High profile pain

What does it feel like when your story goes viral on YouTube? If you are a budding musician it could be your great break - a passport to a whole new career. But what if you are the mother who lost her two sons to the Lord's Resitance Army in northern Uganda, or a young man who lies sleepless every night reliving the traumer and brutality of his time serving as a child soldier?

The fact that 79 million people have watched Kony 2012 in the past ten days has led to a major outcry in Uganda, the nation traumaticed for 23 years by the cruelty and obsenity of Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army. Produced by the California based charity Invisible Children, the 30 minute video powerfully tells the story of the abuse of children over two decades in East Africa. Using the idiom of Facebook-style social networking the story told is of the bond that developed between two boys - one a Ugandan boy soldier and the other a young American turned social activist. Viewed from the perspective of a charity seeking to raise funds and engage American young people in social action this video is at the top of its class. But ...

But if you are a family just beginning to come to terms with the pain of lives destroyed by the personal ambitions of Joseph Kony, a video (and poster campaign which will climax across the US on 20 April) which adopts the catch phrase "Make Kony famous" may not be quite so welcome. Sheikh Musa Khalil, the Kadhi of the Muslim region of northern Uganda said in an interview that the film "is likely to traumatize those who were affected" and Bishop Johnson Gakumba, speaking in Gulu said, "While it publicizes the problem, we see it as being outdated. It should have been released in 2003"

So what are Invisible Children trying to do - disgrace a tyrant, stop a war, generate cash for their charity, or simply raise the profile of their work? When thousands of children have been aboused by the Lord's Resistance Army, a charity is doing good work, funds are short, and a powerful video goes viral, how important are the victim's views?