After I finish watching this film and through this emotional rollercoaster portrayal of the ugliest and also the most beautiful of human endeavors, it made me want to review some of the key players in the time for more tilt on the semi-autobiographical film. For example, I do want to point that as on another similar film - Schindler's List, after going through historical records, there has been numerous suspicions that Schindler may have not been as clean as portrayed in the movie. Though Schindler may have been responsible for saving the lifes of a handful of Jews during the WWII period, questions were raised that was the motive profit more than humanity? Though he didn't share the passion of many of his Nazi colleagues that were savagely exterminating the Jews, it may be noted that he may have used Jews as labor, and when the invading Allies came, he switched his tale to portray him in good light in front of the war tribunal. Though it could be both ways, we can notice that the film has definitely casted Schindler in an angelic hue. Now in my own suspicion, I also wanted to know more about some of the characters portrayed in the film, such as Paul himself, Colonel Oliver who was the representative of the UN during the conflict, and also more about the conflict itself.
My first intial probing into the matter came in a vary famous exchange early in the film when a TV crewman were asking who were the people involved in the conflict. After a quick exchange of dialogue, he found that there were the Hutu and the Tutsi. In the film it claims that Belgium colonist created the seperation between the two. Tutsi were Africans with desirable european features whereas Hutu were the normal africans. The european gave the Tutsi power to run over the land, which didn't sit well the majority Hutu. Also by stamping ID cards with classification, it also allowed people to be easily classify who were who, much similar to people of different religions who hold different sacred artifacts. With the vacuum of power, and the long standing simmering tensions, genocide broke out. On a curious note, the comments posted on the film were rather untrue, as in reality Hutu and Tutsi already existed as separate tribes when Europeans first arrived. However the colonization powers by permanently seperating and IDing of the two tribes facilitated the later genocides.
Colonel Oliver who was portrayed as the UN commander who tried his best to stop the conflict is in reality is Lt.-Gen. (Ret.) Roméo Dallaire. Similar to the film this Canadian UN peacekeeper who was incharge of approximately a few hundred multinational UN peacekeepers in Rwanda during the eye of the storm and was seriously lacking in support, authority, and firepower which limited his ability in resolving the conflict. Though with a handful of UN peacekeepers, he managed to keep a small safe area around Kigali and allowed NGOs to help relieve the suffering of the people. He has also writen a reflection on his time there called Shake Hands with the Devil : The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.
According to the author, about 15 UN peacekeepers died--over 800,000 Rwandans died. The number 15 is not larger because Belgium, Canada, and the US explicitly stated that Rwanda was "irrelevant" in any sense of the word, and not worth the death of a single additional Western (mostly white) soldier.
Robert D. Steele
During the film, it shows some Hutu militia throwing the helmets of UN weapon inspector at Colonel Oliver. In the reality, 15 UN peace keepers were killed during the conflict. The events in the movie must been portrayed the period in which 10 Belgium paratroopers who was assigned to guard a Rwanda PM was overwhelmed and killed by Hutu militia and a precursor to the Belgium withdrawal of UN peacekeepers for the country.
Regarding the World apathy to the conflict, it is a good idea to look at the events worldwide. During that time, the US apathy could be accredited to two major conflicts elsewhere around the world where US forces faced huge setbacks. As in Somalia - in which events have been popularized in another movie Black Hawk Down, and in Kosovo (Former Yugoslavia), scores of US peacekeepers were killed prompting to then US president Bill Clinton relunctant to send any more peace keepers than to pacify the general US population and to prevent jeopordizing his re-election campaign. Though mostly of political reasons, there has been a number of events that the US has done that runs shameless against the face of humanity. First of all General Dallaire requested the US to play planes with jammers over Rwanda to limit proporganda radio that instigated the Hutu to slaughter the Tutsi. The request was turned down. Another event was that neighboring countries were planning to send in peacekeepers and requested the US to send in APC to help facilitate the transport of troops. The US demanded $15 million dollars for the APC, and refused to allow the cars to move from Germany until the demand was met. The APCs never arrived. The last part that was the most damning, was the US ignorance, or simply apathy to Rwanda. As the US persistently refused to acknowledge there was genocide in Rwanda, it downplay the urgency for the rest of the world to act in this tradegy. Some more interesting discussion could be found here. In the movie, none of the above were mentioned, but its a good idea to look beyond the film into hard hitting issues.
On an interesting sidenote, the casual mention of corruption here makes me want to laugh at how this ugly human behavior has reared it ugly head accross our world.
Dube: Aah, that is a fine cigar, sir!
Paul Rusesabagina: This is a Cohiba cigar. Each one is worth 10,000 francs.
Dube: 10,000 francs?
Paul Rusesabagina: Yes, yes. But it is worth more to me than 10,000 francs.
Dube: What do you mean, sir?
Paul Rusesabagina: If I give a businessman 10,000 francs, what does that matter to him? He is rich. But, if I give him a Cohiba cigar straight from Havana, Cuba. Hey, that is style, Dube.
Dube: [smiles] Style!
To end off this long ramble, I wanted to point one of the most memorable quotes from Paul Resesabagina - as in the movie version:
Paul Rusesabagina: There will be no rescue, no intervention for us. We can only save ourselves. Many of you know influential people abroad, you must call these people. You must tell them what will happen to us... say goodbye. But when you say goodbye, say it as if you are reaching through the phone and holding their hand. Let them know that if they let go of that hand, you will die. We must shame them into sending help.
As you noticed, its rather upsetting to know many of the influential people would only do things that are right once they are shamed into doing so. Which talks about the CTX scandal - nothing is done until the media makes a big issue about it.
Oh well, don't forget to continue shaming bad people you know and never people you know forget about it ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment