Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Walking Out
We Americans have a funny way of showing how we care. Or maybe what's funny is how we pretend to care.
Tonight Paul Rusesabagina, the real person about whose life the movie Hotel Rwanda was made spoke at my school. The man who lived through the real Hotel Rwanda experience told us about his first-hand brush with genocide. It was a terrifying confirmation of the horrors from the movie. Hollywood dramatizes, but in this case reality was probably way more dramatic. Mr. Rusesabagina told us how fighting had been going on in Rwanda for decades; how in 1993 when the UN came they were a sign of hope, "surely no one would dare murder with the UN around, much less come close to harming the UN." But these hopes were shattered when a rebel group murdered the Rwandanese President and his 10 UN guards.
At that point the UN peacekeeper started to pull out. Instead of the promised 5000 plus peacekeepers, less than 300 remained to try to stop the genocide of a million people. As western governments pulled out their UN peacekeepers they also evacuated their citizens and turned their backs on this massive civil war. "They evacuated their citizens and even their dogs, but they wouldn't evacuate any of us," Mr. Rusesabagina testified.
100 days of hell broke out when every day about 10,000 people were killed. Can you imagine? Poof, poof, poof. Every day the country loses 10,000 people. 100 days later a million are dead. Mr. Rusesabagina told us how he traveled around the country a bit. Dead bodies were everywhere and the air smelled like rotting human flesh. Dogs roamed the streets gnawing on corpses, thousands and thousands and thousands of them.
I sit there hypnotized by his accounts, knowing that denial is far from possible. I try to grab onto his words, as if each and every one that comes out of his mouth is my last proof that the world is still way messed up and here are the words to prove it. Here is the proof! I wait for him to enunciate my calling and a calling for everyone else to get up and do something. Do something because Mr. Rusesabagina went to Sudan and saw the horrors of Darfur and told us how many other places in Africa people live in fear, in persecution, homeless refugees, militia, corrupt governments. "The Sudanese government funds these militia with money from their oil. Why is there no embargo on Sudanese oil?!" Mr. Rusesabagina shouts in outrage.
But once his speech is over and the clapping stops, it's over. There is still a lively question and answer session but the trickle out of the auditorium begins. Q-A: our chance to learn more, to interact... Yes it was interesting, but some questions were off the cuff. One girl, who began by profusely thanking Mr. Rusesabagina for his movie ends by complaining in front of a whole auditorium of people and the man himself how the movie is really biased and should have included more perspectives. Honey, this whole world is biased, don't delude yourself waiting for the ultimate unbiased story, if we did then we'd be waiting our whole lives. Why can't we just appreciate something good when it happens? Another questioner questions the UN humanitarian aid workers who he claims were feeding and helping the militia. What kind of world have we become if even our most selfless humanitarians get shot down? I'm not saying we should be naive, but we need to have some faith, too.
By the time the lecture is over the auditorium is about a third empty. As I leave, I hear a girl complaining, "this talk was sold out, but by the end there were so many empty seats. What if all the people who really wanted to come could have been here?" As the auditorium empties, the chatter restarts... "Oooh, I'm tired." "Ooh, I'm hungry." "I'm cold." "I have homework to do." I see pretty Americans in pretty, expensive clothes, with pretty handbags. I don't hear a soul talking about what we all just heard.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all Americans are like this. We're a nation filled with caring, good-intentioned people. But we also have this bizarre dominant culture of apathy going on. We're a funny people, the way we pretend to care sometimes. We bring speakers from far-away lands who had lived through true horrors to speak to us about things we will never see or know of. We bring them 11 years after the fact and call them heroes instead of helping while the mess was going on. We clap and give standing ovations if we're really impressed. We take pictures of these celebrities with our cellphone cameras in the middle of the lecture...
And then we leave. And it's back to life. And it's school, work, stress. It's football and basketball and baseball on TV. It's college parities and alcohol and maybe some illicit drugs. We walk out, and move on with our lives that center around ourselves more than anyone else, and then it's over. Mean while, who knows what sort of tragedies are shaping up around the world and how many people are dying from them. No worry though, maybe in 20 years we'll make a movie about it and call one or two of the survivors a hero, too.
There's still a lot to be done. Paul Rusesabagina, a true hero, set up a foundation to rehabilitate Rwanda and provide kids there with an education.
Tonight Paul Rusesabagina, the real person about whose life the movie Hotel Rwanda was made spoke at my school. The man who lived through the real Hotel Rwanda experience told us about his first-hand brush with genocide. It was a terrifying confirmation of the horrors from the movie. Hollywood dramatizes, but in this case reality was probably way more dramatic. Mr. Rusesabagina told us how fighting had been going on in Rwanda for decades; how in 1993 when the UN came they were a sign of hope, "surely no one would dare murder with the UN around, much less come close to harming the UN." But these hopes were shattered when a rebel group murdered the Rwandanese President and his 10 UN guards.
At that point the UN peacekeeper started to pull out. Instead of the promised 5000 plus peacekeepers, less than 300 remained to try to stop the genocide of a million people. As western governments pulled out their UN peacekeepers they also evacuated their citizens and turned their backs on this massive civil war. "They evacuated their citizens and even their dogs, but they wouldn't evacuate any of us," Mr. Rusesabagina testified.
100 days of hell broke out when every day about 10,000 people were killed. Can you imagine? Poof, poof, poof. Every day the country loses 10,000 people. 100 days later a million are dead. Mr. Rusesabagina told us how he traveled around the country a bit. Dead bodies were everywhere and the air smelled like rotting human flesh. Dogs roamed the streets gnawing on corpses, thousands and thousands and thousands of them.
I sit there hypnotized by his accounts, knowing that denial is far from possible. I try to grab onto his words, as if each and every one that comes out of his mouth is my last proof that the world is still way messed up and here are the words to prove it. Here is the proof! I wait for him to enunciate my calling and a calling for everyone else to get up and do something. Do something because Mr. Rusesabagina went to Sudan and saw the horrors of Darfur and told us how many other places in Africa people live in fear, in persecution, homeless refugees, militia, corrupt governments. "The Sudanese government funds these militia with money from their oil. Why is there no embargo on Sudanese oil?!" Mr. Rusesabagina shouts in outrage.
But once his speech is over and the clapping stops, it's over. There is still a lively question and answer session but the trickle out of the auditorium begins. Q-A: our chance to learn more, to interact... Yes it was interesting, but some questions were off the cuff. One girl, who began by profusely thanking Mr. Rusesabagina for his movie ends by complaining in front of a whole auditorium of people and the man himself how the movie is really biased and should have included more perspectives. Honey, this whole world is biased, don't delude yourself waiting for the ultimate unbiased story, if we did then we'd be waiting our whole lives. Why can't we just appreciate something good when it happens? Another questioner questions the UN humanitarian aid workers who he claims were feeding and helping the militia. What kind of world have we become if even our most selfless humanitarians get shot down? I'm not saying we should be naive, but we need to have some faith, too.
By the time the lecture is over the auditorium is about a third empty. As I leave, I hear a girl complaining, "this talk was sold out, but by the end there were so many empty seats. What if all the people who really wanted to come could have been here?" As the auditorium empties, the chatter restarts... "Oooh, I'm tired." "Ooh, I'm hungry." "I'm cold." "I have homework to do." I see pretty Americans in pretty, expensive clothes, with pretty handbags. I don't hear a soul talking about what we all just heard.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all Americans are like this. We're a nation filled with caring, good-intentioned people. But we also have this bizarre dominant culture of apathy going on. We're a funny people, the way we pretend to care sometimes. We bring speakers from far-away lands who had lived through true horrors to speak to us about things we will never see or know of. We bring them 11 years after the fact and call them heroes instead of helping while the mess was going on. We clap and give standing ovations if we're really impressed. We take pictures of these celebrities with our cellphone cameras in the middle of the lecture...
And then we leave. And it's back to life. And it's school, work, stress. It's football and basketball and baseball on TV. It's college parities and alcohol and maybe some illicit drugs. We walk out, and move on with our lives that center around ourselves more than anyone else, and then it's over. Mean while, who knows what sort of tragedies are shaping up around the world and how many people are dying from them. No worry though, maybe in 20 years we'll make a movie about it and call one or two of the survivors a hero, too.
There's still a lot to be done. Paul Rusesabagina, a true hero, set up a foundation to rehabilitate Rwanda and provide kids there with an education.
