"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.
Monday, March 31, 2008
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.
Chapter 3
The opening of chapter 3 begins with Ruse explaining that in every underpriveledged country in Africa, there is one high class hotel, built to accomadate guests sent to take care of difficulties such as AIDs and starvation. According to Ruse, one nights stay is roughly equal to that of a year of salary for a worker at that given hotel.
While I knew conditions were bad in most parts of Africa, I had no clue that it could be that hard to make money. I cant imagine being charged for a hotel room, and then finding out that the person who brought me my coffee in the morning would only make 1/52% of that in a week. Its incredible.
Ruse goes on to say that for Rwanda, their hotel was the Hotel Mille Collines. The description of the hotelfits exactly how we as Americans would expect it to. But by the standards of mud houses that Ruse has set for his reader, the hotel's description is almost overbearing.
The hotel has been called the shadow capital of Rwanda because it is here that most of the international dealings took place.
It is here that Ruse tells his audience that he became a hotel manager by accident, and that his whole life he was told to become a man of the church.
Also, it is here that I learned that the child whom I thought could have been Ruse in the second chapter, was in fact, not Ruse. He explains in this chapter that when a baby is born in Rwanda, their family picks a special last name specifically for them (which explains why many Rwandan families have different last names.) It wasn't until he was 13 that he was baptised and chose the name Paul. I guess I was wrong :-/
While I knew conditions were bad in most parts of Africa, I had no clue that it could be that hard to make money. I cant imagine being charged for a hotel room, and then finding out that the person who brought me my coffee in the morning would only make 1/52% of that in a week. Its incredible.
Ruse goes on to say that for Rwanda, their hotel was the Hotel Mille Collines. The description of the hotelfits exactly how we as Americans would expect it to. But by the standards of mud houses that Ruse has set for his reader, the hotel's description is almost overbearing.
The hotel has been called the shadow capital of Rwanda because it is here that most of the international dealings took place.
It is here that Ruse tells his audience that he became a hotel manager by accident, and that his whole life he was told to become a man of the church.
Also, it is here that I learned that the child whom I thought could have been Ruse in the second chapter, was in fact, not Ruse. He explains in this chapter that when a baby is born in Rwanda, their family picks a special last name specifically for them (which explains why many Rwandan families have different last names.) It wasn't until he was 13 that he was baptised and chose the name Paul. I guess I was wrong :-/
Sunday, March 30, 2008
To answer as many of your questions as I can
The Tutsis were originally in power, but the Hutus realized, after the roman catholic priests from Belgium came, that the way they were being treated was wrong. They then began a revolt against the Tutsis, which put them into power (This all is really confusing, even in the way it's written in the book)
And I agree with you that the Belgians waited far too long to step in on the massacring of the Hutus, but in actuallity, they didn't really step in. For the most part, the Belgians just gave the Hutus the idea of revolting.
When the Tutsis were in power, there were constant and gruesome massacres of the Hutus. In order to try and show some compassion, they punished some of their own race(the Tutsis) by killing some of them, and kicking the younger ones out of school (Gerard)
The reason I think that Paul Kagime could be the author is that, in the book, the child is taken by his mother. And because Ruse's mother was a Tutsi, maybe she was taking him with her on the run.
If I missed any questions you had, just let me know and Ill try to answer them as best as I can:-)
And I agree with you that the Belgians waited far too long to step in on the massacring of the Hutus, but in actuallity, they didn't really step in. For the most part, the Belgians just gave the Hutus the idea of revolting.
When the Tutsis were in power, there were constant and gruesome massacres of the Hutus. In order to try and show some compassion, they punished some of their own race(the Tutsis) by killing some of them, and kicking the younger ones out of school (Gerard)
The reason I think that Paul Kagime could be the author is that, in the book, the child is taken by his mother. And because Ruse's mother was a Tutsi, maybe she was taking him with her on the run.
If I missed any questions you had, just let me know and Ill try to answer them as best as I can:-)
Ending chapter two...
Ruse goes on talk about The uprising of the Hutus. The uprising started with Catholic church of Belgium sending priests to Rwanda to convert them. They replaces the rightful leader of the mwami with a handpicked leader who converted himself, and most of the country to catholicism almost overnight. It was then, that people began to feel sympathy for the Hutus, because most of the preists from Belgium were part of the Flemish race that had long been abused in a similar mannor in Belgium. Slowly, the power shifted from the Tutsis to the Hutus, who were savagely killing thousands of Hutus as a form of revenge for the damage tehy had caused in the past. Thousands of Tutsis fled to countries on Rwandas border. Ruse goes on to say that one of them was a small boy named Paul Kagame. But, I have a feeling that it was him as a small child, with a different last name.
Ruse continues to explain that the many Tutsis who had been chased from Rwanda began to organize guerilla attacks on the people of Rwanda. They were given the name "cockroaches" because they struck at night and were difficult to defeat in combat. This word, he says, began to be a term used to describe the whole race, and was as indesent as the "N" word, commonly used in America. As the killings became more frequent, the Hutus of Rwanda made it their job to kill any Tutsis they could find.
Ruse continues by talking about how Gerards background and being removed from school affected their relationship. He says that though he tried to remain his friend, there was constantly an air of anger between them.
Ruse's relationship with Gerard goes to show his audience, that though they found nothing wrong with their freindship when they were young, it became more obvious to them that their relationship was not going to be as easy as they thought. This shows the audience Ruse's difficult journey from being a carefree child, to a person who can barely stand to be in the presence of an old friend, for the air of envy and the distancing reality of who they are is almost to great to bare.
Ruse continues to explain that the many Tutsis who had been chased from Rwanda began to organize guerilla attacks on the people of Rwanda. They were given the name "cockroaches" because they struck at night and were difficult to defeat in combat. This word, he says, began to be a term used to describe the whole race, and was as indesent as the "N" word, commonly used in America. As the killings became more frequent, the Hutus of Rwanda made it their job to kill any Tutsis they could find.
Ruse continues by talking about how Gerards background and being removed from school affected their relationship. He says that though he tried to remain his friend, there was constantly an air of anger between them.
Ruse's relationship with Gerard goes to show his audience, that though they found nothing wrong with their freindship when they were young, it became more obvious to them that their relationship was not going to be as easy as they thought. This shows the audience Ruse's difficult journey from being a carefree child, to a person who can barely stand to be in the presence of an old friend, for the air of envy and the distancing reality of who they are is almost to great to bare.
Further into chapter two...
Ruse goes on to talk about his best friend. Gerard (Ruse's best friend) was kicked out of school because the government felt the need to punish the Tutsis for the amount of Hutus that had been savagely massacred. They used the slaughter of a few Tutsis to compensate for the horrors of what was done to the Hutus, for the sake of showing sympathy. This is what Ruse sites as his first encounter with the discrimination that tore his country apart. This shows his audience that though there was turmoil in his country, the children of the country had no knowledge of the boundaries that their history dared them not to cross. In Rwanda, ethnicity is passed along the father's blood line. This separated Gerard and Ruse because Gerards father was a Tutsi and Ruse's father was a Hutu.
"I cannot tell you how much I loathed myself that day for having been lucky. It was the first time I became aware of myself not as "Paul" but as a "Hutu." I suppose this is an dark epiphany is an essential rite of pssage for anyone who grew up in my country..."
This section of the chapter shows the reader the similarities between the horrors of Rwanda and something, which in comparison seems much more light, such as rascism in America in the 60's. In both cases, children see nothing different between themselves and the people they surround themselves with. And again in both cases, the adult influences in their lives are the ones to poison their minds with ideas of "ethnic superiority."
The next chunk of this chapter talks about the Berlin Conference and its affects on Rwanda. Rwanda, at first was given to Germany, but because it was not on a coastline, and had little natural resource, Germany had little or no interest in persuing their rule in Rwanda. Rule was left up to the royalty of the Tutsis. It wasn't until Belgium gained control after World War 1 that Rwanda saw change. The Belgians, Ruse goes on to explain, wanted the most profit with the least amount of work. So, they used the royalty of the Tutsis to separate "the haves from the have-nots." Scientists were sent down to decipher a solid way of differenciating the two groups, and discovered that the nose lengths in the two groups was on average, 2 and a half millimeters different. Ruse explains that in 1933, each person was given a book which served as an i.d, and a death certificate for many. The separation of the Hutus and the Tutsis was bashed into the minds of citizens in every area of their lives, as well as in the work force. Hutus were seen as only fitting to work in the fields, while Tutsis could do as they pleased for work.
This "false" separation of the two races goes to show that the masses will believe as they are told, and that as time goes on, what is said will be taken at face value and not questioned.
"I cannot tell you how much I loathed myself that day for having been lucky. It was the first time I became aware of myself not as "Paul" but as a "Hutu." I suppose this is an dark epiphany is an essential rite of pssage for anyone who grew up in my country..."
This section of the chapter shows the reader the similarities between the horrors of Rwanda and something, which in comparison seems much more light, such as rascism in America in the 60's. In both cases, children see nothing different between themselves and the people they surround themselves with. And again in both cases, the adult influences in their lives are the ones to poison their minds with ideas of "ethnic superiority."
The next chunk of this chapter talks about the Berlin Conference and its affects on Rwanda. Rwanda, at first was given to Germany, but because it was not on a coastline, and had little natural resource, Germany had little or no interest in persuing their rule in Rwanda. Rule was left up to the royalty of the Tutsis. It wasn't until Belgium gained control after World War 1 that Rwanda saw change. The Belgians, Ruse goes on to explain, wanted the most profit with the least amount of work. So, they used the royalty of the Tutsis to separate "the haves from the have-nots." Scientists were sent down to decipher a solid way of differenciating the two groups, and discovered that the nose lengths in the two groups was on average, 2 and a half millimeters different. Ruse explains that in 1933, each person was given a book which served as an i.d, and a death certificate for many. The separation of the Hutus and the Tutsis was bashed into the minds of citizens in every area of their lives, as well as in the work force. Hutus were seen as only fitting to work in the fields, while Tutsis could do as they pleased for work.
This "false" separation of the two races goes to show that the masses will believe as they are told, and that as time goes on, what is said will be taken at face value and not questioned.
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