Kony develops a bad case of charity envy

There were so many people trying to view the video in the past couple of weeks that the traffic crashed the website. And this is what Keesey blames for people's lack of awareness of who Invisible Children really are. Instead of being informed by their site, people were reading criticisms from other quarters.

I understand why a lot of people are wondering is this some sort of slick, fly by night slactivist thing, when actually it's not at all. It's actually connected to a really deep, thoughtful, very intentional and strategic campaign.

In fact, with their PR approach, slick is the one thing they can be accused of lacking.

Any claims that we don't have financial transparency, or that we're not audited every year by an independent firm, or that we don't have financial integrity just aren't true.

To suggest that Invisible Children don't understand that the LRA was moved out of Uganda mid-2006 is an insult to their intelligence. They continue to help Ugandans with building and development projects and simply want to finish their original goal of stopping this warlord. "There's one thing that everyone agrees on and that is that Joseph Kony should be stopped," said Keesey.

They have plenty of Ugandans on tape attesting to their good works. The Guardian online has quoted Fred Opolot, a Ugandan government spokesman:

The Ugandan government is encouraged by this outpouring of international support for its continuing campaign to eliminate the threat posed by the LRA to all countries and communities. We are hopeful that our neighbouring countries can also become free of LRA activity and enjoy the peace and prosperity that northern Uganda has experienced in the last 6 years.

No criticism of Invisible Children there.

But The Guardian's Cairo correspondent Jack Shenkar said Invisible Children sends a dangerous message that "the world's problems… can be solved by buying bracelets and tweeting."

Who said Invisible Children set out to solve all the world's problems? And they are certainly making money out of people buying bracelets and tweeting, so get used to it.

What the organisation has done is confront an opponent as terrifying as Kony -- public opinion. Send a video to 80 million people and see what sort of opinions you get back. It wouldn't matter how good your video is.

The organisers of Invisible Children are young, they are passionate and unlike the millions who have sat at their desks like me and watched the film, they have got off their behinds and done something to change the world. And they have taught other charities a big lesson in awareness, and how to spread it.