KONY 2012: Where is the Ethnography?

The poster reads, "KONY 2012... One thing we can all agree on"... What ONE thing and who are WE, really? It seems that from the criticism, "WE" apparently doesn't include Ugandans.

Ugandans are NOT HAPPY with the video that is intended to make Kony famous, visible. The idea is perfect... because to find a solution to a problem... the problem has to be visible. But something isn't right.

On March 13th, 2012, Ugandan's watched the screening of "Kony 2012" in Lira.

The video was seen as insulting and as an inaccurately portrayal of the victims--- a reaction from a region once terrorized by Kony. The video, by film maker Jason Russell of Invisible Children has been viewed approximately 80 million times on YouTube, and it has fulfilled (partially) the goal of making Kony famous. However, the video seems to draw criticism that the video was very much insensitive to Ugandans.

The people of the "developed" countries often have the well-intentions of helping those in need, while calling themselves "first world" countries, and places that are "underdeveloped" as "third world". This actually is what a lot of theorists and researchers call "othering". There is a clear classification of who is dominant, and who is "otherated". In this case, it seems that the organization, Invisible Children, are guilty of "othering" the people of Uganda...

Invisible Children is also causing a stir in the spotlight of the media for never being audited, spending million in media production and only a small portion of the funds to actually help children and youth. Although there is much room to speculate the real workings of such organizations, there is much more room to snoop around and try and get the real story.

Organizations often sell emotions to attract donations--- often having people ask...where is the money really going? They sell sympathy/empathy, guilt, happiness, unconditional love, romantic love etc. That's business.

And if Invisible Children inaccurately portrayed Ugandans and the real story is lost somewhere... What kind of activism is everyone taking part in? This could all be a hoax--- the Ugandan government insists that Russell's portrayal is false... however, when governments take part in anything, do we really know what is true and false? Conspiracy theory?

In addition, Russell was apparently found ranting and running naked in the streets of San Diego, cursing and saying some rubbish about the devil. We could speculate that since April 20th is drawing near, this is a stunt. ... But then again, some people have come to the conclusion that the mastermind behind the film has just plain gone crazy.

My concern with all this is... where is the ethnography? Where is the reflexive thinking? The film included one young Ugandan boy that experienced seeing the actual murder of his brother by the power of Kony. Yet, this isn't ethnography. This isn't the voice of Ugandans.. It is filled with bias, and the residual specks of the dominant American view. This isn't ethnography, but ethnocentric.

Without ethnographic research, how are we to ever count out the biases of an American, or a Canadian... someone who hold the privilege of citizenship, among many others?

Where are the Ugandan voices?