I watched it in my global issues class-It was so intense! The plot of the movie seems as though it was so hollywood-ized but it was based completely on the Hotel that Ruse ran.
One of the things that I noticed was that the people, when they weren't in any immediate danger, kept themselves pretty busy, and for the most part seemed to be having fun. The children were shown running around outside and putting on talent shows. This shows the audience that even in times of crisis, people, most often children, will find the good.
We also watched one of the special features, in which Ruse took a camera crew with him on his first trip back to Rwanda since the genocide. He visited a living memorial to the genocide. There was a french "reservation" type deal where something along the lines of 75,000 people were slaughtered. The site was kept in the exact condition it was left in. There were rooms after rooms of skeletons, with one room being solely children. They then talked about how the French soldiers were trying to cover up the genocide, so they took corpses and buried them in a heap in an empty spot. Then, they grew grass over the plot and made a volleyball court.
Ridiculous huh?
The movie was really good though, well acted and well put together.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
More notes from Samantha Power
Background: The UN Deployment
-Dallaire believed the UN embodied soldiering, service, and sacrifice.
-Had served as the commandant of an arm brigade that sent peacekeepers to Cambodia and Bosnia.
-Though he was involved, he didn't see combat until he was called for Rwanda.
-Rwanda is the size of Vermont, with a population of eight million people.
-Before independence was gained from Belgium, in 1962, Tutsis were priveledged.
-After independence, 30 years of Hutu rule led to discrimination and constant attempts to systematically cleanse Rwanda of Tutsis.
-In 1990 a group of exiled Tutsis, who had been forced to the Ugandan border, invaded Rwanda.
-These exiled people were reffered to as the Rwandan Patriotic Front
-In 1993, Tanzania helped the two groups come to a shared government agreement called the Arusha Accords
-This made it so the government governed with Hutu opposition parties and The Tutsi Minority
-The UN would be in place to provide a secure environment.
-The rwandan Government & Hutu extremists didn't agree with the Arusha agrrement because they felt that under its terms they had everything to lose and to fear, and nothing to gain.
-The Hutus were afraid that the Tutsis, who had been discriminated against & systematically destroyed, would govern in similar matters.
-By 1992, Hutu militia purchased 85 tons of munitions as well as 581,000 machetes; one for every third adult Hutu male.
-In 1993 Mujawamariya asked outside forces to come to her country to keep outbreaks at bay.
-Des Forges was one of twelve who spent 3 weeks interviewing Rwandans about the savage attacks.
-March report in 1993 showed that 10,000 Tutsis had been detained and 2,000 had been murdered since 1990.
_Government supported killers had executed atleast 3 massacres of Tutsis.
-The CIA warned that there may be ethnic violence
-A CIA report found that 9 million tons of small arms were transferred to Rwanda.
-In 1990, The Hutu paper entitled Kangura or Wake Up! published the ten Hutu commandments:
1.) Every Hutu should know that a Tutsi woman, wherever she is, works for the interests of her Tutsi ethnic group. Anyone who does the following is a traitor:
--Marries a Tutsi woman
--Befreinds a Tutsi Woman
--Employs a Tutsi Woman
2.) Every Hutu should know that our Hutu daughters are more suitable and consientious in there role as women.
3.) Hutu women, be vigilent and try to bring your husbands brothers and sons back to reason
4.) Every Hutu should know that every Tutsi is dishonest in business
5.) All strategic positions, political, administative, economic, military, and security, should be entrusted to a Hutu
6.) The schools must be majority Hutu.
7.) The Rwandanese Armed Forces should be exclusively Hutu. Members of the militia shall not marry a Hutu. We haved learned our lesson.
8.) The Hutu should stop having mercy towards the Tutsi
9.) The Hutu must constantly counteract the Tutsi propaganda, and be firm against the common enemy.
10.) Every Hutu must spread the ideology.
-Tutsis were portrayed as devils, and compared to the rule of Pol Pot, calling them the "Black Khmer."
-Threats against the Tutsis didnt generate western hype, but were more important in the Foreign Broadcast Information Service.
-Dallaire, upon entering Rwanda was told that it was a place of peace and that a UN official would be there the whole time.
-The US was unenthused about sending UN missions to Rwanda
-When Dallaire asked for 5,000 soldiers he was told no, but once he trimmed it down to 2,500, it was granted.
-In 1993 when Dallaire finally took post in Rwanda, we was sufficiently unbacked by almost everyone.
-The outbreak of the need for assistance in Rwanda came at an inoportune moment in time.
-The US owed half a billion dollars to the UN and had no interest in deepening the debt
- The US used a checklist to make sure there was no los, involvement, or damage.
- Dallaire's mission was run on hand-me-down equipment from Cambodia
-When medical supplies ran out, Dallaire was told there was no funding for more.
-In December, Hutu militia began to threaten massacres, and the Radio Mille Collines began to broadcast that UN officials were to be considered accomplices of the Tutsis
-In January of 1994, a Hutu informant told Dallaire how the Hutu militia was being trained. According to him, the troops could kill 1000 Tutsis in 20 minutes.
-The informant offered to give specific details of holding spot for weapons in return for passports and protection for his wife and family.
-By the end of February, Dallaire claimed to be "drowning in information about death squad attacks," and the US did nothing.
-Dallaire believed the UN embodied soldiering, service, and sacrifice.
-Had served as the commandant of an arm brigade that sent peacekeepers to Cambodia and Bosnia.
-Though he was involved, he didn't see combat until he was called for Rwanda.
-Rwanda is the size of Vermont, with a population of eight million people.
-Before independence was gained from Belgium, in 1962, Tutsis were priveledged.
-After independence, 30 years of Hutu rule led to discrimination and constant attempts to systematically cleanse Rwanda of Tutsis.
-In 1990 a group of exiled Tutsis, who had been forced to the Ugandan border, invaded Rwanda.
-These exiled people were reffered to as the Rwandan Patriotic Front
-In 1993, Tanzania helped the two groups come to a shared government agreement called the Arusha Accords
-This made it so the government governed with Hutu opposition parties and The Tutsi Minority
-The UN would be in place to provide a secure environment.
-The rwandan Government & Hutu extremists didn't agree with the Arusha agrrement because they felt that under its terms they had everything to lose and to fear, and nothing to gain.
-The Hutus were afraid that the Tutsis, who had been discriminated against & systematically destroyed, would govern in similar matters.
-By 1992, Hutu militia purchased 85 tons of munitions as well as 581,000 machetes; one for every third adult Hutu male.
-In 1993 Mujawamariya asked outside forces to come to her country to keep outbreaks at bay.
-Des Forges was one of twelve who spent 3 weeks interviewing Rwandans about the savage attacks.
-March report in 1993 showed that 10,000 Tutsis had been detained and 2,000 had been murdered since 1990.
_Government supported killers had executed atleast 3 massacres of Tutsis.
-The CIA warned that there may be ethnic violence
-A CIA report found that 9 million tons of small arms were transferred to Rwanda.
-In 1990, The Hutu paper entitled Kangura or Wake Up! published the ten Hutu commandments:
1.) Every Hutu should know that a Tutsi woman, wherever she is, works for the interests of her Tutsi ethnic group. Anyone who does the following is a traitor:
--Marries a Tutsi woman
--Befreinds a Tutsi Woman
--Employs a Tutsi Woman
2.) Every Hutu should know that our Hutu daughters are more suitable and consientious in there role as women.
3.) Hutu women, be vigilent and try to bring your husbands brothers and sons back to reason
4.) Every Hutu should know that every Tutsi is dishonest in business
5.) All strategic positions, political, administative, economic, military, and security, should be entrusted to a Hutu
6.) The schools must be majority Hutu.
7.) The Rwandanese Armed Forces should be exclusively Hutu. Members of the militia shall not marry a Hutu. We haved learned our lesson.
8.) The Hutu should stop having mercy towards the Tutsi
9.) The Hutu must constantly counteract the Tutsi propaganda, and be firm against the common enemy.
10.) Every Hutu must spread the ideology.
-Tutsis were portrayed as devils, and compared to the rule of Pol Pot, calling them the "Black Khmer."
-Threats against the Tutsis didnt generate western hype, but were more important in the Foreign Broadcast Information Service.
-Dallaire, upon entering Rwanda was told that it was a place of peace and that a UN official would be there the whole time.
-The US was unenthused about sending UN missions to Rwanda
-When Dallaire asked for 5,000 soldiers he was told no, but once he trimmed it down to 2,500, it was granted.
-In 1993 when Dallaire finally took post in Rwanda, we was sufficiently unbacked by almost everyone.
-The outbreak of the need for assistance in Rwanda came at an inoportune moment in time.
-The US owed half a billion dollars to the UN and had no interest in deepening the debt
- The US used a checklist to make sure there was no los, involvement, or damage.
- Dallaire's mission was run on hand-me-down equipment from Cambodia
-When medical supplies ran out, Dallaire was told there was no funding for more.
-In December, Hutu militia began to threaten massacres, and the Radio Mille Collines began to broadcast that UN officials were to be considered accomplices of the Tutsis
-In January of 1994, a Hutu informant told Dallaire how the Hutu militia was being trained. According to him, the troops could kill 1000 Tutsis in 20 minutes.
-The informant offered to give specific details of holding spot for weapons in return for passports and protection for his wife and family.
-By the end of February, Dallaire claimed to be "drowning in information about death squad attacks," and the US did nothing.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
We're studying the Rwandan Genocide in one of my classes
And there is an entire chapter in our book "A Problem From Hell"- America and the age of Genocide about it. We have to take notes on each section, so I'll be trying to post all of my notes here for you-
We'll also be watching Hotel Rwanda in class, which I'll post my notes on as well
Here are my notes for the first section, "'I'll Never Be a Tutsi Again'"
(Just as a side note, the chapter opens with the most disturbing picture I've ever seen. It's of Rwandan people, who have been killed, floating down the Kagera river. It's absolutely horrifying.)
-On April 6, 1994, the Rwandan president was murdered in a plane shooting.
-His death, according to Colenel Theoneste Bagosora, meant that the government had fallen and the military was in charge.
-The military's first actions were to put a curfew into place, along with roadblocks around the capital.
-The Hutu radio station, Radio Mille Collines, began calling the Tutsis Inyenzi, or cockroaches, and claimed them to be the target.
-American officials, who were unsure if the president's death had in fact occured, conversed about the probability that widespread violence would soon occur.
-Alison Des Forges was America's most knowledgable insight into Rwanda; without her, the country could barely figure out the ethnic differences between the Hutus and the Tutsis.
-Des Forges was a specialist in Rwandan culture and was closs friends with Monique Mujawamariya, who was a member of the Human Rights Watch.
-Monique sent a warning to the Human Rights Watch weeks before telling them that anyone who gave the president trouble, was basically as good as dead.
-Monique was killed at gunpoint under the order of Bagosora, asking Des Forges to care for her children.
-The prime minister, who rightfully after the death of the president had become head of the state, was to be transported by the UN to Mille Collines to broadcast for peace.
-The prime minister, along with all of Rwanda's modern politicians were murdered systematically.
-The peacemakers who had been sent to help the prime minister to the radio station were savagely mutilated, to the point that their bodies couldn't be numbered.
-The radio station then became a way for others to know who was on the list to be murdered. Tutsi and moderate Hutu names, and adresses were read on air, so they cuold be found more easily.
-It was obvious early, that this was going to be a genocide by the systematic, and not spontaneous murder of all Rwandan Tutsis.
-The deaths in the city were commited by mostly technologically advanced weapons such as grenades and automatic weapons.
-In the country, firearms were the most common, until more and mroe Hutus joined the battle. At that point, knives machetes, and masus(clubs with nails pointing outward) became the operative weapons.
-There were checkpoints where fleeing Tutsis would be killed all at once.
-Families consisting of intermingled parentry had tough decisions to make.
-The military was willing to kill anyone who was not a Hutu, including children who's fathers were Tutsis, even if their mother was a Hutu.
-In 100 days nearly 800,000 Tutsis were murdered.
-Before the plane shooting, America ignored many warning signs, and denied the attempts to strengthen the peace keeping mission.
-The Clinton administration refused to send troops to stop the massacre.
-They did not jam the Rwandan radio station, and allowed the Rwandan ambassador to the UN to remain.
-Washington demanded that the peacemakers be removed from Rwanda, and refused the allowance of UN reinforcements.
-Taking the same path as the Somalian genocide, America watched on the sidelines.
We'll also be watching Hotel Rwanda in class, which I'll post my notes on as well
Here are my notes for the first section, "'I'll Never Be a Tutsi Again'"
(Just as a side note, the chapter opens with the most disturbing picture I've ever seen. It's of Rwandan people, who have been killed, floating down the Kagera river. It's absolutely horrifying.)
-On April 6, 1994, the Rwandan president was murdered in a plane shooting.
-His death, according to Colenel Theoneste Bagosora, meant that the government had fallen and the military was in charge.
-The military's first actions were to put a curfew into place, along with roadblocks around the capital.
-The Hutu radio station, Radio Mille Collines, began calling the Tutsis Inyenzi, or cockroaches, and claimed them to be the target.
-American officials, who were unsure if the president's death had in fact occured, conversed about the probability that widespread violence would soon occur.
-Alison Des Forges was America's most knowledgable insight into Rwanda; without her, the country could barely figure out the ethnic differences between the Hutus and the Tutsis.
-Des Forges was a specialist in Rwandan culture and was closs friends with Monique Mujawamariya, who was a member of the Human Rights Watch.
-Monique sent a warning to the Human Rights Watch weeks before telling them that anyone who gave the president trouble, was basically as good as dead.
-Monique was killed at gunpoint under the order of Bagosora, asking Des Forges to care for her children.
-The prime minister, who rightfully after the death of the president had become head of the state, was to be transported by the UN to Mille Collines to broadcast for peace.
-The prime minister, along with all of Rwanda's modern politicians were murdered systematically.
-The peacemakers who had been sent to help the prime minister to the radio station were savagely mutilated, to the point that their bodies couldn't be numbered.
-The radio station then became a way for others to know who was on the list to be murdered. Tutsi and moderate Hutu names, and adresses were read on air, so they cuold be found more easily.
-It was obvious early, that this was going to be a genocide by the systematic, and not spontaneous murder of all Rwandan Tutsis.
-The deaths in the city were commited by mostly technologically advanced weapons such as grenades and automatic weapons.
-In the country, firearms were the most common, until more and mroe Hutus joined the battle. At that point, knives machetes, and masus(clubs with nails pointing outward) became the operative weapons.
-There were checkpoints where fleeing Tutsis would be killed all at once.
-Families consisting of intermingled parentry had tough decisions to make.
-The military was willing to kill anyone who was not a Hutu, including children who's fathers were Tutsis, even if their mother was a Hutu.
-In 100 days nearly 800,000 Tutsis were murdered.
-Before the plane shooting, America ignored many warning signs, and denied the attempts to strengthen the peace keeping mission.
-The Clinton administration refused to send troops to stop the massacre.
-They did not jam the Rwandan radio station, and allowed the Rwandan ambassador to the UN to remain.
-Washington demanded that the peacemakers be removed from Rwanda, and refused the allowance of UN reinforcements.
-Taking the same path as the Somalian genocide, America watched on the sidelines.
Friday, April 11, 2008
hey!
Just to answer your last questions--He and his wife split for completely personal reasons, having nothing to do with the countries divide. And his upstanding business buddies were people that stayed frequently at the hotel; people who owned corperations and were high up in social standings. No one person is specifically mentioned, they're all kind of clumped together.
Friday, April 4, 2008
I completely agree
When i read that ruse wanted to work in a church, i was a bit suprised because it is hard to believe that in times of such destruction and harship, i dont think I would be able to even believe in god, let alone work in a church.
Monday, March 31, 2008
End of Chapter 3
"If advancing in the world is viewed as a form of treason, then we are all in truoble."
As happy as Ruse was in the last post, he and his wife split while he attended the college of hospitality. He legally got custody of their three kids and once he was working at the hotel Mille Collines again, remarried and had another child. Soon thereafter, he was moved to general manager at the Hotel Diplomates, which is a smaller, but no less prestigious branch of the hotel Mille Collines.
The end of the chapter serves to tell how Ruse became acquainted with many of his upstanding business buddies.
Chapter three for the most part, I feel served the purpose of getting the reader to a point of understanding Ruse's life before the main events of his story. Without this grasp, the rest of the stroy might not make any sense.
As happy as Ruse was in the last post, he and his wife split while he attended the college of hospitality. He legally got custody of their three kids and once he was working at the hotel Mille Collines again, remarried and had another child. Soon thereafter, he was moved to general manager at the Hotel Diplomates, which is a smaller, but no less prestigious branch of the hotel Mille Collines.
The end of the chapter serves to tell how Ruse became acquainted with many of his upstanding business buddies.
Chapter three for the most part, I feel served the purpose of getting the reader to a point of understanding Ruse's life before the main events of his story. Without this grasp, the rest of the stroy might not make any sense.
Chapter 3 continued...
After getting married to the only woman he ever loved, Esther, Ruse and his wife went to Yaodunde so he could study religion. After a while of study, however, Ruse realized that this was not the course he wished to follow in his career. He and his wife then moved back to Kigali so he could pursue some other field of work. Kigali resembles Washington DC in the sense that it is a capital city placed in an unbiased section of the country, so as not to upset any of the people. When Ruse, Esther and their two children moved to Kigali, Ruse vowed that he would stay there no matter what.
This shows responsibility in Ruse, because though he came from a very specific part of Rwanda he chose an unbiased and reasonably more safe place to raise his family.
In the middle of the chapter Ruse recalls that a childhood friend of his got him a job at the Hotel Mille Collines, and soon he was so good at his job at the front counter that he was offered a scholarship to a college of hospitality.
In this chapter, Ruse also establishes another damaging seperation among the people of Rwanda. The northern Hutus(the Hutus who come from the north most sections of Rwanda) felt themselves better than the rest of the Hutus.
This shows responsibility in Ruse, because though he came from a very specific part of Rwanda he chose an unbiased and reasonably more safe place to raise his family.
In the middle of the chapter Ruse recalls that a childhood friend of his got him a job at the Hotel Mille Collines, and soon he was so good at his job at the front counter that he was offered a scholarship to a college of hospitality.
In this chapter, Ruse also establishes another damaging seperation among the people of Rwanda. The northern Hutus(the Hutus who come from the north most sections of Rwanda) felt themselves better than the rest of the Hutus.
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