Thursday, March 22, 2012 twitter.com/@msureporter
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Minnesota State University, Mankato
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FRIDAY
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SATURDAY
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KON Y 2012
An awareness campaign or money trap? ELISE KONERZA
assistant news editor
• web photo Criticism to the campaign has led the Invisible Children organization to fight accusations of misuse of revenue.
Kony 2012 is using the power of social media and word of mouth to interact with young adults across the world. Inspiring these young adults to be active in the search and capture of Joseph Kony, the organization’s video on YouTube went viral two weeks ago, aiming to recruit supporters and make Kony famous. Joseph Kony took leadership of Uganda in 1987 and its existing resistance group renaming it, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA is notorious for its cruel and brutal tactics among citizens of Uganda. As the LRA began to dwindle in its members, Kony began to abduct children and train them in these tactics to serve the LRA in Kony’s way. Kony even has gone so far to choose women as wives for his officers, according to the Kony 2012 website. The LRA is encouraged to rape, mutilate and kill civilians – often with blunt weapons. The LRA is no longer existent or active in Northern Uganda, where it originated, yet it continues to campaign violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and south Sudan. In the 26-year life of the LRA, “30,000 children have been abducted and at least 2.1 million people have
been displaced,” according to the Kony 2012 website. Kony 2012 is backed by the activist group, Invisible Children. Their goal is to ensure that their window of opportunity does not close in order to capture Kony. Invisible Children has been working for nine years to end one of Africa’s longest running armed conf licts. U.S. troops are currently deployed in Central Africa on a “time-limited” mission to stop Kony and disarm the LRA. The purpose of the campaign aims to make Kony famous, not by celebrating him, but to raise support for his arrest and to set a precedent for international justice and peace. Relatively, once Kony is captured he will be used as a primitive example to other war criminals that mass atrocities will not go unnoticed or unpunished. Supporters of the campaign are strongly encouraged to purchase the Kony 2012 kit. The kit includes a t-shirt, two Kony bracelets, an action guide, stickers, a button and ten posters. Donations are widely accepted as well. According to Jason Russell, the director of the Kony YouTube film, more than 500,000 action kits have been ordered at $30 per piece. The campaign has then brought in a minimum of $15 million in revenue so far, and still more to come. Such a large sum of
revenue has caused many people to question where their money is going. “Thirty-seven percent of our budget goes directly to central African-related programs, about 20 percent goes to salaries and overhead, and the remaining 43 percent goes to our awareness programs,” Jedidiah Jenkins, Invisible Children’s director of ideology said. Jenkins stressed they are not an aid organization but an advocacy and awareness organization. So yes, more money is going to awareness rather than Africa. One student, Grant Oyston, in the small town of Nova Scotia writes a blog based critically on the fallbacks of Invisible Children. Among the blog is discussion of financial issues and spending. Invisible Children’s accounts have shown its income triple to $9 million. The student’s blog notes that nearly 25 percent has been spent on travel and filmmaking. The accounts show $1.7 million has been spent on U.S. employee salaries, $850,000 in film production costs, and $244,000 in “professional services” – many people believe are Washington lobbyists – and $1.07 million on travel expenses. A huge chunk of the money, $400,000, has been spent on offices in San Diego. Foreign Affairs has even
Kony / page 2
Candlelight vigil honors domestic violence victims ALLISON MATTHEWS
staff writer A 12-hour vigil to honor victims and survivors of domestic violence will take place in Rasmussen Woods at Elk’s Nature Center Friday and Saturday. Starting at midnight Friday, the Domestic Violence Awareness candlelight vigil commemorates those who have died
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due to domestic violence and those still living in violence, according to Assistant Director of Community Engagement Denise Belington-Just. To cap off the vigil, a ceremony at the same location of the vigil will include speeches from community leaders. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday and last about an
hour. Laura Schultz, coordinator of the Violence Awareness and Response Program, will speak about support services at Minnesota State University, Mankato. VARP, which can be found in the Women’s Center in the Centennial Student Union, provides information and services about domestic violence,
violence within relationships, sexual assault, stalking or sexual harassment, according to the Women’s Center web site. Schultz says that it is crucial to acknowledge violence in Mankato’s community and show victims and survivors that they are not alone. “It’s about showing com-
munity support for victims and survivors,” Schultz said. “A lot of abusers make them think it is [the victims’] fault, and it’s not their fault.” The Domestic Violence Awareness candlelight vigil first started in 2011 to honor the murder of Svetlana Munt
Candlelight Vigil / page 3
GOING TO THE MOVIES THIS WEEKEND? CHECK OUT THE REPORTER’S GUIDE ON PAGE 9