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Saturday, April 30, 2005If you haven’t heard of or seen Hotel Rwanda yet, please watch it and read my post. Here is a plot summary: Ten years ago some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the country of Rwanda--and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million people were brutally murdered. In the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees, by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages. More info: A MODERN GENOCIDE The Rwandan conflict of the 1990s marked one of the bloodiest chapters in recent African history. The genocide was made all the more tragic by the fact that most of the world chose to ignore the conflict and the plight of the Rwandan people. While occasional reports about "tribal warfare" in Rwanda were carried by international news agencies, the horror of the conflict, instead of causing international outrage, seemed to be written off as another "third world incident" and not worthy of attention. Over the course of 100 days, almost one million people were killed in Rwanda. The streets of the capital city of Kigali ran red with rivers of blood, but no one came to help. There was no international intervention in Rwanda, no expeditionary forces, no coalition of the willing. There was no international aid for Rwanda. Rwanda's Hutu extremists slaughtered their Tutsi neighbors and any moderate Hutus who stood in their way, and the world left them to it. "Ten years on, politicians from around the world have made the pilgrimage to Rwanda to ask for forgiveness from the survivors, and once more the same politicians promise `never again,'" says director Terry George. "But it's happening yet again in Sudan, or the Congo, or some Godforsaken place where life is worth less than dirt. Places where men and women like Paul and Tatiana shame us all by their decency and bravery." Wars have always provided fertile ground for the emergence of heroes and supreme acts of heroism by ordinary people. Rwanda was no exception. Amidst the horrendous violence and chaos that swept the country, one of the many heroes to emerge was Paul Rusesabagina, an ordinary man who, out of love and compassion, managed to save the lives of 1268 people. Terry George had long been interested in doing a film set in Africa, but it was Paul Rusesabagina's story that finally brought him to the continent. "When my co-writer Keir Peirson introduced me to the story, I immediately knew I wanted to do it," says George. "I flew to Belgium and met Paul and learned of his life: how he became a hotelier, how he rose through the ranks of employees in the various Sabena hotels he worked in, and how he ended up at the Hotel Mille Collines in Kigali." It was the remarkable human element of the story that struck a chord with Hotel Rwanda producer Alex Ho. "This story is very close to my heart, and it's the kind of story I really appreciate," he says. "It's about a normal man who, when prompted by his wife, is able to use his position to help others. In the course of doing that, he sets out on a journey that makes him a better man." This genocide occurred the same time as the OJ Simpson trial. Doesn’t it show how ignorant we can be as humans, including myself, how we can remember exactly what happened in the Simpson trial which consisted of 2 murders, but have no recollection of any events associated with Rwanda and the brutal massacre of 800,000 people? This movie has been all I have thought about lately, it is the type of movie that sends shivers down your spine, only they don’t go away once the movie ends. As I get older I learn more and more information that appalls me, I am only one person, but I will use whatever methods I can to get information out about events like the massacre in Rwanda out to others. To think that similar things are happening right now in places like the Congo is even more unsettling. I am going to look for someway to help, I hope others will too.
Sunday, April 24, 2005New pictures up !!
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