I believe we should be spreading the word about Joseph Kony, but not about the Kony 2012 campaign.

I am absolutely for the arrest and trial of war criminals and believe piling on the international pressure on Western governments via a hard-hitting campaign video is a genius idea. But I am not a fan of Invisible Children or the crux of their campaign.

Firstly I have a HUGE problem with 'charities' that pump out 'free' merchandise, such as the bracelets, posters and leaflets Invisible Children send to those who donate to them. So I donate the money that should be aiding the focus of charity, such as supporting ex-recruits of the LRA, and then receive all my cool stuff... and who has payed for that, other than muggins here? It seems the big charities that get their brand name everywhere are less about the thoughtfulness of giving, and more about, 'everybody's doing it, and are proud of it, so why the heck aren't you?' Furthermore, the video campaign has been very successful for them, and I will remember Kony's name for a good while now. Hence I don't need posters plastered all over my city to keep reminding me who he is and why he's in the same picture as Adolf Hitler.

Secondly, having been to Uganda, and having had (somewhat!) first hand experience of the Ugandan police/armed forces, they are nearly as corrupt as it comes. Whilst they may be relatively stable in terms of a Central African force (I believe they have been/still are part of the peace-keeping forces in Sudan), they are by no means ethically equipped to deal with war criminals in a way that the West would be comfortable with. If they do get hold of Kony, I would wager we shall see a similar sticky end to him as Muammar Gaddaffi. The Ugandan government needs some help and reshuffling before this could be corrected, I believe.

Also, on a side note, Joseph Kony's name was never once mentioned in Uganda whilst I was there. Not to say he's not a big deal. But he most certainly is not breathing down everyone's necks as the campaign video would have you believe. Uganda on the whole is a country finding its feet in a rapidly evolving world, not a nation plagued by death and destruction and violence.

The problem with the twitter/facebook fly-away campaigns is that everyone finds their bandwagon and jumps on it, either by watching the video and being all for it, or then reading one anti-campaign blog or report and being totally against it. Everyone is entitled to their belief and knows where their heart lies, however problems such as this are never very black and white and I don't believe we'll ever be satisfied from the outcome of the Kony 2012 campaign, whether we catch him or not.