which includes getting his cell phone hacked, hooking up with other celebrities and eventually getting into politics.
Here's an al-Jazeera story about a public screening of the KONY 2012 video in northern Uganda. It doesn't go over very well. "As the film progresses, puzzlement turns to anger," says al-Jazeera's Malcolm Webb. The crowd is critical: "There are some kind of people who are trying to mobilize using the atrocities committed in northern Uganda," says one man. "We wanted to see our local people who were killed. These are all white men, different from northern Uganda," says another. It's worth checking out al-Jazeera's project "Uganda speaks," which is gathering text messages in support or opposition of the campaign from Ugandans.
After the Invisible Children Kony 2012 video blew up last week, Jon Stewart took some time on tonight's Daily Show to look into both the video and the media's reaction to the video's popularity and message.
