In the past few days I have become quite fascinated by the
various responses flooding into the online community on the Kony 2012 video,
which has gone viral with over 55 million YouTube views in less than four days.
The video has definitely tugged on the heartstrings of many
people who instantly and full heartedly joined the #stopkony movement. Others
have questioned the validity of the argument made by the Invisible Children
Organization, claiming that by stopping Joseph Kony, the problem in Uganda
would not be solved as this is a much bigger problem that requires intervention
at much larger scales, including the restructuring of Governance systems in the
affected African Nations.
Now I’m not nearly informed enough on the topic at hand to
weigh in with an opinion on the solutions to the Human Rights tragedy taking
place in Africa. I did however find myself stunned by the method in which a
simple 30 minute video not only put a serious issue under the microscope on a
global scale, but has used an auto-recruitment mechanism to increase the
support base by millions of people from all around the world, who would
normally not be the least bit interested … That’s genius!
What I found most interesting however, is how this 30 minute
video might completely revolutionize how we look at the concept of fame and celebrities
forever.
As we look back through history for “famous” criminals, we
would be able to establish that there are three types of criminals: those who
wanted to be famous, those who didn’t but were made famous, and those who wanted
to be anonymously famous.
Those who wanted to be famous did so with various motives.
For instance, there are those who chased fame to feed their own egos (much in
the same way the Kardashian sisters have), like the Kray twins who even gave TV
interviews. Then there are those who wanted to be famous to encourage people to
join their cause, in the same way Charles Manson notoriously did with his cult,
or even Hitler with the Nazis, (or Robin Hood, if you want to consider
fictional characters).
The next type of criminals are those who did not intend to
become famous, but were forced to by either getting captured or simply to make
an example of them. This includes many war criminals such as Slobodan Milosevic,
serial killers like BTK Dennis Rader and the Son of Sam, and even convicted
celebrities like OJ Simpson, all of whom were publicly tried and convicted.
Which brings me to the third category of criminals: those
who wanted to remain anonymously famous. That might seem like an oxymoron, but
most serial killers had wanted this kind of fame rather than the one discussed
above. They wanted to remain hidden from the law, whilst gaining respect or
admiration for their work. A good
example of this kind of criminal is the Zodiac Killer, who succeeded in
remaining anonymous to this day, or, to go back further in history, Jack the
Ripper. These serial killers taunted the police and the public by sending
letters to the newspapers claiming ownership of their crimes, signing the
letters with their public nicknames.
You may be shocked to discover that many of these criminals,
to this day, have significantly large fan bases comprised of normal citizens
like me and you. But never do we find people driving around with Al Capone
bumper stickers on their cars or John Gotti posters in their office cubicles.
People have instead opted for the safer option of expressing
their admiration for fictional criminals like Tony Montana or Vito Corleone,
where they can direct their admiration towards the actor or the movie rather than
the values and beliefs of these fictional characters.
Which brings me back to the Kony 2012 campaign, where the
general public for the first time is being asked to publicize a war criminal in
the same fashion a presidential candidate would run for office, or a movie
actor would promote his latest flick. For the very first time, it is socially
acceptable for you to place a “Kony 2012” bumper sticker right next to your “Obama
2012” sticker, yet they would both represent completely different types of
support.
As a Yemeni, I wonder how effective this revolutionary
method would be in raising awareness on key issues which aren’t getting the
necessary attention nor is action being taken to resolve them, for example, the
Qat problem, or the high child mortality rates in the rural areas, or the absence
of access to clean water.
Would we be able to take the faces of the biggest Qat dealers
in Yemen and make them celebrities in Yemen in the same way Kony has become
famous around the world? Would this help in eradicating Qat from our country?
Please let me know what you think and leave a comment below.
Cheers,
Mohammed Khamis
Brilliantly written, thanks for this great share.
ReplyDeleteI've no idea if this would work for Qat dealers, but I guess it's worth a try. Many people I know, have no idea of the set backs due to usage of Qat, although speaking for my self, I believe it's just another kind of drugs. Maybe there's no such thing as an overdose of Qat, but it definitely destroyed a nation, & taken away their free thinking, so that they're alive but not living. You have my support, the world should know
Thanks Reem for the comments. I'm a true believer that Qat is not only stopping Yemen from progressing, but is rather causing Regression which is very alarming. I will be posting a blog soon on Qat and what i believe are realistic gradual steps that should be undertaken to fight it.
DeleteThanks for the Support