March 13, 2005

• TOPIC: HOTEL RWANDA

  
  

  So…I have nothing to do today, so I walk for about 4 hours all over Baltimore.  It’s what you have to do to explore a place when you don’t have a car.  I finally made my way to the Charles Theater, possibly the most historic movie theater in Baltimore.

  
  

  The first movie playing when I arrived was Hotel Rwanda.  I’d heard it was good, and it certainly was.  The movie takes place in Rwanda in the early ’90′s, and reveals a portion of the ethnic conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis.

  
  

  “What’s the difference?” asks an American journalist in Rwanda. 

  
  

  “Nose type and other facial features mostly.  The Belgium’s divided us up like that.”

  
  

  After an apparent peace treaty is signed between the two groups, the Hutu President is assassinated by a Tutsi, leading the Hutus to begin an all-out ethnic cleansing of every Tutsi.  They burned their houses, dismembered them w/ machetes, killing hundreds and thousands of them. 

  
  

  Don Cheadle runs a hotel which becomes a makeshift refugee camp for Tutsi orphans and adults.  His character was truly altruistic, and he used his political connections that he had earned from hosting diplomats at his hotel in an attempt to protect as many lives as possible. 

  
  

  The movie was powerful.  Definately entertaining, and thought provoking.  While the murders were going on, one character asked, “where is the world?”  Cheadle’s character remarked that when the world saw footage from the journalists, all would be well.  The journalist was not so optimistic. “People will watch and will feel sorry…but after that, they’ll go back to their dinners.”  Ain’t that the truth.  Recognizing that it would take a bigger effort, Cheadle tells a group of people to call every important person they know to let them know of the tragedy’s occuring in Rwanda. 

  
  

  “We must shame them into giving help,” they said. 

  
  

  Another thing that hit me as I watched this movie, which is based on true events, is how little concern our media (and as a result, the general public and politicians) have for Africa.  This was an African Holocaust, and yet most people will never even know it happened. 

  
  

  Now…after watching this movie, I did not feel the need to go to Africa and help the starving children.  I didn’t feel the need to learn all I could about Darfur, which I know nothing about except that there’s another round of murder going on there.  But…it did make me reflect on my own desires to do good in the world, although in my own way.  It would be a waste of energy for me to get angry and upset by this movie, although I’m glad to know that some people will and will then dedicate themselves to addressing those types of issues.  It comes down to picking your battles. 

  
  

  There was another scene where a bus of white foreign diplomats, (i think they were diplomats), were being escorted out of the hotel.  One person on the bus pulled out a camera to take a photo of the refugees whose lives were hanging in the balance.  Two emotions hit me, first, the “how sad that they’re leaving and photographing those who might be dead in a day,” and, “well…there’s not necessarily anything that person could do.”  There are two sides to every story!

  
  

   

  • 9:01 pm
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