We went to see Hotel Rwanda – a film about a hotel manager who saved more than a thousand people during the Rwanda genocide, by sheltering them in the Hotel Mille Collines. It is a very good film: both moving and, as far as I know, reasonably accurate in its account of what happened in Rwanda. Most of all, it is a reminder that the rich countries of the world stood by and did nothing as a million people were slaughtered. You can read more about what happened on these excellent websites:
The book, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch, is also an excellent and moving account of what happened.
It is happening again, right now, in Sudan. See today's news, for example, about a village bombed, apparently by Sudanese Government airplanes.
Interestingly, three quarters of Americans believe that the UN should “step in with military force and stop the genocide in Darfur.” Only 17% are opposed. So the public is willing to intervene; but there is no political expression of this desire.
The world stood by and let people die in Rwanda. I left the cinema asking myself what I can do to stop it from happening again. The answer is that it is happening again, right now, and there is very little I can do to stop it.
