Thanks to TMZ‘s tireless coverage of Invisible Children founder and star of the ‘KONY2012’ video Jason Russell‘s public meltdown over the weekend, you can now watch close up video footage of the incident, during which Russell charges around naked yelling obscenities, and appears to be properly out of his gourd.
Russell has been placed on a 5150 psychiatric hold until further evaluations of his psychological state.
Invisible Children released a statement, attributing the “incident” to the “severe emotional toll” of backlash Russell has faced following the widespread international focus on the ‘KONY’ video and the organisation behind it.
The most recent criticism has come directly from the Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, who over the weekend released a video response to the KONY2012 campaign. Mbabazi claims the campaign gave a “false impression” about the country and its people. “Uganda is not in conflict. Uganda is a modern, developing country which enjoys peace, stability and security,” he says.
Jason Russell’s wife has also come out to defend her husband. She released a statement which says: “…[the film] was great for raising awareness about Joseph Kony, it also brought a lot of attention to Jason and, because of how personal the film is, many of the attacks against it were also very personal, and Jason took them very hard.”
Russell has fallen victim to the pointy end of the double-edged sword that is casting yourself as the face of your organisation – it means you, personally, reap the praise or alternately the hate, from the public directly.
People have been quick to call out the Invisible Children organisation for the fact they make money from the initiative… which seems like a knee-jerk reaction by self-righteous internet users. Why – unless these people are personally making a substantial contribution to a cause (i.e. more than posting a link to social media) – do they have the right to make negative comments and slurs? If an organisation makes a significant contribution toward any deserving cause (like the way Microsoft does), why is it such a crime to also make a successful, revenue-building business out of it?
And that’s not rhetorical question. I’m genuinely curious.
Random internet users all over the world went up in arms over the fact “ONLY 31% of the money they get ever year goes to helping people!” But… doesn’t seem like a fairly significant percentage to you?
You’ve got to feel sorry for the guy. Especially because the above video of him going postal in the buff will probably go more viral than KONY2012.
For the real story on Joseph Kony read our interview with journalist Sam Farmar, the first and only journalist to meet and interview Ugandan war criminal.
