Hotel Rwanda Essay -- Film Movies History Historical Essays

I decided to surf the internet in search of inspiration, and I engraft it on the mediate.com website. Robert Benjamins article Hotel Rwanda and the Guerrilla Negotiator definitely caught my eyeparticularly since I had checked the DVD out from the library remnant Friday but hadnt yet watched it. Benjamins article piqued my interest enough to do some additional research on Rwanda, and passion was born. patch a colony of Belgium, Rwanda was separated into two tribal groups which many say was based on physical characteristics such as the wideness of the nose the customary Tutsi (majority), and the upper-class Hutu (minority). For many years, the Tutsis were powerful and mistreated the Hutus. In 1962, Rwanda gained its independence from Belgium, the power shifted to the Hutus, many of whom wanted to exact their revenge on the enemy Tutsis.In 1993, Canadian General Romeo Dallaire was put in charge of the United Nations Mission to Rwanda to facilitate implementation of the Arusha peace accords after they were signed by the Hutus and the Tutsis. That mission was derailed when the Hutu presidents plane was shot down by Tutsi rebels. The presidents assassination was the precipitating event of what would be make out known as the genocide in Rwanda.When pack ask me, good listeners, why do I hate all the Tutsi, I sayread our history. The Tutsi werecollaborators for the Belgian colonists,they stole our Hutu land, they whipped us.Now they have come back. We willsquash the infestation.-- ITLM Hutu Power RadioThen, I watched the movie.In a recreation of actual events, we are taken to Kigali, Rwandas capitol, shortly before the 100-day genocide began. Ultimately, at least 800,000 some say over 1,000,000 were killed. Paul Rusesabagina is the central figure of the story and Benjamins designated Guerrilla Negotiator. Rusesabagina managed the exclusive Hotel Des Milles Collines (owned by a Belgian company) and developed a network of powerful allies (including a crooked Hutu army general) plying them with bribes with the hope they would be available should he forever need a favor. A Hutu married to a Tutsi, and the father of three young children, Rusesabagina initially refused to believe the rumors of increasing hostility and brutality against the Tutsis (routinely called cockroaches by the Hutu rebels). When Rusesabagina commode no longe... ...ion has vanished. We need the inter internal community to intervene and help us (to do) justice, and then after doing justice, dialogue. Lobbying the group to invest and volunteer in Africa, Rusesabagina added What Africans need as a whole is not only someone who will come and pay their education but it is also to change the systems in Africa. To help us to change, to find lasting solutions. Africa is ruled by dictators. And those dictators should know that one day they also can be brought to justice.On July 15-17, 2005, the Save Darfur Coalition is promoting a national weekend of prayer and reflection for t he people of Darfur to coincide with legislation being introduced in the U.S. House and Senate.Noting that many delayed intervening in Rwanda in 1994 because they werent sure the killing was genocide, Rusesabagina has stated What is happening in Darfur according to the definition is genocide. Citing the cry initially associated with the Holocaust and now also with Rwanda of never again as the most abused words, Rusesabagina charges When they were saying that in 1994, it was happening again and again and again and again. So, never again to me is not enough.