This picture is not worth a thousand words.

This is my shirt. It really doesn't mean much.

An outline of the continent of Africa doesn't say much does it? It doesn't tell you the culture of the each of the individual tribes, peoples, and nations that live on this continent, many of whom are separated by arbitrary borders because of the colonial legacy. It doesn't tell you about their religious differences, religious similarities, cultural practices, languages, experiences, politics, everyday life...

So why do we continually refer to the continent of Africa as if it were made up of one kind of people?

Feeling a little dejected...

As this is an academic exercise, I was very hesitant to bring personal feelings into this project. We were assigned a job to do: investigate Invisible Children and critique it using the ideas and theories we've learned in this course. Again, it isn't to question IC staff's personal integrity or character, it is to find out if their work is achieving their goal of helping Ugandans.

Culling the web for people's thoughts on IC, I'm struck by the amount of emotional 'feel-good' responses: "You've changed my life!" "I'm so excited to wear my T-shirt from IC." "I love you guys!!!!" from IC's Facebook page and Twitter feed.

But what disappointed me was the amount of intelligent criticism that is seemingly going unheard by IC and because of the way their flashy, entertaining, "take-it-in-but-don't-question-it" media is structured, by IC's audience as well.